Europe

LONDON (AP) — Elon Musk caused a stir by tweeting that he was buying the English soccer team Manchester United — whose current owners are opposed by many fans — then saying several hours later that it was a joke.

It comes as the billionaire Tesla CEO faces a legal battle in the U.S. after backing out of a deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion. He is a prolific user of the platform, often musing about social issues or joking with his 103 million followers and occasionally getting into trouble with U.S. regulators.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — It was early one morning when life under Russian occupation became too much for Volodymyr Zhdanov: Rocket fire aimed at Ukrainian forces struck near his home in the city of Kherson, terrifying one of his two children.

His 8-year-old daughter “ran in panic to the basement. It was 2 o’clock in the morning and (she) was really scared,” said Zhdanov, who later fled the city on the Black Sea and has been living in Kyiv, the capital, for the past three weeks.

Russian state gas company Gazprom yesterday warned that European gas prices could rise by 60 per cent to more than $4,000 per 1,000 cubic metres this winter, Reuters reported.

According to the news site, the company's own export and production continues to fall amid Western sanctions.

Western media had reported that Russian gas flows to Europe are at a minimum level this year due to the western sanctions imposed on Moscow as a result of its war on Ukraine.

MOSCOW, August 16. /TASS/: Secretary General of the Russian Football Union (RFU) Alexander Alayev was unanimously elected on Tuesday the president of the Russian Premier League (RPL) for the term of five years.

PATRIOT PARK, August 16. /TASS/: China's People's Liberation Army is not afraid of its enemies, and it is ready to fight for the country’s sovereignty amid attempts by the United States to undermine stability in the Asia-Pacific Region, China’s Defense Minister Wei Fenghe said on Tuesday.

PATRIOT PARK /Moscow Region/, August 16. /TASS/: The launch of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine has put an end to the unipolar world order. Moscow is being confronted by the West collectively, but no one, not even NATO, has any doubt that the operation’s objectives will be attained, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said at the opening of the 10th Moscow Conference on International Security on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, August 16. /TASS/: Tehran supports the non-nuclear status of the Middle East and will continue to apply efforts in this direction, Deputy Chief of General Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces Ali Abdollahi said at the 10th Moscow Conference on International Security on Tuesday.

"We will continue to apply efforts to create a region free from nuclear weapons," he said.

KUBINKA /Moscow region/, August 16. /TASS/: Russian and Syrian forces are successfully fighting against international terrorism, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said on Tuesday at a meeting with his Syrian counterpart, Ali Mahmoud Abbas, on the sidelines of the 10th Moscow Conference on International Security.

LONDON, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Russia on Tuesday blamed saboteurs for orchestrating a series of explosions at an ammunition depot in Russian-annexed Crimea, a rare admission that armed groups loyal to Ukraine are damaging military logistics and supply lines on territory it controls.

The incident follows a series of explosions last week at a Russian-operated air base in Crimea which Ukrainian officials hinted were part of some kind of special operation but which Moscow said at the time was an accident.

HELSINKI, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Finland will slash the number of visas issued to Russians from Sept. 1, the Finnish foreign ministry said in a statement on Tuesday, amid a rush of Russian tourists bound for Europe.

Finnish land border crossings have remained among the few entry points into Europe for Russians after a string of Western countries closed their airspace to Russian planes in response to Russia's attack on Ukraine.