Europe

MOSCOW, October 5. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree on the creation of an interdepartmental commission of the Russian Security Council that will be responsible for countering modern threats to biological security. It will be headed by Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev.

The same decree abolished another Security Council commission which was headed by Medvedev - responsible for creating a national system of defense against new infections. Its functions were transferred to the new entity.

BAKU, October 5. /TASS/: Baku is ready for talks with Yerevan on a trilateral Azerbaijan-Armenia-EU platform in Brussels, the Azerbaijani leader's aide, Hikmet Hajiyev, has said.

"Azerbaijan is ready for trilateral meetings on the Azerbaijan-Armenia-EU platform in Brussels soon," Hajiyev wrote on his page on the social media X (formerly Twitter).

Hajiyev explained that Azerbaijan had refused to go to the meeting scheduled for October 5 in Granada because of France's biased position and objections to Turkey's participation in these talks.

VIENNA, October 5. /TASS/: The experience of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant project in Bangladesh is a shining example of how countries that do not have nuclear facilities can start developing nuclear power, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi said.

SOCHI, October 5. /TASS/: Russia has to respond to constantly mounting geopolitical pressure, President Vladimir Putin said at a plenary session of the Valdai International Discussion Club on Thursday.

"It has to respond to constantly mounting military and political pressure [against Russia]," he said.

MADRID, Oct 5 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A wildfire raging on Spain’s holiday island of Tenerife amid unseasonably hot temperatures forced the evacuation on Wednesday of around 3,000 people from their homes, local officials said.

Firefighters backed by six water-dropping helicopters were battling the blaze which broke out on Wednesday afternoon in an area of steep ravines in the northeast of the island that was badly ravaged by a huge wildfire in August, the regional government of Tenerife said.

MOSCOW, Oct 5 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that the West had lost touch with reality over the Ukraine war and warned that if its leaders had forgotten how to compromise then the world would have to see where such arrogance led.

Putin accused the West of fomenting the conflict in Ukraine, which he cast as part of a much larger struggle between Russia and an arrogant West which he said had lost a sense of reality.

KYIV, Oct 5 (Reuters) - A Russian attack killed at least 49 people, including a six-year-old boy, as they gathered in a cafe for a memorial service in a village in northeastern Ukraine on Thursday, the country's interior minister said.

A cafe and a shop were struck early in the afternoon in the village of Hroza in the Kharkiv region, regional governor Oleh Synehubov said, adding that many civilians had been there at the time.

ROME, Oct 5 (Reuters) - Italian authorities have impounded a vessel operated by a Spanish charity, the group said on Thursday, after it carried out multiple rescues of migrants stranded in the Mediterranean.

The Open Arms group said in a statement it had completed three rescues on Saturday picking up 176 people at sea, which included more than 90 unaccompanied minors. The boat docked on Wednesday in the central Italian port of Carrara to disembark the migrants.

BRUSSELS, Oct 4 (Reuters) - European Union leaders will discuss how to reform the 27-nation bloc to take in new members at a summit in Granada on Oct. 5-6, launching a long process to prepare the EU for enlargement by a tentative deadline of 2030.

Below is a list of countries that want to join the EU.

WARSAW/BERLIN, Oct 5 (Reuters) - Fighting to win an unprecedented third term in office, Poland's nationalist government has seized on a target close to home: Germany, its NATO ally and biggest trading partner.

In a tight race ahead of Poland's Oct. 15 election, leaders of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party have accused Germany of trying to dictate Polish government policy from Berlin on anything from migration to gas.