Europe

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Russian missile attack Friday on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown killed one policeman and wounded at least 73 people, including nine policemen, Ukrainian officials said. Another attack in the southern Kherson region killed three people.

YEREVAN, September 7. /TASS/: Azerbaijan has amassed its troops on the border with Armenia and the demarcation line with Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told a Cabinet meeting as he described the situation as explosive.

MOSCOW, September 7. /TASS/: The G20 member-countries have agreed to grant the status of a permanent member to the African Union, the Bloomberg news agency quotes sources as saying.

This decision is expected to be announced on September 9-10 during the G20 summit in India.

The AU will have the same status as the European Union, the agency says. This decision stems from the wish to give the AU members a greater say on global issues.

MOSCOW, September 7. /TASS/: Russia plans to develop its relations with North Korea regardless of what other countries might think, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"We have our own relations with Pyongyang. We value these relations as North Korea is our neighbor, and we will of course continue to develop relations with them regardless of the opinion of other countries," he said.

Peskov was commenting on a recent allegation by US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan about the DPRK's plans to supply arms to Russia.

MOSCOW, September 7. /TASS/: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, speaking at the East Asia Summit, highlighted the risks of militarization of the Asia-Pacific region driven by NATO’s efforts to penetrate the region, according to a statement published on the Russian Foreign Ministry website.

BRUSSELS, Sept 7 (Reuters) - NATO has no indication that drone debris found on Romanian territory was caused by a deliberate Russian attack on Romania, its chief said on Thursday.

Ukraine had said on Monday that drones detonated in Romania during an overnight Russian air strike on a Ukrainian port across the Danube River. Attacks have increased on the site since July when Moscow abandoned a deal that lifted a de facto Russian blockade of Ukraine's Black Sea ports.

KYIV, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Ukraine has started exporting grain via Croatian seaports, aiming to broaden its export routes while its Black Sea ports are blocked, a senior Ukrainian official said on Thursday.

Ukraine's main grain export route is usually via its deep Black Sea ports, but Kyiv has been looking for alternative routes since Russia invasion last year and Moscow's decision to quit the Black Sea grain export deal in mid-July.

LONDON, Sept 7 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak faces another difficult vote to fill a vacant seat in parliament after a lawmaker who was given an eight-week suspension for groping two men at a London club last year announced he plans to resign.

Chris Pincher, who now sits as an independent, announced on Thursday he would leave the House of Commons more than a year after he was suspended from the ruling Conservative Party by then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson last year.

BRUSSELS, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Ukraine is making progress with a counter offensive started in June to reclaim territory seized by Russia, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday, even though it was slow going due to Russian fortifications and minefields.

"The Ukrainians are gradually gaining ground...They have been able to breach the defensive lines of the Russian forces, and they are moving forward," Stoltenberg told lawmakers in remarks at the European Parliament.

LONDON, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Average house prices in the United Kingdom (UK) fell by 4.6 percent year-on-year in August, the biggest yearly drop since 2009, as the "impact of higher rates flows through," UK mortgage lender Halifax said on Thursday.

On a monthly basis, the average house price fell by 1.9 percent in August, the largest monthly fall since November 2022, marking the fifth consecutive month of decreasing house prices.