Europe

KIEV (Reuters) - Denmark’s decision to approve the Nord Stream 2 pipeline strengthens Russia and weakens Europe, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday.

The United States and several eastern European, Nordic and Baltic countries have expressed concern that the Gazprom-led (GAZP.MM) 1,230km (765 mile) pipeline from Russia to Germany will increase Europe’s reliance on Russian gas.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s opposition Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, kicks off his election campaign on Thursday with a vow to take on Britain’s “rigged system”, which he said was run by a privileged elite of tax dodgers, billionaire owners and bad bosses.

On the day Britain was supposed to leave the European Union, both Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his main opponent, Corbyn, are on Thursday pitching their starkly different visions for world’s fifth largest economy ahead of a Dec. 12 election.

PARIS (Reuters) - Lebanon needs to quickly form a government that can push necessary reforms, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Thursday, two days after Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri resigned following mass demonstrations.

Le Drain said Lebanese citizens’ right to peaceful protest must be preserved.

Lebanon’s troops and riot police deployed on Thursday to reopen a major highway north of Beirut and a bridge in the capital that anti-government protesters had blocked.

31 Oct 2019; MEMO: Hosted by the UN, representatives of the Syrian regime and Syrian opposition sat together in Geneva yesterday to discuss the country’s future constitution.

According to UN News, the UN Special Envoy to Syria Geir Pedersen addressed the participants: “The future constitution belongs to Syrians, to the Syrian people and them alone.”

United Nations, Oct 31 (PTI) The European Union has called on India and Pakistan to avoid escalation of tension over the Kashmir issue and resume bilateral dialogue for a peaceful and political solution to the matter, after the Indian government revoked Jammu and Kashmir's special status.

Reacting sharply to India's move to abrogate Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir to bring it in line with the rest of the country, Pakistan downgraded diplomatic ties with New Delhi and expelled the Indian envoy.

ZAGREB, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic on Wednesday set out four priorities for his country's presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU), highlighting "a Europe that connects".

Croatia will take over the Council of the EU's rotating presidency from Jan. 1 to June 30 next year.

LONDON (AP) — Finally, Britain’s political ice floes are moving. After three years of Brexit impasse, an election in six weeks may break the logjam. Or it may just rearrange the ice pack, keeping the U.K. trapped half in and half out of the European Union.

Official campaigning for the Dec. 12 poll hasn’t even started yet, but Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson and opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn were already laying out their key arguments for a Brexit-dominated election as they sparred Wednesday in the House of Commons.

BELGRADE, October 30. /TASS/: The Russian Emergencies Ministry’s Il-76 plane will join an effort to put out fire in eastern Serbia on Thursday, Head of the Serbian Sector for Emergency Situations Predrag Maric has said.

"Tomorrow, the Ilyushin plane will arrive from Russia to join the firefighting effort. It takes some 20 minutes to refill it, and it can carry out five or six raids in good weather conditions," Maric told TV Prva channel. The official noted that he was in touch with Russian colleagues on the issue.

KRASNODAR, October 30. /TASS/: Two major retail chains in Germany, as well as speciality stores for Russian products, have started sales of wine produced in Russia’s Kuban, which was first supplied to the country in the spring of 2019, Fanagoria's Deputy CEO, Foreign Economic Activities, Mikhail Lelyuk told TASS on Wednesday.

"Wine sales started in two major retail chains of Germany — Rewe and Edeka," he said, adding that consumers may also find wine from the pilot batch in speciality stores in Germany where Russian-made products are sold.

GENEVA, October 30. /TASS/: Syria’s opposition members in the Constitutional Committee hope that political settlement in the country will be achieved by 2020, co-chair from the opposition Hadi al-Bahra told the committee’s first meeting on Wednesday.

"I hope that the 75th anniversary of the United Nations next year will be an opportunity to celebrate another achievement by the universal organization, namely the success of efforts under the auspices of a special envoy for political process, who will bring peace and justice to all Syrians," al-Bahra said.