Europe

BERLIN, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- The free trade deal agreed by the UK and the European Union (EU) on Christmas Eve would significantly lessen the negative economic impact of Brexit, according to a study published by Germany's Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) on Tuesday.

"The agreement on a comprehensive agreement between the EU and the UK without tariffs and without quotas is a good signal for the economy in Germany, the EU and the UK," said Minister for Economic Affairs Peter Altmaier in a statement.

AMSTERDAM (AP) — The European Union’s medicines agency was meeting Wednesday to consider giving the green light to Moderna Inc.’s COVID-19 vaccine, a decision that would give the 27-nation bloc a second vaccine to use in the desperate battle to tame the virus rampaging across the continent.

The meeting of the European Medicines Agency’s human medicines committee (CHMP) comes amid high rates of infections in many EU countries and strong criticism of the slow pace of vaccinations across the region of some 450 million people.

GENEVA (AP) — The head of the World Health Organization said Tuesday that he is “disappointed” Chinese officials haven’t finalized the permissions to allow a team of experts into China to examine the origins of COVID-19.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in a rare critique of Beijing, said members of the international scientific team began departing from their home countries over the last 24 hours as part of an arrangement between WHO and the Chinese government.

LONDON (AP) — Despite growing vaccine access, January is looking grim around the globe as the coronavirus resurges and reshapes itself from Britain to Japan to California, filling hospitals and threatening livelihoods anew as governments lock down businesses and race to find solutions.

MOSCOW, January 5. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin will not shoot himself in the foot for the sake of taking revenge on those partners who have crossed the "red line," his reaction will be thoughtful, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with journalist Vladimir Solovyov uploaded on his YouTube channel on Tuesday.

"Shooting oneself in the foot in order to take revenge on someone - that’s not his style. His reaction is thoughtful and well-reasoned," he said commenting on Moscow’s interaction with Kiev.

MOSCOW, January 5. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have discussed over the phone the settlement in Ukraine from the perspective of the implementation of the Minsk accords and the "Normandy format" agreements, the Kremlin press service said on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, January 5. /TASS/: The Russian government approved rules of making, cancelling and monitoring performance of investment agreements for the Priobskoe field developed by the Russian oil producer Rosneft. The relevant decree was posted on the official website of regulatory and legal information.

The decree signed by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin was signed on December 31 of the last year and became effective from January 1, 2021. Rules stipulate the procedure and the sequence of parties’ actions and reporting forms when entering into investment agreements.

MOSCOW, January 5. /TASS/: Russia’s coronavirus fatalities grew by 518 in the past 24 hours compared to 482 deaths reported the day before, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told reporters on Tuesday.

The conditional mortality rate stands at 1.81%, as follows from the data provided by the crisis center.

Another 75 fatalities were recorded in Moscow, 73 in St. Petersburg, 22 in the Moscow Region, 21 in the Rostov Region, while the Nizhny Novgorod and Sverdlovsk regions reported 18 deaths each.

05 Jan 2021; MEMO: Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister has said that the different political forces in Libya, including supporters of the late leader Muammar Gaddafi, should participate in the national dialogue. Sergey Vershinin made his comment in an interview with Sputnik on Monday.

05 Jan 2021; MEMO: The Green Italy party yesterday revealed its intention to file a legal complaint in the next few days against the Italian government's decision to sell weapons to Egypt.

The party's decision comes after the parents of slain Italian researcher Giulio Regeni, who it is believed was killed by Egyptian security forces in 2016, said they would sue the Italian government for violating the law which prohibits arms sales to countries where serious human rights violations are committed.