Europe

July 19 (Reuters) - Russia's former president Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday that Russia will prevail in Ukraine and will set the terms for a future peace deal with Kyiv.

"Russia will achieve all its goals. There will be peace - on our terms," Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, said in a post on Telegram.

The former leader, once held up in the West as a possible partner, has becoming increasingly hawkish and outspoken in his criticism of the West since Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24.

ATHENS, July 19 (Reuters) - A Greek wildfire fuelled by gale-force winds raged on the mountainous area of Penteli near Athens on Tuesday, damaging homes and prompting authorities to order the evacuation of at least four areas and a hospital.

Heavy clouds of smoke were rising into the sky billowing over Mount Penteli where the fire broke out at 1430 GMT, some 27 km (16 miles) away from central Athens.

LONDON/DUBAI, July 19 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin had talks with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Iran on Tuesday, the Kremlin leader's first trip outside the former Soviet Union since Moscow's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.

In Tehran, Putin also held his first face-to-face meeting since the invasion with a NATO leader, Turkey's Tayyip Erdogan, to discuss a deal that would resume Ukraine's Black Sea grain exports as well as the conflict in northern Syria.

BRUSSELS, July 19 (Reuters) - The European Union will amend its sanctions on Moscow on Wednesday by allowing the unfreezing of some funds of top Russian banks that may be required to ease bottlenecks in the global trade of food and fertilisers, a draft document showed.

The move comes amid criticism from African leaders about the negative impact of the sanctions on the trade, which may have exacerbated shortages chiefly caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and its blockading of ports in the Black Sea.

LONDON, July 18 (Reuters) - Russia's Gazprom has told customers in Europe it cannot guarantee gas supplies because of "extraordinary" circumstances, according to a letter seen by Reuters, upping the ante in an economic tit-for-tat with the West over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

GENEVA, July 19 (Reuters) - China is asking the United Nations human rights chief to bury a highly-anticipated report on human rights violations in Xinjiang, according to a Chinese letter seen by Reuters and confirmed by diplomats from three countries who received it.

United Nations High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet has faced severe criticism from civil society for being too soft on China during a May visit and has since said she will refrain from seeking a second term for personal reasons. 

MOSCOW, July 19 (Reuters) - Russian gas flows via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline are seen restarting on time on Thursday after the completion of scheduled maintenance, two sources familiar with the export plans told Reuters.

The pipeline, which accounts for more than a third of Russian natural gas exports to the European Union, was halted for ten days of annual maintenance on July 11.

COPENHAGEN, July 19 (Xinhua) -- The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe predicted on Tuesday a "challenging autumn and winter" amid rapidly escalating COVID-19 cases in the region.

In the past week, close to 3 million new COVID-19 cases were reported in the European region, accounting for nearly half of all new cases globally, said the WHO in a press release.

LONDON, July 19 (Xinhua) -- The fourth round of the Tory leadership ballot concluded here on Tuesday with former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak still in the lead.

Former Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch was knocked out of the race, reducing the number of candidates to three, according to the 1922 Committee of Conservative Party backbenchers.

LONDON (AP) — British has bought another 100,000 doses of vaccine to stop monkeypox as the number of cases across the country has risen to more than 2,130, the majority of them in London, officials said Tuesday.

Britain’s Health Security Agency said while the epidemic is expanding, the majority of cases “continue to be in gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, with the infection being passed on mainly through close contact between people in interconnected sexual networks.”