Europe

BRUSSELS (AP) — Bars and restaurants across Belgium shut down for a month and a night-time curfew took effect Monday as health authorities warned of a possible “tsunami” of new virus cases in the hard-hit nation that host the European Union’s headquarters.

The new measures aim to limit social interactions to slow down the exponential growth of the pandemic in the nation of 11.5 million people. The new surge of coronavirus cases has already prompted several hospitals to delay non-essential operations to focus on treating COVID-19 cases.

LONDON (AP) — Irish privacy regulators have opened two investigations into Instagram over the social media site’s handling of young people’s personal data.

Ireland’s Data Protection Commission said it launched the investigations in September after receiving complaints about the company. Facebook, which owns Instagram, said it’s in “close contact” with the commission and is “cooperating with their inquiries.”

MOSCOW, October 18. /TASS/: More than 304,000 people remain under medical supervision in Russia over a suspected coronavirus infection, the sanitary watchdog said on Sunday.

"Some 304,000 people remain under medical supervision in Russia," the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing reported.

More than 53.8 mln COVID-19 tests have been carried out, including 544,000 tests in the past day, according to the sanitary watchdog.

TASS, October 18: Chechnya’s head Ramzan Kadyrov has denounced the terrorist attack in which a teacher was killed in a Paris suburb and offered his condolences to the teacher’s family, Kadyrov wrote on his Telegram channel on Saturday.

"We condemn this act of terror and offer condolences to the family of the victim. Strongly opposing terrorism in any manifestations, I urge not to provoke the believers, nor to hurt their religious feelings," the Chechen leader said.

He assured France that the Chechens had nothing to do with the attack.

PARIS (Reuters) - French finance minister Bruno Le Maire said on Sunday he would propose reinforcing controls on the financial flows of some Islamist associations, after the beheading of a teacher by a suspected Islamist attacker.

“There is a problem of financing a number of Islamist associations on which I think we can and must do better,” he told France 3 Television.

He cited cryptocurrencies as an example were controls could be improved, saying they could be used to finance groups or fighters abroad.

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland will bring in “decisive” nationwide COVID-19 restrictions on Monday but will stop short of reintroducing the kind of lockdown imposed earlier this year, Higher Education Minister Simon Harris said on Sunday.

The government rejected a recommendation by health chiefs two weeks ago to jump Level 5, the highest level of COVID-19 curbs, and instead tightened restrictions in a varied regional approach that Harris said was no longer sufficient.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - New coronavirus-related restrictions on everyday life in the euro zone add to the economic uncertainty, underlining the need for continued easy fiscal and monetary policy, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said on Sunday.

“It is clear that both fiscal support and monetary policy support have to remain in place for as long as necessary and ‘cliff effects’ must be avoided,” Lagarde told an economic forum.

GENEVA, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- A total of 392,471 new COVID-19 infections were reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) on Saturday, a record high since the onset of the pandemic, taking the total number of confirmed cases worldwide to 39,196,259.

According to a tally kept by the WHO, the United States had the most daily infections on Saturday, with 63,044 new cases reported. As of Saturday, the country has registered 7,896,895 total confirmed cases, the highest worldwide.

18 Oct 2020; MEMO: Amnesty International on Saturday urged Lebanese authorities to investigate and hold accountable officers involved in the suppression of protesters during October 2019 demonstrations, reports Anadolu Agency. 

PARIS (AP) — Demonstrations around France have been called in support of freedom of speech and to pay tribute to a French history teacher who was beheaded near Paris after discussing caricatures of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad with his class.

Samuel Paty was beheaded on Friday by a 18-year-old Moscow-born Chechen refugee who was shot dead by police.

Political leaders, associations and unions will demonstrate Sunday afternoon in Paris and in other major cities including Lyon, Toulouse, Strasbourg, Nantes, Marseille, Lille and Bordeaux.