Europe

LONDON, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Airbus (AIR.PA) and Qatar Airways fought in court in front of Boeing on Friday as a dispute over damage to A350 jets descended into a tug-of-war over confidential documents while the sums at stake in their unprecedented falling out topped $1.5 billion.

Boeing was dragged into the case for the first time as lawyers quarrelled over access to a preliminary contract for its 737 MAX jets - illustrating the domino effect on a $150 billion global jetliner industry from the rare London legal battle.

BRUSSELS, Oct 14 (Reuters) - NATO said on Friday it would launch its annual nuclear exercise "Steadfast Noon" on Monday, with up to 60 aircraft taking part in training flights over Belgium, the North Sea and Britain to practise the use of U.S. nuclear bombs based in Europe.

The nuclear drills - which do not involve live bombs - are taking place amid heightened tensions after Russia repeatedly threatened nuclear strikes in Ukraine following major military setbacks on the battlefield there.

BRUSSELS, Oct 13 (Reuters) - With Russia expected to soon carry out large-scale drills of its nuclear forces as President Vladimir Putin threatens to use them, the United States and its allies will be challenged to ensure they can spot the difference between exercises and the real thing.

Russia typically holds major annual nuclear exercises around this time of year, and U.S. and Western officials expect them perhaps in just days. They will likely include the test launch of ballistic missiles, U.S. officials say.

LONDON, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- Jeremy Hunt, former foreign secretary of the United Kingdom (UK), has been appointed as chancellor of the exchequer, Downing Street said in a statement on Friday.

Hunt, 55, replaces Kwasi Kwarteng, who resigned earlier in the day after his mini-budget was blamed for causing economic turmoil.

"You have asked me to stand aside as your Chancellor. I have accepted," Kwarteng said in his resignation to Prime Minister Liz Truss posted on Twitter.

VALLETTA, Malta (AP) — A judge in Malta has sentenced two brothers to 40 years in prison each after they pleaded guilty to the car-bomb murder of an anti-corruption journalist.

Hours earlier at the start of the trial in a Valletta courthouse Friday, George Degiorgio, 59, and Alfred Degiorgio, 57, had entered not-guilty pleas.

They were charged with having set the bomb that blew up Daphne Caruana Galizia’s car as she drove near her home on Oct. 16, 2017.

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Three Swedish center-right parties on Friday agreed to form a coalition government with the support of the Sweden Democrats, a once radical far-right group that has moved toward the mainstream but retains a hard line on immigration.

The agreement comes after a month of talks following Sept. 11 elections that gave the Sweden Democrats an unprecedented position of influence in Swedish politics with over 20% of the vote.

KYIV, UKRAINE (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday he expects a mobilization of army reservists he ordered to bolster his country’s troops in Ukraine to be completed in two weeks, a milestone that would allow him to end the unpopular call-up as the Kremlin tries to counter Ukrainian gains on the battlefield.

LONDON (AP) — Embattled British Prime Minister Liz Truss sacked her Treasury chief and reversed course on a major part of her tax-cutting economic plan Friday as she struggled to hang on to her job after weeks of turmoil on financial markets. But the market response was muted and the political reaction to what many saw as panicked moves left Truss’ credibility in tatters after only six weeks in office.

14 October 2022; MEMO: Finland has violated the rights of its child nationals stranded in detention camps in north-eastern Syria, according to United Nations child rights experts.

In a statement by the UN Child Rights Committee, which consists of 18 independent experts tasked with monitoring the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, it stressed that "Finland has the responsibility and power to protect the Finnish children in the Syrian camps against an imminent risk to their lives by taking action to repatriate them".

MOSCOW, October 13. /TASS/: Russia’s Foreign Ministry recently summoned the German, Danish and Swedish ambassadors to Moscow over those countries’ probe into the Nord Stream attacks where Russia was not invited to participate.