Europe

GENEVA (AP) — The U.N.’s top human rights body has opened its first and highest-level meeting of 2021, amid growing concerns on issues including the military coup in Myanmar, the arrest of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Russia and the rights situations in countries including Ethiopia and Sri Lanka.

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union foreign ministers on Monday will look at options for imposing fresh sanctions against Russia over the jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, as the 27-nation bloc considers the future of its troubled ties with the country.

The ministers will discuss possible names of Russian officials and whether to target them individually or whether to use a new system of measures aimed at human rights abuses. But they appear unlikely to impose restrictions on oligarchs close to President Vladimir Putin, as Navalny has requested.

IKHALA, Russia (AP) — Maria Piparinen and other elderly residents of Ikhala were relieved when they heard that doctors were finally bringing a few doses of the coronavirus vaccine to their remote, snowy village in the Russian region of Karelia, near the border with Finland.

Otherwise, the 75-year-old said she would have had to hire a car to take her 10 kilometers (6 miles) to the town of Lakhdenpokhya, because the bus no longer runs there.

MOSCOW, February 20. /TASS/: Russia wants the United States’ foreign policy to be more predictable, Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said on Saturday.

"All we want is predictability, confidence in future, confidence in the United States’ actions. We want to live peacefully so that, excuse me for such lofty words, our foreign policy could help encourage the country’s internal development. As a matter of fact, this is what we are doing," he said in an interview with the Solovyov Live YouTube channel.

BELGRADE, February 21. /TASS/: Montenegro has launched anti-coronavirus vaccination in the country using Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, the press office of the Public Health Institute of Montenegro reported on late Saturday adding that first jabs of the vaccine were delivered at care houses for elderly.

"The team of our Institute and Kotor hospital has delivered the first shot of the vaccine in Montenegro," the press service said in a statement.

TASS, February 21: Five workers, who were injured after a collapse at an enrichment factory in Russia’s Arctic city of Norilsk, are in stably serious condition, the Health Ministry in the Krasnoyarsk Region told TASS on Sunday.

"Five people are in stably serious condition. Four of them were moved to a hospital ward and another one is in intensive care. All of them are receiving medical assistance and those injured are under medical care," the ministry's press service said.

MOSCOW, February 21. /TASS/: Russia recorded 12,742 COVID-19 cases in the past day and the total caseload hit 4,164,726, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told reporters on Sunday.

In relative terms, the growth rate reached 0.3%.

The lowest growth rates in the past day were registered in the Tuva Republic (0.04%), the Jewish Autonomous Region (0.09%), the Magadan Region (0.09%), the Chechen Republic (0.11%) and the Adygea Republic (0.11%).

PARIS, Feb 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The novel coronavirus has killed at least 2,453,070 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019.

At least 110,700,000 cases of coronavirus have been registered. Of these, at least 67,895,900 are now considered recovered.

These figures are based on daily tolls provided by health authorities in each country and exclude later re-evaluations by statistical organisations, as has happened in Russia, Spain and Britain.

21 Feb 2021; MEMO: Pressures in relations between Russia and the West have recently become so strained that Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned of the possibility of a complete break in ties, reports Anadolu Agency.

In an interview with Anadolu Agency, Andrey Kortunov, head of the Russian International Affairs Council, a Moscow-based academic and diplomatic think tank established upon a presidential decree, assessed how real the threat is and what consequences it could lead to.

(Reuters) - Britain could restrict imports of European mineral water and several food products under retaliatory measures being considered by ministers over Brussels’ refusal to end its blockade on British shellfish, the Telegraph reported.

Senior government sources pointed to potential restrictions on the importing of mineral water and seed potatoes, the report said.