Europe

KYIV (Reuters) - The foreign ministers of Hungary and Ukraine were expected to meet in Kyiv on Wednesday for talks on repairing badly strained relations but Budapest said its diplomatic missions in the ex-Soviet republic had received threats of “bloodletting” violence.

The two countries are at loggerheads over the right of some 150,000 ethnic Hungarians living in Transcarpathia in western Ukraine to use their native tongue, especially in education. The region borders Hungary.

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil rose above $56 a barrel on Wednesday after industry data showed U.S. crude inventories fell unexpectedly, outweighing persistent concerns about demand as coronavirus cases top 100 million globally.

Industry group the American Petroleum Institute (API) said U.S. crude inventories fell by 5.3 million barrels. Analysts had expected them to rise. Official inventory figures are due at 1530 GMT from the Energy Information Administration. [EIA/S]

PARIS (Reuters) - Boeing’s 737 MAX airliner is safe to return to service in Europe, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) said on Wednesday, lifting a 22-month flight ban after two crashes of the jet which caused 346 deaths.

“We have every confidence that the aircraft is safe, which is the precondition for giving our approval. But we will continue to monitor 737 MAX operations closely as the aircraft resumes service,” EASA Executive Director Patrick Ky said.

GENEVA, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- The World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Tuesday that bilateral deals on COVID-19 vaccines between countries and companies are putting at risk the promise of COVAX, the WHO-led global initiative aimed to ensure rapid and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines.

"At least 56 bilateral vaccine deals have been signed, which fragments the market, forces countries to compete, and drives up prices of COVID-19 vaccines," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in his speech at a meeting.

27 Jan 2021; MEMO: The Biden administration will "thoroughly review" US sanctions on International Criminal Court officials imposed over investigations into US forces in Afghanistan, a State Department spokesman said on Tuesday, reports Reuters.

LONDON (AP) — For nine months, Gordon Bonner has been in the “hinterlands of despair and desolation” after losing his wife of 63 years to the coronavirus pandemic that has now taken the lives of more than 100,000 people in the United Kingdom.

Only recently did Bonner think he might be able to move on — after sensing the spirit of his wife, Muriel, near him on what would have been her 84th birthday.

MOSCOW, January 26. /TASS/: Moscow is ready to help Tehran expand the capacity of the operating Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant through construction of more nuclear power units, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a joint press conference with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif on Tuesday.

VLADIVOSTOK, January 26. /TASS/: Long-range anti-submarine Tu-142МЗ planes of the Pacific Fleet have performed a scheduled flight over the Bering and the Chukchi Seas, the press service of the Eastern Military District reported on Tuesday.

"On January 26, 2021, two long-range anti-submarine Tu-142МЗ planes of naval aviation of the Pacific Fleet performed a scheduled flight over the waters of the Bering and the Chukchi Seas. The mission time surpassed 11 hours. During this time they covered over 8,000 kilometers," the press service reported.

MOSCOW, January 26. /TASS/: Clashes during unsanctioned protests in Russia on January 23 were provoked solely by the aggression of the protesters, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.

"The level of violence among the participants of these actions was rather unprecedented. They behaved extremely aggressively," the spokesman said, adding that the protesters provoked violence. He noted that in this sense, "it doesn’t seem strange" to him that criminal proceedings had been launched against protesters but not against law enforcement officers.

MOSCOW, January 26. /TASS/: A third Russian vaccine against the coronavirus should enter civilian circulation within a month, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said at a session of the presidium of the state coordination council to control the coronavirus incidence in the Russian Federation on Tuesday.