Europe

MINSK (Reuters) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Tuesday the conflict in eastern Ukraine could not be resolved without U.S. involvement in peace talks.

A diplomatic breakthrough last week potentially opened the way for an international summit between France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine aimed at finding a way to end the fighting.

“It won’t be possible to resolve the conflict without the participation of the United States,” Lukashenko said.

Belarus is a close ally of Russia.

PARIS (Reuters) - France must develop a “society of vigilance” in its fight against the “Hydra” of Islamist militancy, President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday, as he paid homage to the victims of a deadly knife attack at the headquarters of the Paris police.

The assailant, an IT worker at the premises, killed three police officers and an administrative worker with a knife last week, before being shot dead by police.

LONDON/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union accused Britain of playing a “stupid blame game” over Brexit on Tuesday after a Downing Street source said a deal was essentially impossible because German Chancellor Angela Merkel had made unacceptable demands.

With just 23 days before the United Kingdom is due to leave the bloc, the future of Brexit remains deeply uncertain and both London and Brussels are positioning themselves to avoid blame for a delay or a disorderly no-deal Brexit.

PARIS, Oct 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said he was not opposed to introducing quotas for migrants, part of an effort by his government to heed voters’ concerns about immigration that are being seized upon by political rivals.

The government, closely allied to President Emmanuel Macron, is walking a political tightrope because it is under pressure too from its own supporters who opposed any measures they view as pandering to the far-right.

MADRID, Oct 8 (NNN-Xinhua) — Acting Spanish Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Luis Planas said that the U.S. tariffs of 25 percent on Spanish agricultural products are “unacceptable.”

Planas said this in a press conference here after a meeting with representatives of Spanish regions, or autonomous communities.

The minister estimated that the impact of the tariffs on Spain’s agriculture sector would be at around 750 million euros (822 million U.S. dollars).

NEW DELHI, Oct 8 (NNN-ANADOLU) — Swiss authorities on Monday shared the first details with India about financial accounts of its residents in Swiss banks under a new automatic exchange of information framework between the two countries, Anadolu Agency reported, quoting media reports.

HELSINKI, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- The EU Inter-parliamentary Conference on Climate Change on Monday called on the new EU leadership to step up the efforts in fighting climate change.

A statement issued after the meeting said that the majority of delegations called upon the new European Commission and the European Council to step up the EU ambition level in carbon neutrality, and underlined the importance to involve the whole society in economically viable and socially just transition towards the goal.

GENEVA, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- The World Trade Organization (WTO) Director General Roberto Azevedo underlined the importance of cotton to many developing countries at the launch of the first World Cotton Day in Geneva on Monday, hoping to "bring together the cotton, trade and development communities to foster greater value addition and value capture in developing countries."

KUBINKA /Moscow Region/, October 7. /TASS/: Russia remained uninvolved in the Syrian conflict until Syria’s enemies engaged terrorist units in the fight against the legal government of the country, Deputy Defense Minister, Colonel-General Alexander Fomin, said in the opening remarks at the SWIRMO-2019 Senior Workshop on International Rules Governing Military Operations on Monday.

MOSCOW, October 7. /TASS/: Russia is honoring its commitments under the Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (the New START Treaty), according to the data posted by the US Department of State on its website on Monday.

The data are given as of September 1, 2019 and reflect the statistics provided by both sides.