Europe

11 October 2019; AFP: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday threatened to call off a summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin if all sides do not agree on plans to pull out troops from the east.

The country's comedian-turned-leader is gearing up to hold talks with Putin in Paris in an effort to revive a peace process to end the five-year separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine.

ROME (Reuters) - The European Union must not bow to threats from Turkey to push millions of Syrian refugees into EU countries, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Friday, adding that Ankara should stop its military operations in northern Syria at once.

“The EU cannot accept this blackmail. Turkish efforts to welcome in Syrian refugees cannot then become a tool of blackmail for a military initiative that we cannot accept and which must immediately stop,” Conte told reporters.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The 27 countries staying in the European Union after Britain leaves gave the go-ahead on Friday for their chief negotiator to hold another round of intense and secret negotiations with London in a bid to secure a deal, two senior diplomatic sources said.

Michel Barnier and his British counterpart Stephen Barclay had earlier held what both sides called a “constructive” meeting in Brussels as Britain’s scheduled departure date of Oct. 31 grew closer.

LONDON, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- Several people are being treated after a stabbing incident close to a shopping center in Manchester, local media said Friday.

Police have been called to reports of multiple injuries after the stabbing close to Manchester Arndale, the Manchester Evening News reported.

BRUSSELS (AP) — The Latest on Britain’s departure from the European Union (all times local):

12:35 p.m.

EU negotiator Michel Barnier says that he had a “constructive meeting” with British Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay and underscored the cautious optimism since Thursday’s meeting between British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Irish counterpart Leo Varadkar.

11 Oct 2019; MEMO: The actor and businessman Mohamed Ali has called on the Egyptian people to demonstrate peacefully on rooftops on Thursday at 6 or 7 pm to demand the departure of the coup president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.

In a new video released on Wednesday evening that he called for a different tactic to avoid security strikes or arrests.

LONDON, Oct 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) — European Union citizens living in the UK could be deported if they do not apply for settled status after a no-deal Brexit, a British government minister has warned.

Security minister Brandon Lewis told a German newspaper that the government will “apply the rules” and remove residents who haven’t applied to stay by the end of 2020, even if they meet the conditions necessary for a residence permit.

Around 1 million of the UK’s 3 million EU citizens have not yet applied for settled status, the UK Home Office said.

BUDAPEST, Oct 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The European Union should have a dialogue with Turkey despite Ankara’s offensive on Kurdish-led forces in Syria, in order to avoid a fresh wave of migrants coming to Europe, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said.

Turkish troops and their Syrian rebel allies pushed further into Syrian territory on Thursday, opening up a new front in the Syrian civil war and exposing Europe’s inability to influence the direction of the conflict.

KIEV, October 10. /TASS/: Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has said he is against imposing martial law in Ukraine and any attempts to iron out the problems of Donbass and Crimea by military means.

"If we speak about people and territories, the top priority is people, and the second one is territories," Zelensky told reporters during his press marathon in Kiev on Thursday.

"Do you remember when the former president tried to impose martial law? Do you remember the people’s reaction? Fear and chaos. Do you want chaos?" the president noted.

MOSCOW, October 10./TASS/: Ukraine derailed on a trumped-up pretext the disengagement of forces in Donbass in the area of Zolotoye and Petrovskoye settlements on Wednesday, October 9, Kremlin Aide Yuri Ushakov told journalists on Thursday.

"The agreement coordinated at the previous Normandy Four summits in Paris and Berlin in 2015 and 2016 — on the disengagement of forces in the settlements of Zolotoye and Petrovskoye — has not been achieved as yet," Ushakov said.