Europe

Sept 3 (Reuters) - A magnitude 5.8 earthquake struck Greece on Saturday, the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said.

The quake's epicentre was Crete and was 2 km (1.2 miles) below the earth's surface, the EMSC said.

VATICAN CITY, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Pope Francis on Saturday dissolved the leadership of the Knights of Malta, the global Catholic religious order and humanitarian group, and installed a provisional government ahead of the election of a new Grand Master.

The change, which the pope issued in a decree, came after five years of often acrimonious debate within the order and between some top members of the old guard and the Vatican over a new constitution that some feared would weaken its sovereignty.

PRAGUE, Sept 3 (Reuters) - An estimated 70,000 people protested in Prague against the Czech government on Saturday, calling on the ruling coalition to do more to control soaring energy prices and voicing opposition to the European Union and NATO.

Organisers of the demonstration from a number of far-right and fringe political groups including the Communist party, said the central European nation should be neutral militarily and ensure direct contracts with gas suppliers, including Russia.

Police estimates put the number of protesters at around 70,000 by mid-afternoon.

MOSCOW, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan exchanged views on bilateral ties during a phone call on Saturday.

Putin and Erdogan reaffirmed their commitment to expanding trade and economic relations between the two countries, including promoting joint strategic projects in the energy sector, the Kremlin said in a statement.

PARIS, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- France must stick to an independent foreign policy and build more balanced partnerships for multilateralism, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday during an ambassadors' conference.

In recent years, there were many unpredictable incidents including the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, he told the diplomats, adding that France alone does not have the means to resolve these crises.

Its interest is therefore to "build more and more balanced, equal, bilateral and regional partnerships," he said.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency are used to risky missions — from the radioactive aftermath of the Fukushima disaster in Japan to the politically charged Iranian nuclear program. But their deployment amid the war in Ukraine to Zaporizhzhia takes the threat to a new level and underscores the lengths to which the organization will go in attempts to avert a potentially catastrophic nuclear disaster.

ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (AP) — The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said Saturday that the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine was disconnected to its last external power line but was still able to run electricity through a reserve line amid sustained shelling in the area.

MOSCOW (AP) — Russians who came for a last look at former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on Saturday mourned both the man and his policies that gave them hope. President Vladimir Putin claimed to be too busy to attend.

Gorbachev, who died Tuesday at age 91, launched drastic reforms that helped end the Cold War. But he also precipitated the breakup of the Soviet Union, which Putin had called the 20th century’s “greatest geopolitical catastrophe.”

MOSCOW, September 2. /TASS/: Defense ministers from 35 countries as well as representatives from six international organizations took part in the 10th Moscow Conference on International Security, Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin said during a conference call on Friday.

MOSCOW, September 2. /TASS/: Moscow denounced as inadmissible the continued Israeli strikes on Syria that may lead to a large-scale military escalation, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a comment on Friday.

"We consider similar irresponsible moves by Israel to be absolutely inadmissible. We resolutely condemn them," Zakharova emphasized.