Europe

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -Opposition parties in the Dutch parliament on Thursday tabled a no-confidence motion in Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who is trying to form a new government in the wake of March 17 elections.

Rutte was the clear winner of last month’s parliamentary elections. Losing a vote of confidence would delay the formation of a new coalition government and weaken his position as head of the conservative VVD party.

VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran has started enriching uranium with a fourth cascade, or cluster, of advanced IR-2m machines at its underground Natanz plant, a report by the U.N. atomic watchdog obtained by Reuters on Thursday showed, in a further breach of Iran’s nuclear deal.

LONDON (Reuters) -Oil prices rose on Thursday on optimism about the strength of U.S and European economies and hopes that OPEC and its allies will keep production curbs in place.

Brent crude rose by $1.33 cents, or 2.1%, to $64.07 a barrel by 1023 GMT. U.S. oil was up $1.36, or 2.3%, at $60.52 a barrel.

Ministers from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia and other allied producers, a group known as OPEC+, meet on Thursday to reassess output policy.

MOSCOW, March 31 (Xinhua) -- Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said on Wednesday that he is not anticipating "bright prospects" for Russia-U.S. relations.

The bilateral ties are in the midst of a deep crisis, which has grown partly due to the reluctance of the U.S. Joe Biden administration to solve problems with Moscow, Antonov said at a joint meeting of the international and defense committees of the Federation Council, Russia's upper house of parliament.

LONDON, March 31 (Xinhua) -- The British government has been accused of trying to downplay structural racism in Britain, after its new social disparities report said claims that the country is institutionally racist are "not borne out by the evidence".

The government's Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, set up after Black Lives Matter protests last year, said Wednesday in the report that social class and family structure, rather than race, had a bigger impact on how people's lives turned out.

PARIS, March 31 (Xinhua) -- To slow down the coronavirus spread and pave the way for a gradual return to normalcy by mid-May, schools in France will be closed for three weeks and restriction on people's movement, already in force in many regions, will be extended to the whole territory, President Emmanuel Macron announced on Wednesday evening.

Starting from Monday, students, except the children of medics, will move to remote learning for one week before going on two-week holiday.

KIEV, March 31. /TASS/: The Ukrainian government has banned the import of wheat, rye, sunflower oil, and a number of non-food products from Russia. The decree to that effect was published on the government’s website on Wednesday.

"[The government rules to] supplement the list (of goods prohibited for import from Russia) with the following items: wheat and a mixture of wheat and rye (meslin), sunflower oil, safflower or cottonseed oil and their fractions, unrefined or refined, but without changes in their chemical composition," according to the document dated March 29.

MOSCOW, March 31. /TASS/: Ruselectronics Group (part of the state tech corporation Rostec) will launch the serial production of the latest Magister-SV automated battlefield air defense control system in 2021, the Rostec press office announced on Wednesday.

"The new unified module is designated to reconnoiter the airspace using external and inbuilt reconnaissance capabilities and coordinating an air defense battle. The system has passed state trials and has been adopted for supplies to the Russian Army," Rostec said.

MOSCOW, March 31. /TASS/: Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology has joined the top five most mentioned inoculations among foreign mass media outlets during the year, according to a ranking by LexisNexis specially prepared for TASS.

The Comirnaty jab developed jointly by the renowned American multinational drugmaker Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech topped the ranking.

MOSCOW, March 31. /TASS/: Russia’s Federation Council (parliament's upper house) at its plenary meeting on Wednesday passed a law enabling President Vladimir Putin to contest the presidency again.

A number of the law’s provisions was formulated on the basis of amendments to the Constitution, such as a restriction on the number of presidential terms for one person. It is applied to the incumbent head of state regardless of his previous presidencies. This rule allows the current head of state to hold this position for two more terms.