Europe

SAN PEDRO DEL PINATAR/ORIHUELA, Spain (Reuters) - A third person has died in a second day of torrential rains in southern Spain where two airports, local train networks and dozens of roads were closed on Friday.

Heavy rainfall in the regions of Valencia and Murcia swept away cars and debris and forced the evacuation of hundreds of people, including from flooded highways.

Almeria and Murcia’s airport were closed, Spanish airport operator Aena said, and tourists were also left stranded in Alicante airport.

PRAGUE (Reuters) - The Prague state attorney has halted criminal investigations into Prime Minister Andrej Babis, his family members and others, the attorney’s office said on Friday.

The investigations into accusations of fraud related to European Union subsidies had posed the biggest challenge to Babis’ political career. He denied any wrongdoing.

GARRYVOE, Ireland (Reuters) - The gap between Britain and the EU over Brexit is “very wide”, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said on Friday, and the British government’s Northern Irish allies poured cold water on suggestions the contentious border “backstop” could be reworked.

With Prime Minister Boris Johnson vowing to take Britain out of the EU on Oct. 31 with or without a deal, the EU has focused in recent days on whether the main disagreement - over plans to guarantee the border in Ireland remains open - can be bridged.

MINSK, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that relations between Minsk and Brussels have become much warmer in recent years.

"The EU is one of the most significant trading partners and an important source of innovation needed to modernize and increase the competitiveness of the Belarusian economy," Lukashenko said Thursday at a ceremony to receive credentials from ambassadors of foreign countries in Minsk.

ELEFSINA, Greece, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Greece joined with two fire-fighting aircraft the fleet of the new RescEU system to tackle natural disasters across Europe.

During a celebratory event held on Thursday at Elefsina's airbase, near Athens, European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Christos Stylianides announced that the European Commission will in parallel support Greece in repairing two water-dropping Canadair type aircraft by allocating 2.25 million euros (2.5 million U.S dollars).

GENEVA, Sept 12 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Kenyan and British lawyers have submitted a complaint to the UN Human Rights Council on behalf of Kenyans who were forced from their land during the British colonial era.

They say they suffered horrific human rights abuses when British settlers took over their land in what is now Kericho County in the fertile Rift Valley.

The land was later leased to multinationals including tea companies.

KIEV, September 12. /TASS/: Ukrainian lawyer Valentin Rybin believes that the role of Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) citizen Vladimir Tsemakh in the investigation into the 2014 Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 crash in eastern Ukraine was greatly exaggerated.

TBILISI, September 11. /TASS/: Georgia will find itself in the epicenter of a clash between the United States and Russia if the country joins NATO, which will affect the future of the republic, former Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, leader of the Democratic Movement - United Georgia political party Nino Burjanadze said on the national TV on Wednesday.

MOSCOW, September 12. /TASS/: The Android Technology Company is designing a robot that will test Russia’s next-generation partially reusable spacecraft Orel (Eagle), formerly known as Federatsiya, the company’s acting director Yevgeny Dudorov told TASS.

The official said his company was designing a "robotic system that will be the first to test the Federatsiya spacecraft."

"If everything proceeds smoothly, it will be ready in 2022," Dudorov said, adding that the robot will perform the first and second test flights of the spacecraft.

MOSCOW, September 12. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Sochi on Thursday.

According to the Kremlin press service, "issues of further development of the bilateral cooperation are planned to be discussed, while opinions are expected to be exchanged on the situation in the Middle East."

This is Netanyahu’s third trip to Russia this year, which follows his visits to Moscow in February and April.