Europe

PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, October 4. /TASS/: Russia’s Far Eastern region of Kamchatka, where a major sea pollution incident took place earlier this week, requires an integrated system of environmental monitoring, Governor Vladimir Solodov said on Sunday.

MOSCOW, October 4. /TASS/: Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner, who are staying aboard the International Space Station (ISS), congratulated people of the Earth on the 63rd anniversary of Soviet Union's Sputnik-1 launch, which marked the beginning of the humanity’s space era.

BAKU, October 4. /TASS/: Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry reported on Sunday a missile strike carried out from Stepanakert against two cities Terter and Goradiz, located near Nagorno-Karabakh.

"Currently, Armenia’s Armed Forces are carrying out a missile strike against Terter and Goradiz, in the Fizuli district, from the territory of Khankendi (Stepanakert - TASS)," the ministry said.

The Azerbaijani army "is taking adequate retaliatory measures," the ministry stated.

LONDON, Oct 4 (NNN-XINHUA) – 770 students tested positive for COVID-19 in a British university, in one of the major outbreaks in Britain, since the reopening of campuses in Sept, a university spokesperson said.

The spokesperson for Northumbria University, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, said, all of those students who tested positive are now self-isolating and 78 were displaying symptoms.

Meanwhile, flatmates and any close contacts are also going into isolation, the spokesperson added.

BERLIN (Reuters) - The outlook for the aviation industry has deteriorated again due to rising coronavirus infections and renewed travel restrictions, Airbus chief operating officer Michael Schoellhorn was quoted as saying on Saturday.

With air travel at a fraction of normal levels due to restrictions and travellers’ fears related to the pandemic, airlines have slowed deliveries of new aircraft.

Airbus has said it needs to shed 15,000 posts worldwide.

WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland’s total number of coronavirus cases passed the 100,000 mark on Sunday, according to the health ministry’s Twitter account, as infection rates surge in the country which has reported daily records three times in the past week.

While Poland’s total number of cases remains well below that in many western European virus hotspots, reaching 100,000 illustrates how the spread of COVID-19 has accelerated in a country which avoided the worst of the first wave and where in July the prime minister played down risks ahead of an election.

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Sunday he did not particularly wish for the Brexit transition period to end without a new trade deal being in place, but that Britain could live with such an outcome.

The transition period ends on Dec. 31 and intensive negotiations are ongoing between London and Brussels. Johnson said a deal was there to be done but there were still difficult issues that needed to be fixed.

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Sunday he expected the next few months of the COVID-19 pandemic to be bumpy, but that things would look radically different in the spring.

“I’ve got to tell you, in all candour, it’s going to continue to be bumpy through to Christmas, it may even be bumpy beyond,” Johnson said during an interview on BBC television.

PARIS (AP) — Italian firefighters rescued 25 people trapped on the French side of a high mountain pass by severe flooding that killed two people in Italy, while 15 were stuck in a train station for the night and eight more remained missing Saturday in France.

A storm that moved overnight across southeastern France into northwestern Italy caused major flooding on both sides of the border, destroying bridges, blocking roads and isolating communities.

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — Armenia and Azerbaijan said heavy fighting continues in their conflict over the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan’s president said late Saturday that his troops had taken a town and several villages while Armenian officials claimed their troops inflicted heavy casualties.

Fighting broke out on Sept. 27 in the region, which is located within Azerbaijan and under the control of local ethnic Armenian forces. It is some of the worst in Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas since the end of a war in 1994.