Europe

(AP) --- People who aren’t vaccinated against COVID-19 are no longer allowed in France’s restaurants, bars, tourist sites and sports venues unless they recently recovered from the virus.

The new law came into effect Monday requiring a “vaccine pass” that is central to the government’s anti-virus strategy.

France is registering Europe’s highest-ever daily coronavirus infection numbers, and hospitals are continuing to fill up with virus patients, though the number of people in intensive care units has dropped in recent days.

BRUSSELS (AP) — Tensions soared Monday between Russia and the West over concerns that Moscow is planning to invade Ukraine, with NATO outlining potential troop and ship deployments, Britain saying it would withdraw some diplomats from Kyiv, and Ireland denouncing upcoming Russian war games off its coast as unwelcome.

24 Jan 2022; MEMO: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has ordered a formal inquiry into Conservative lawmaker and former minister Nusrat Ghani's allegations that she was dismissed as minister because of her Islamic faith.

"The prime minister has asked the Cabinet Office to conduct an inquiry into the allegations made by Nusrat Ghani MP," a statement from Downing Street said this morning.

MOSCOW, January 23. /TASS/: Armenia’s foreign policy, including its relations with Russia, are unlikely to change following President Armen Sarkissian’s resignation, a Russian lawmaker told TASS on Sunday.

"Armenia’s foreign policy will not change after the president’s resignation," Viktor Volodatsky, first deputy chairman of the committee for the CIS affairs, Eurasian integration and ties with compatriots of the Russian State Duma (lower parliament house), said, adding that Armenia’s relations with Russia will remain unchanged.

MOSCOW, January 23. /TASS/: Moscow has called on the UK’s Foreign Office to stop engaging in provocations. This is how the Russian Foreign Ministry reacted to a recent statement of the British colleagues about plans Moscow is allegedly making regarding Ukraine.

MOSCOW, January 23. /TASS/: The Russian side at the Geneva talks furnished the United States with explanations concerning all the outstanding questions on security guarantees and continues to wait for a written response to its initiatives, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Sunday.

MOSCOW, January 23. /TASS/: Russia’s COVID-19 cases surged by 63,205 in the last 24 hours to 11,108,191, the anti-coronavirus crisis center said on Sunday.

In relative terms, the COVID-19 incidence climbed by 0.57%.

As many as 6,211 COVID-19 patients were rushed to hospitals over the past day, which is 37.3% fewer than the previous day. At the same time, the number of hospitalizations rose in 12 regions, according to the crisis center.

DOENTSK, January 23. /TASS/: Ukraine has deployed Uragan multiple missile launcher systems northwest of the city of Slavyansk, a spokesman for the defense ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) said on Sunday.

"Under the pretext of drills, the command of the united forces’ operation (Kiev’s military operation in Donbass - TASS) deployed the third artillery division of the 27th artillery brigade armed with 220mm Uragan multiple missile launcher systems to the settlements of Krasnopolye and Adamovka," the Donetsk News Agency quoted him as saying.

LUGANSK, January 23. /TASS/: Ukraine’s security forces have kidnapped a serviceman of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic, the LPR’s People’s Militia Spokesman Ivan Filiponenko said on Sunday.

"On January 22, a serviceman of the LPR’s People’s Militia was abducted by a sabotage group of the Ukrainian armed forces, while patrolling a section of the Svetlodarskaya bulge (a strategically important section near the Svetlodarsk village)," the LuganskInformCenter quoted Filiponenko as saying.

DUBLIN, Jan 23 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Ireland lifted almost all COVID-19 restrictions placed for about two years from Saturday after the country has weathered a storm of the Omicron variant that led to a major surge in infections, Prime Minister Micheal Martin announced.

Ireland is placed among the countries with the highest rate of COVID-19 infections in Europe and now also the continent’s highest uptake of booster vaccines, which made possible the number of seriously ill people remained below the previous peak.