Europe

MOSCOW, February 23. /TASS/: Gas transit to Kazakhstan was stopped after an explosion at the Soyuz pipeline section in the Orenburg region, according to the information published on the telegram channel of the RF Ministry of Energy on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, February 23. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has praised combat capability of the Armed Forces, thanking all servicemen for the worthy performance of their military duty.

The president also expressed special gratitude to the veterans, calling them "a great generation, who have taught us, their descendants, how to win and not to give up." He also noted that thanks to Russia’s "never fading heroism" the traditions of patriotism are "so strong" in the country.

MOSCOW, February 23. /TASS/: An emergency situation was introduced in the Ilek district of the Orenburg region, where an explosion occurred on a gas pipeline on Tuesday morning, the first vice-governor, first deputy chairman of the regional government, minister of agriculture, trade, food and processing industry Sergei Balykin told reporters.

"An emergency situation was declared in the area where the explosion occurred on the gas pipeline," Balykin said.

TBILISI, February 23. / TASS /: Georgian Interior Ministry officials have arrested the chairman of the opposition United National Movement party founded by former Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, MP Nika Melia, whose arrest was sanctioned by the Tbilisi court last week for failure to pay bail in the amount of 40,000 lari over (over $12,000) in the case of riots at the June 2019 rally, Georgia's First TV Channel reported on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, February 23 / TASS /: The number of people infected with coronavirus in Russia per day increased by 11,823, this is at least number of new cases since October 8.

The total number of infected has reached 4.1 mln, the federal operational headquarters for the fight against the new disease told reporters on Tuesday. In relative terms, the increase in new cases, according to the headquarters, was 0.3%.

The lowest growth rates were recorded per day in the Republic of Tuva (0.04%) and Magadan Region (0.06%).

BERLIN/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission on Tuesday told six EU nations to ease unilateral border restrictions they have set up to combat COVID-19, as it sought to coordinate a less restrictive approach to the movement of goods and people within the bloc.

The EU executive’s Justice Commissioner, Didier Reynders, said it had given Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary and Sweden 10 days to justify curbs he said had “gone too far”.

BERLIN (Reuters) - China has tried to intimidate Hong Kong residents living in Germany since pro-democracy protests broke out in the city two years ago, the German interior ministry said in a letter to a lawmaker published on Tuesday.

The letter, sent to the head of parliament’s human rights committee, Gyde Jensen, in response to a request for information on the subject, could add to pressure on Chancellor Angela Merkel to take a firmer line toward China over human rights.

GENEVA (Reuters) - The U.N. human rights chief on Tuesday welcomed a pledge by U.S. President Joe Biden to work towards abolishing the death penalty in the United States.

Biden, a Democrat, promised voters last year he would seek to end the federal death penalty, and took office last month as the country’s first abolitionist president.

“I welcome the pledge by the new U.S. Administration to work towards ending the death penalty, both at federal and state level,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said.

GENEVA, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese mission to the United Nations (UN) at Geneva on Monday refuted the erroneous remarks related to China by British Foreign Secretary at the 46th regular session of the Human Rights Council, which kicked off Monday and is expected to last until March 23.

Chinese Mission Spokesperson Liu Yuyin said in a press release that human rights should not be used to serve political ends, still less a tool to smear other countries and contain their development.

"The Human Rights Council has no place for lies and deception," Liu said.

MOSCOW, February 21. /TASS/: Russia’s COVID-19 cases hit below 100,000 this week, for the first time since early October 2020, according to TASS estimates based on the anti-coronavirus crisis center’s data.

From February 15 to 21, the crisis center reported 92,843 coronavirus cases (compared to 104,602 a week earlier). Last time Russia registered fewer than 100,000 COVID-19 weekly cases on October 5-11, 2020.

Since the start of the pandemic, Russia has confirmed 4,164,726 coronavirus cases, which is 2.85% of the population.