Europe

BRATISLAVA, November 8. /TASS/: The newly formed Slovak government has blocked its predecessors’ initiative to allocate 40.3 million euros in military assistance to Ukraine, the pravda.sk. news portal reported.

The initiative to transfer weapons and ammunition to Ukraine was submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers by the former leadership of the Slovak Defense Ministry.

MOSCOW, November 8. /TASS/: Strict legislative regulation of artificial intelligence technologies would be possible only after a thorough risk assessment and consultations with market participants, according to Governor of the Bank of Russia Elvira Nabiullina.

"Strong legislative regulation is probably possible in some areas, but we believe it should be introduced only after a thorough risk analysis and market consultation. I think we will discuss everything with the government," she stated.

MOSCOW, November 8. /TASS/: Russian forces destroyed a Ukrainian army’s integrated command post in the Zaporozhye area over the past day in the special military operation in Ukraine, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Wednesday.

"An integrated command post of the Ukrainian army’s 10th army corps was destroyed near the settlement of Volnoandreyevka in the Zaporozhye Region," the ministry said in a statement.

NOVO-OGARYOVO, November 8. /TASS/: NATO aspires to expand its geographical boundaries, including into Asia, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

"We are watching certain countries’ attempts to expand their zone of influence. What is more, the North Atlantic Alliance, strangely enough, is attempting to go beyond the geographical boundaries of its operation, in breach of its own doctrinal documents," the Russian president said at a meeting with Zhang Youxia, Vice Chairman of China’s Central Military Commission (CMC).

GENEVA, Nov 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Deaths from tuberculosis dipped last year amid a dramatic increase in diagnosis and treatment of the world’s second deadliest disease, the World Health Organization said.

   The UN health agency hailed a “significant worldwide recovery” in efforts to rein in tuberculosis, marking “an encouraging trend starting to reverse the detrimental effects of Covid-19 disruptions on TB services”.

MOSCOW, Nov 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Russia said that it had put on its wanted list another judge of the International Criminal Court, which is seeking the arrest of President Vladimir Putin over the Ukraine conflict.

“Wanted in the framework of a criminal investigation,” said a notice in the interior ministry’s database, referring to Sergio Gerarde Ugaldo Godinez, a Costa Rica judge on the Hague-based ICC.

The notice did not provide details on the allegations against Godinez.

HELSINKI, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Finland on Wednesday said China had promised to fully cooperate in the investigation of the destruction last month of the Balticconnector gas pipeline, which happened on the same night that three subsea telecoms cables in the area were also damaged.

Finnish police have said they are investigating whether a Hong Kong registered container vessel, the NewNew Polar Bear, damaged the pipeline by dragging its anchor over the sea bed, but have not concluded whether this was an accident or not.

BRUSSELS, Nov 8 (Reuters) - This year is "virtually certain" to be the warmest in 125,000 years, European Union scientists said on Wednesday, after data showed last month was the world's hottest October in that period.

Last month smashed through the previous October temperature record, from 2019, by a massive margin, the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said.

"The record was broken by 0.4 degrees Celsius, which is a huge margin," said C3S Deputy Director Samantha Burgess, who described the October temperature anomaly as "very extreme".

MOSCOW, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the West on Wednesday of provoking crises on the global oil and gas market by rushing to switch to green energy and imposing pressure on other countries to do the same.

"In fact, the reasons for the negative phenomena in the energy sector were the irresponsible actions of the collective West, when it decided to force ... the green transition for itself and impose the same green transition on other countries that were simply not economically ready for it," Lavrov said in televised comments.

BRUSSELS, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Belgium's deputy prime minister called on the Belgian government on Wednesday to adopt sanctions against Israel and investigate the bombings of hospitals and refugee camps in Gaza.

“It is time for sanctions against Israel. The rain of bombs is inhumane," deputy prime minister Petra De Sutter told Nieuwsblad newspaper. “It is clear that Israel does not care about the international demands for a ceasefire,” she said.