Europe

KIEV, October 29. /TASS/: Ukraine will close the air and sea space off the coast of its Kherson Region on October 31-November 4 to hold live-fire drills with its surface-to-air missile systems, the Ukrainian Air Force Command announced on Tuesday.

MINSK, October 29. /TASS/: Belarus is looking for ways to replace the Russian oil, considering the options of crude supplies from various regions of the world through the ports of Ukraine and the Baltic states, Belneftekhim Deputy Chairwoman Svetlana Gurina said in an interview with the SB. Belarus Today newspaper published on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, October 29. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin will pay a working visit to Budapest on Wednesday, October 30, at the invitation of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the Kremlin press service reported on Tuesday.

"During the talks, it is planned to discuss issues related to Russian-Hungarian cooperation, primarily trade, economic, cultural and humanitarian ties, and also exchange views on a number of pressing global and regional issues," the press service said.

SEVASTOPOL, October 29. /TASS/: The crew of the Black Sea Fleet’s missile corvette Orekhovo-Zuyevo and the personnel of Bal coastal defense anti-ship systems held joint drills to fight a notional enemy’s warships, the Fleet’s press office reported on Tuesday.

"The crew of the Black Sea Fleet’s small missile ship Orekhovo-Zuyevo and the combat teams of the Bal coastal defense anti-ship missile systems held drills with the electronic launches of missiles against naval targets," the press office said in a statement.

VLADIVOSTOK, October 29. /TASS/: Military diplomats from 55 nations arrived to Russia’s Far Eastern city of Vladivostok to familiarize themselves with equipment and training facilities of the Russian Pacific Fleet, the fleet’s press service said on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, October 29. /TASS/: Moscow proceeds from the fact that reaching agreements with Kiev on the transit and supply of gas is possible only in the absence of any judicial claims, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed on Tuesday.

"Russia stated its position yesterday (at the trilateral consultations of Russia, the EU and Ukraine on gas on Monday - TASS). Of course, it implies in particular that some judicial claims should certainly be removed from the agenda if we’re talking about an agreement," the Kremlin spokesman said.

29 October 2019; AFP: French police were investigating Tuesday the motives of an 84-year-old man with links to France's main far-right party who attacked a mosque and shot two men in their 70s, seriously wounding both.

The attack in Bayonne on Monday afternoon, in a neighbourhood described by its residents as peaceful, shocked Muslims and the community at large, prompting firm condemnation from the government as well as from far-right leader Marine Le Pen.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union should revise its fiscal rules to allow governments to spend more on policies to fight climate change and infrastructure, an independent advisory body said on Tuesday.

With the euro zone’s economy slowing, the rationale of fiscal rules that were hastily tightened after the EU debt crisis of 2010-12 is now widely questioned.

In its annual report, the European Fiscal Board (EFB) - which advises the EU’s executive European Commission - said the rules present “a number of weaknesses.”

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain was heading toward a December election on Tuesday after Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s bet on breaking the Brexit deadlock with an early vote gained support from opposition parties.

As the European Union finalizes a third delay to the divorce that was originally supposed to take place on March 29, the United Kingdom, its parliament and its voters remain divided on how or indeed whether to go ahead with Brexit.

PARIS (AP) — For Georges Salines, whose 28-year-old daughter Lola was killed when Islamic extremists went on a bloody rampage in Paris in 2015, the death of the man who inspired the attack brought a welcome “sense of satisfaction.”

But like other survivors and families of victims of the Islamic State group, Salines stressed that the death of its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, does not mean the fight against terrorism is over.