Europe

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — While corks may have popped in London and Brussels over the end to a four-year saga known as Brexit, there is one rocky speck of British soil still left in limbo.

Gibraltar, a British colony jutting off the southern tip of Spain’s mainland, wasn’t included in the Brexit trade deal announced on Christmas Eve between the European Union and the United Kingdom to reorganize the commercial and trade relations between the now 27-member bloc and the first nation to exit the group.

MOSCOW (AP) — Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said Monday its army units have been attacked by “an illegal Armenian armed group” in Nagorno-Karabakh, killing one Azerbaijani serviceman and wounding another.

The ministry said the attack took place in the Khojavend region on Sunday afternoon and was thwarted, leaving all six attackers dead.

The statement comes just hours after the Armenian Defense Ministry denied media reports of fighting in the neighboring Hadrut region and said the ethnic Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh were “strictly observing” the cease-fire.

ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) — A moderate earthquake hit central Croatia near its capital of Zagreb early Monday, triggering panic and damaging some buildings in towns south of the city. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

Croatia’s seismologists said the magnitude of the quake that struck around 6:30 a.m. (0530 GMT) was 5.0, with the epicenter near the towns of Petrinja and Sisak 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of the capital. Several smaller tremors were felt after the initial one.

MOSCOW, December 26. /TASS/: The Northern Fleet’s Project 971 ‘Shchuka-B’ (NATO reporting name: Akula) nuclear-powered submarine, the Leopard, has been floated out after repairs and upgrade at the Zvyozdochka Ship Repair Center, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

"Zvezdochka has completed the hangar stage of the Leopard nuclear-powered submarine’s repairs and modernization. The submarine left the shipyard’s main hangar to have the remaining work completed at the pier of the enterprise," the ministry said in a statement.

MOSCOW, December 27. /TASS/: Russia’s COVID-19 case tally grew by 28,284 in the past day to 3,050,248, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told reporters on Sunday.

A day earlier 29,258 coronavirus cases were reported. The growth rate in the past three days did not exceed 1%, according to the crisis center.

Some 6,620 new COVID-19 cases were registered in Moscow in the past day, bringing the total case tally in the Russian capital to 786,204. A day earlier, some 7,480 coronavirus cases were recorded in Moscow. The number of coronavirus cases in the capital rose by 0.8%.

MOSCOW, December 27. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin is not planning to hold a meeting with business representatives late this year, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS on Sunday.

"Yes, the meeting won’t take place," Peskov said.

Earlier, Head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) Alexander Shokhin told TASS that this meeting is usually held in the end of the year - from December 25 to December 28.

MOSCOW, December 27. /TASS/: A new British coronavirus strain has not been registered in Russia so far, Deputy Director for Research of the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology of the Russian sanitary watchdog Alexander Gorelov said on Sunday.

MOSCOW, December 27. /TASS/: The United States’ sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline are an uncovered cowboy attack or a hostile takeover, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with "Moscow. Kremlin. Putin" program on Rossiya-1 TV channel.

"This is an absolutely uncovered cowboy attack or a hostile takeover. How else could this be called?" Peskov said commenting on the sanctions against Nord Stream 2.

Peskov stressed that the work on the gas pipeline was underway and this project was about to be completed.

LONDON, Dec 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Another 34,693 people in Britain have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total number of cases to 2,256,005, according to official figures released yesterday.

Another 210 have died within 28 days of a positive test, bringing the total number of deaths to 70,405.

The reporting of cases and deaths was affected by the Christmas holidays in some devolved regions, and will be reported later on, which means the true total number of cases and deaths is likely to be higher.

PODGORICA, Montenegro (AP) — Montenegro Airlines ceased its operations on Saturday after the small country’s new government refused to continue financing the indebted national carrier.

The airline which was formed 25 years ago has apologized to its passengers for the sudden termination of all flights and thanked them for “the years of trust, travel and friendship.”