Europe

PRAGUE, Aug 31 (Reuters) - EU foreign ministers on Wednesday decided to make it more expensive and lengthier for Russians to obtain visas to travel to the bloc but stopped short of agreeing to the EU-wide visa ban that Ukraine and several member states had called for.

The EU was too divided to agree at this stage on a blanket ban, and also left unclear what unilateral measures Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Finland, which have land borders with Russia, could take to restrict access to Russian visitors.

BUDAPEST, Aug 31 (Reuters) - The European Union will suspend an agreement with Russia that eases visa issuance but there will not be a blanket visa ban imposed as there is no unanimity on that, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Facebook on Wednesday.

Szijjarto also announced that Hungary has signed a deal with Russia's Gazprom (GAZP.MM) for additional gas shipments from Sept. 1.

He said Hungary, along with some other member states, opposed a Russian visa ban at a meeting of EU ministers in Prague.

MOSCOW, Aug 31 (Reuters) - The Kremlin on Wednesday hailed late Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev as an extraordinary global statesman who helped end the Cold War, but said he had been badly wrong about the prospect of rapprochement with the "bloodthirsty" West.

The comments underlined President Vladimir Putin's feelings about the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, which Gorbachev unwittingly presided over, and which Putin has lamented as the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century which he would reverse if given a chance.

MOSCOW, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Russia welcomes the idea that IAEA experts could stay at Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant on a permanent basis, Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia's representative to the international organisations in Vienna, said on Wednesday.

IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said the agency hoped to set up a permanent mission at the plant. U.N. nuclear inspectors set off for the plant earlier on Wednesday.

LONDON, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Queen Elizabeth will break with tradition and appoint Britain's new prime minister at her Balmoral Castle residence in Scotland, rather than at Buckingham Palace in London, due to mobility issues.

A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said on Wednesday the queen would meet outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his yet-to-decided successor on Sept. 6 at Balmoral, where she spends her summers.

BERLIN, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Germany will expand its military presence in the Indo-Pacific by sending more warships and joining drills with allies as it keeps an eye on the "enormous" build-up of China's armed forces, the German defence chief told Reuters.

Germany is joining other Western nations in showing more muscle in the region amid growing alarm over Beijing's territorial ambitions.

MOSCOW, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed deep condolences over the death of former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev, Russia's RIA Novosti news agency reported Wednesday.

"President Putin expresses deep condolences over the death of Mikhail Gorbachev," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying.

"In the morning he will send a telegram of condolences to Gorbachev's family and friends," the spokesman added.

GENEVA (AP) — The U.N. weather agency is predicting that the phenomenon known as La Nina is poised to last through the end of this year, a mysterious “triple dip” — the first this century — caused by three straight years of its effect on climate patterns like drought and flooding worldwide.

The World Meteorological Organization on Wednesday said La Nina conditions, which involve a large-scale cooling of ocean surface temperatures, have strengthened in the eastern and central equatorial Pacific with an increase in trade winds in recent weeks.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A team of U.N. inspectors made its way toward Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant Wednesday on a perilous, long-sought mission to safeguard the site and prevent a catastrophe from the fighting raging around it.

Underscoring the danger, Kyiv and Moscow again accused each other of shelling the area around the complex overnight. Zaporizhzhia is the biggest nuclear plant in Europe.

31 August 2022; MEMO: The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called on Tuesday for Israel to meet its international obligations. Michelle Bachelet made her call following two years of Israel denying visas for UN staff.