Europe

MOSCOW, September 18. /TASS/: The capital's re-elected Mayor Sergey Sobyanin has officially assumed his post, taking the oath of office at the inauguration ceremony in Moscow, a TASS correspondent reported.

MOSCOW, September 18. /TASS/: Russia has decided to secede from the Barents Euro-Arctic Council, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

MOSCOW, September 18. /TASS/: Russia has decided to secede from the Barents Euro-Arctic Council, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

MOSCOW, September 18. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin believes that the economic situation on a number of key indicators is better than projected earlier.

"I would like to say at once that on a number of key indicators the situation is much better than previously projected," he said at a meeting on draft federal budget for 2024-2026.

ROME, Sept 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A 4.8-magnitude earthquake struck central Italy north of Florence on Monday morning, sending residents into the streets but causing no immediate damage, authorities said. 

Schools were closed in some areas as a precaution and trains were delayed pending checks on the railway lines.

Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) measured the quake at 4.8 on the Richter scale, with its epicentre near Marradi, a town of about 3,000 residents in the province of Florence within the Apennine mountain range.

KYIV, Sept 18 (Reuters) - The Ukrainian government dismissed six deputy defence ministers on Monday following the appointment of a new defence minister earlier this month.

The government gave no reason for the dismissals, but such moves are common after a new minister's appointment. Those removed included Hanna Maliar, who frequently issues public updates on Russia's war on Ukraine.

KYIV, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Ukraine plans to sue Poland, Hungary and Slovakia in the World Trade Organization over bans on Ukrainian agricultural products, Ukrainian officials said on Monday.

The appeal could be sent "in the near future", a senior official said, and followed a decision by the three countries bordering Ukraine to ban imports of the country's key export commodities.

Politico had earlier on Monday quoted Ukrainian Trade Representative Taras Kachka as saying in an interview that Kyiv planned to sue the three countries.

SOFIA, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Bulgaria's defence ministry said on Monday it had sent a special unit to inspect and deactivate a drone carrying explosives which landed on Sunday evening in the Black Sea town of Tyulenovo.

Following inspection the team from NATO-member Bulgaria will decide how to dispose of it, the ministry said in a statement, adding that the team had been sent on the request of the regional government.

"We can certainly assume that it (the drone) is related to the war that Russia launched against Ukraine," Defence Minister Todor Tagarev told reporters.

KIEV, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Ukrainian government dismissed all six deputy defense ministers and the state secretary of the Defense Ministry, said Taras Melnychuk, the cabinet's representative in the parliament, on Monday.

Deputy Defense Ministers Volodymyr Havrylov, Rostyslav Zamlynskiy, Hanna Malyar, Denys Sharapov, Andriy Shevchenko and Vitaliy Deynega, as well as State Secretary Kostyantyn Vashchenko have been ousted by the cabinet, Melnychuk wrote on Telegram.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Six Ukrainian deputy defense ministers were fired Monday following the dismissal two weeks ago of Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov in a corruption scandal, officials said, as heavy fighting continued in the east.

Deputy defense ministers including Hanna Maliar, Vitalii Deyneha and Denys Sharapov, as well as the state secretary of the Ministry of Defense, Kostiantyn Vashchenko, were fired, according to the Telegram account of Taras Melnychuk, permanent representative of the Cabinet of Ministers.