Europe

MOSCOW, January 13. /TASS/: S7 airline has opened ticket sales to charter flights from Moscow to Bari, Olbia and Pisa in Italy with the scheduled departures from early March, the Russian air carrier says in its press release.

"In accordance with the authorization of the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency, S7 Airlines has opened sales for daily charter flights from Moscow to Italian cities - Bari, Olbia and Pisa," the company said.

Moscow - Bari - Moscow flights are scheduled from March 5. Flights to Olbia and Pisa and back to Moscow are scheduled from March 6 and 7.

NOVO-OGARYOVO, January 13. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has instructed authorities to move forward with mass coronavirus inoculation for all Russians starting next week.

"We have already started large-scale vaccination. Last week, [Prime Minister] Mikhail [Mishustin] reported to me that the industry had not only kept up with the promised targets and volumes but also exceeded the planned vaccine production targets. We need to move from large-scale to mass vaccination," Putin told a cabinet meeting.

BRUSSELS, Jan 13 (NNN-Prensa Latina) — The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Tuesday urged the European Union (EU) to show greater gestures of solidarity with migrants, and condemned the forced returns of undocumented immigrants by some EU member states.

In a statement, the UNHCR Representative for Community Alliance Affairs Gonzalo Vargas Llosa highlighted the need for the 27 EU member states to help save lives, protect these people and find some solutions to halt forced displacement.

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on Wednesday that Denmark would extend its lockdown measures in an effort to combat the coronavirus.

“I believe that an extension of the restrictions is clearly necessary. Not least to ensure that the British mutation does not spread,” Frederiksen said.

Current lockdown measures are in effect until Jan 17. Local media, citing sources from a meeting in parliament, said those measures would be extended by three weeks until Feb 7. Frederiksen did not give a date.

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices fell after earlier gains on Wednesday as rising global COVID-19 cases took the shine off a rally spurred by a bigger-than-expected drop in U.S. crude inventories.

Brent crude prices were down 34 cents, or 0.6%, at $56.24 a barrel by 1512 GMT. Prices rose as far as $57.42 a barrel earlier in the session, the highest since Feb. 24.

The next milestone for Brent prices is a rise above $60, a level not seen since late January 2020.

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Romanian President Klaus Iohannis approved on Wednesday a request from anti-corruption prosecutors to allow a criminal investigation against former prime minister and senate speaker Calin Popescu Tariceanu for suspected bribe-taking.

Tariceanu, 68, has denied all wrongdoing.

Prosecutors have said Tariceanu received political consultancy services worth $800,000 during 2007-2008 paid by an Austrian company in exchange for government bills in its favour.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny plans to fly back to Russia on Sunday for the first time since he was poisoned in August, despite the risk of being jailed on his return from Germany.

The decision, announced by Navalny on Wednesday, signals his intention to continue his political struggle against Vladimir Putin and creates a dilemma for the authorities on how to deal with one of the Russian president’s most prominent critics.

(Reuters) - European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde pushed back against pessimism on Wednesday, predicting an economic rebound as COVID-19 uncertainty subsides and saying that Europe has all the tools needed to overcome the crisis.

Even with much of the 19-member euro area in lockdown, Lagarde continued to forecast a recovery, provided that economic restrictions can be lifted from the second quarter and the bloc can overcome a “laborious” start to vaccinations.

Bonn, Jan 13 (PTI) Scientists have identified and further developed novel antibody fragments from llamas and alpacas that can be used against the SARS CoV-2 virus which causes COVID-19.

These "nanobodies" identified by an international team led by the University of Bonn in Germany are smaller than classic antibodies.

They can penetrate the tissue better and can be produced in larger quantities.

ROME, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Evidence that the coronavirus circulated in Italy months before its first formal detection has continued to mount, after researchers at the University of Milan revealed that a skin biopsy on a 25-year-old woman showed the presence of the coronavirus in Italy in November 2019.

That evidence is added to earlier research, also from the University of Milan, which in December discovered coronavirus antibodies in a four-year-old boy who fell ill in late November 2019.