Austria

VIENNA, April 28 (Reuters) - Radiation levels in a part of Chornobyl's exclusion zone where Ukraine has said Russian troops dug trenches in the highly contaminated soil are elevated but still well within the safe range, the U.N. nuclear watchdog's chief said on Thursday.

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi travelled to Chornobyl this week with IAEA staff to bring equipment and check radiation levels at the site which includes radioactive waste facilities near the now-defunct power plant that in 1986 suffered the world's worst nuclear disaster.

12 April 2022; MEMO: A decision driven by Saudi Arabia that OPEC+ should stop using oil data from the West's energy watchdog reflected concern about US influence on the figures, sources close to the matter said, adding to strain on ties between Riyadh and Washington,  Reuters reports.

The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, including Russia, a group referred to as OPEC+, has so far ignored Western calls to increase output to try to lower oil prices of around $100 a barrel.

11 April 2022; MEMO: OPEC told the European Union on Monday that current and future sanctions on Russia could create one of the worst ever oil supply shocks and it would be impossible to replace those volumes, and signalled it would not pump more, Reuters reports.

European Union officials held talks in Vienna with representatives of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries amid calls for the group to increase output and as the EU considers potential sanctions on Russian oil.

VIENNA, April 11. /TASS/: The talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin were very harsh and open, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said after the meeting in Moscow, the Austrian Press Agency reported Monday.

According to Nehammer’s statement, "this was not a friendly visit."

"My most important message to Putin was that this war must finally end, because there are losers on both sides of a war," he said.

The Chancellor expressed his opinion that the people involved in "serious war crimes in [Ukraine’s] Bucha ad other places" must be brought to responsibility.

VIENNA, April 10. /TASS/: Ukraine has notified the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) about the first rotation of the personnel of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in three weeks, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said on Sunday.

"Ukraine informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) today that it had carried out the first staff rotation at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) in three weeks and only the second since late February when Russian forces seized the site," he said.

VIENNA, April 6. /TASS/: Hungary is working on a technical solution to the issue of paying for Russian gas supplies in rubles, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Economic Relations Peter Szijjarto said on Wednesday.

Answering a question about paying for gas in rubles, the Hungarian Foreign Minister said that his country would have to fulfill "its first payment obligation to Gazprom" at the end of May, and a technical solution is being worked out.

VIENNA, April 6 (Reuters) - Iran has moved all its machines that make centrifuge parts from its mothballed workshop at Karaj to its sprawling Natanz site just six weeks after it set up another site at Isfahan to make the same parts, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Wednesday.

Iran granted International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors access to Karaj in December to re-instal surveillance cameras there after a months-long standoff that followed what Tehran said was Israeli sabotage that destroyed one camera and badly damaged another, prompting Iran to remove all four cameras.

VIENNA, March 25 (Reuters) - Staff on duty at Chernobyl's Russian-held radioactive waste facilities have not been rotated in four days and Ukraine cannot say when that will change because of fighting in the town where many of them live, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Friday.

"Ukraine informed the International Atomic Energy Agency today that there had been no rotation of technical staff at (Chernobyl) since 21 March and it did not know when it might next take place," the IAEA said in a statement.

March 12 (Reuters) - The U.S. seizure of Iranian tankers in recent months has not stopped sanctions-hit Tehran from increasing oil exports, Iran's oil minister was quoted as saying on Saturday.

“The United States has on several occasions in the past months violated Iranian oil tankers to prevent export of shipments," Javad Owji said in an interview carried by Iranian media.

"When the enemy realised it could not stop our exports and contracts, they went after our ships," Owji said.

12 March 2022; MEMO: High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell announced on Friday that Iran and world powers would suspend talks to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement in the Austrian capital, Vienna. According to Borrell, the talks have been suspended due to "external factors" after Russian demands threatened to ruin the talks at the last minute.