Europe

(Reuters) - Britain on Wednesday became the first country in the world to approve a coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University as it battles a winter surge driven by a new, highly contagious variant of the virus.

ANTONELLA VIOLA, PROFESSOR OF IMMUNOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF PADUA

MOSCOW, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed developments in relation to the joint Russian-Turkish peacekeeping center in Nagorno-Karabakh and bilateral ties under U.S. sanctions during his meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in Sochi on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, December 29. /TASS/: The situation with the coronavirus in 77 Russian regions has been in the stabilization phase for more than five weeks, Head of the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing Anna Popova reported on Tuesday.

"In 77 regions, the phase of stabilization has continued for over five weeks already. This is a decent forecasting sign," she said at a session of the presidium of the state coordination council to control the coronavirus incidence in the Russian Federation.

SOCHI, December 29. /TASS/: Ankara has taken note of Moscow’s efforts aimed at facilitating the development of a new Syrian constitution, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said following talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday.

"We support the initiative to adopt a new constitution in Syria. We can see the results of Russia’s efforts and we support the political process," he pointed out.

SOCHI, December 29. /TASS/: Moscow sees Turkey’s willingness to keep the famed Hagia Sophia and the Church of the Holy Savior, which have been converted into mosques, in respectable condition and guarantee access to these sites to members of all religions, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday following talks with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu.

MOSCOW, December 29. /TASS/: The strike capabilities of the Pacific Fleet’s Project 949A ‘Antey’ multi-purpose nuclear-powered submarine Irkutsk will grow at least two-fold after its upgrade, a source in the shipbuilding industry told TASS on Tuesday.

ST. PETERSBURG, December 29. /TASS/: The Project 20385 lead corvette Gremyashchiy has been accepted for service in the Russian Navy.

The ceremony of raising the Russian Navy’s St. Andrew’s flag was held at the Severnaya Shipyard in St. Petersburg.

ZAGREB, Dec. 29 (NNN-Xinhua) — No casualties have been reported hours after a series of earthquakes hit central Croatia near the capital Zagreb on Monday, local officials said.

According to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC), the first 5.2 magnitude quake hit about 50 kilometers southeast of Zagreb at 6:28 a.m. local time (0528 GMT), followed by a strong aftershock with a magnitude of 5.0 at 7:49 a.m. (0649 GMT), with the epicenter near the towns of Sisak and Petrinja.

Moscow, Dec 29 (AP-PTI) Russia's federal penitentiary service has given top Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny one day to report to its office or face imprisonment, if he comes back to Russia after the deadline.

Navalny is convalescing in Germany after his August poisoning with a nerve agent, which he has blamed on the Kremlin.

Russian authorities have denied their involvement.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia will scale down its state support of the economy in 2021, eyeing rising costs on servicing burgeoning state debt in the fallout of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the collapse of oil prices, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said.

Running out of options to bolster public finances, Russia has more than doubled its domestic borrowing in 2020, raised some taxes and increased state spending as it relaxed its budget rule that shields the economy from external shocks.