Europe

09 Apr 2021; MEMO: Former Foreign Office Minister Sir Alan Duncan has accused pro-Israel lobbyists of "the most disgusting interference" in British politics, and of negatively influencing the country's foreign policy in the Middle East. The veteran politician has also claimed that Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI) went "ballistic" and blocked him from taking on a new post covering the region's affairs.

New Delhi, Apr 9 (PTI) Over a third of the Antarctic's ice shelf area may be at risk of collapsing into the sea if global temperatures reach four degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, according to a study.

The research, published in the Geophysical Research Letters journal, found that 34 per cent of the area of all Antarctic ice shelves -- around half a million square kilometers -- including 67 per cent of ice shelf area on the Antarctic Peninsula, would be at risk of destabilisation under such a warming scenario.

MOSCOW, April 8. /TASS/: The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) has asked the Slovak government to return the batch of Sputnik V vaccine due to numerous contract violations so that it can be used in other countries, RDIF said in a statement published in the official Twitter account of the vaccine.

MOSCOW, April 8. /TASS/: The Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) recommended that Russian users switch to domestic alternatives to Zoom video communication app, the press service of the regulator told TASS on Thursday.

MOSCOW, April 8. /TASS/: Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) demanded that Facebook, Twitter, and Google provide information on the localization of databases of Russian users in Russia. In the absence of a response, they will be held accountable, the service told TASS on Thursday.

MOSCOW, April 8. /TASS/: The program of inoculating Russians against the coronavirus may meet its target figures by autumn when a new increase in incidence is possible, Head of the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing Anna Popova said on Thursday.

LONDON, April 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Britain on Thursday condemned “bullying” by the Myanmar junta after the country’s ambassador to London was ousted in an extraordinary diplomatic coup after calling for the release of civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Diplomats loyal to the Myanmar military authorities seized control of the embassy on Wednesday, leaving ambassador Kyaw Zwar Minn locked out in the street.

The ambassador said the defence attache had taken over the mission in “a kind of coup”, two months after the military seized power in Myanmar.

BELFAST (Reuters) -Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government put aside factional differences on Thursday to appeal for calm after more than a week of nightly violence partly fuelled by frustration among pro-British unionists over post-Brexit trade barriers.

Hundreds of youths in the British province’s capital Belfast set a hijacked bus on fire and attacked police with stones on Wednesday in scenes reviving memories of decades of sectarian strife that claimed some 3,600 lives prior to a 1998 peace deal.

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel demanded in a phone call with President Vladimir Putin that Russia unwind its recent military build-up in the area around eastern Ukraine, the German government said in a statement on Thursday.

Merkel also raised the case of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, who is currently ill in a Russian penal colony and who is demanding access to independent medical advice.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine of provocative action in eastern Ukraine that was inflaming the situation there during a phone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the Kremlin said on Thursday.

In a readout of the call, the Kremlin said that both sides had voiced concerns about the situation in eastern Ukraine. They also discussed the case of jailed Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny and Libya, the Kremlin said.