Europe

BRUSSELS, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- The European Union's (EU) chief diplomat Josep Borrell on Wednesday expressed his concerns over three gas pipeline leaks detected in the Baltic Sea on Russian natural gas pipelines, adding that they were most probably the result of sabotage.

MOSCOW, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday called it "stupid and absurd" to allege that Russia was involved in leaks in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines.

"Is this in our interests? No, we will lose gas supply routes to Europe. Is it in Europe's interests? No, it is also in a very difficult situation," Peskov told a daily briefing.

BRUSSELS, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- The European Commission on Wednesday proposed a new package of "biting sanctions" against Russia, aimed at making the Kremlin "pay" for escalating the conflict in Ukraine.

Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at a press briefing here that the package comes after the "sham referenda in the Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia."

LONDON (AP) — New British Prime Minister Liz Truss came under growing pressure Wednesday from opponents — and inside her Conservative Party — to reverse announced tax cuts that are fueling a financial crisis in an already struggling economy.

The Bank of England stepped in to buy up government bonds in an attempt to stabilize the cost of borrowing after the government said last week that it would slash income tax and scrap a planned corporation tax hike, all while spending billions to cap soaring energy bills for homes and businesses.

BERLIN (AP) — Austria announced Wednesday that it will start checking travel documents at its border with Slovakia following a similar decision by the Czech Republic to keep migrants from entering without authorization.

The checks were set to start at midnight Wednesday and initially will be enforced at 11 border crossings for 10 days., the Austrian government said.

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union suspects that damage to two underwater natural gas pipelines was sabotage and is warning of retaliation for any attack on Europe’s energy networks, a senior official said Wednesday, as energy companies began ramping up security.

The episode underscored the vulnerability of Europe’s energy infrastructure and further heightened tensions in the continent that has been rocked by t he seven-month war in Ukraine.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia was poised Wednesday to formally annex parts of Ukraine where occupied areas held a Kremlin-orchestrated “referendum” — denounced by Kyiv and the West as illegal and rigged — on living under Moscow’s rule.

Armed troops had gone door-to-door with election officials to collect ballots in five days of voting. The results were widely ridiculed as implausible and characterized as a land grab by an increasingly cornered Russian leadership following embarrassing military losses in Ukraine.

27 Sep 2022; MEMO: The global food crisis is a result of the West's "predatory policies," Russia's President, Vladimir Putin, said on Tuesday, Anadolu News Agency reports.

"The West is provoking a global food crisis … The cost of food on the world market has returned to the levels of the beginning of the year, but it is still 40 per cent higher than in 2020," Putin said at a meeting in Sochi, on Russia's agriculture sector.

ISS, September 27. /TASS/: Roscosmos’s Oleg Artemiyev, who is also a special correspondent and chief of the TASS bureau on the International Space Station, has ceded the post to his successor in this capacity Dmitry Petelin.

MOSCOW, September 27. /TASS/: Russia and China have signed contracts for the deployment of Russia’s GLONASS stations in China and China’s Beidou system stations in Russia, the state corporation Roscosmos said in a news release on Tuesday.

Roscosmos said that earlier on Tuesday there was a videoconference of the Russian-Chinese committee for strategic cooperation in satellite navigation projects.