Europe

LONDON (AP) — Cindy had a comfortable lifestyle in Hong Kong: she owned several properties with her husband, they had a good business going. But last year she made up her mind to leave it all behind and move her family to Britain, and not even a global pandemic was going to sway her decision.

GENEVA, January 29. /TASS/: More than 570,000 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus infection were registered worldwide in the past day, with the overall number of such cases exceeding 101.05 million, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in its daily bulletin on Friday.

As of 20:43 Moscow time on January 29, as many as 101,053,721 novel coronavirus cases and 2,182,867 coronavirus-associated deaths were registered across the globe. The number of confirmed cases grew by 570,976 in the past 24 hours and the number of fatalities increased by 15,716.

ATHENS, January 30. /TASS/: Russia is gearing up for a tough conversation about the very nature of its current relations with the European Union during EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell’s upcoming visit scheduled for February 5, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said in an interview with Russian journalists late on Friday.

ATHENS, January 30. /TASS/: Russia is ready for dialogue with NATO if that helps improve security in Europe, but so far there is no positive agenda with the alliance, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told Russian reporters in Athens late on Friday.

ATHENS, January 30. /TASS/: The EU sanctions against Russia are illegitimate and run counter to the interests of the European Union itself, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told Russian reporters in Athens late on Friday.

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland was not consulted by the European Commission before it briefly sought to restrict some exports of COVID-19 vaccines by invoking an emergency Brexit clause related to Northern Ireland, Ireland’s European Affairs Minister said on Saturday.

The EU abruptly reversed the plan to use the Article 16 clause to restrict exports of COVID-19 vaccines from crossing the Irish border into the United Kingdom within a matter of hours on Friday after it sent shockwaves through Northern Ireland, London and Dublin.

LONDON (Reuters) - A man has been charged after a suspicious package was sent to a factory in Wales that produces AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine resulting in a temporary suspension of manufacturing, British police said on Saturday.

The Wockhardt plant in Wrexham provides so-called fill-and-finish capacity for AstraZeneca’s British supply chain, which is the final manufacturing step of putting vaccines into vials or syringes and packaging them.

29 Jan 2021; MEMO: Italy has blocked exports of arms to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the Foreign Ministry said on Friday, following warnings by activists and lawmakers about the use of weapons in violation of human rights in Yemen, Anadolu Agency reports.

"This is an act that we considered necessary, a clear message of peace coming from our country. For us, the respect of human rights is an unbreakable commitment," Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said in a statement.

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday hailed a new visa scheme that offers qualifying Hong Kong citizens a route to British citizenship - a programme launched in response to China’s new security laws in the former colony.

The scheme, first announced last year, opens on Sunday and allows those with “British National (Overseas)” status to live, study and work in Britain for five years and eventually apply for citizenship.

LISBON, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- The Portuguese parliament approved on Friday the legalization of euthanasia "practiced or helped by health professionals" in the country with 136 votes of deputies in favor and 78 against, in addition to four abstentions.

According to the bill, a person aged over 18 can be medically assisted in death "whose will is current and reiterated, serious, free and enlightened, in a situation of intolerable suffering, with a definite injury of extreme severity in accordance with scientific consensus or incurable and fatal disease."