Europe

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank expects prices in the euro zone to keep falling this year and rebound more slowly in 2021 than it previously thought even as the prospect of a coronavirus vaccine boosts the growth outlook, ECB vice president Luis de Guindos said in an interview published on Saturday.

The ECB is due to unveil its new projections on Dec 10, along with a new stimulus package. De Guindos’ comments suggest a cut to the inflation forecast for this year, next year and possibly even 2022 is on the cards.

LONDON (Reuters) - Hospitals in England risk being overwhelmed if lawmakers do not support the government’s new plan for restrictions, Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove said on Saturday.

More than 20 million people across large swathes of England will be forced to live under the toughest category of COVID-19 restrictions when a national lockdown ends on Dec. 2. Lawmakers are due to vote on the restrictions the day before.

But a growing number of lawmakers in Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative party have voiced opposition to the tiered restrictions plan.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany’s partial lockdown measures could be extended until early Spring if infections are not brought under control, Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said in a newspaper interview published on Saturday.

Altmaier told Die Welt it was not possible to give the all-clear while there were incidences of more than 50 infections per 100,000 inhabitants in large parts of Germany.

“We have three to four long winter months ahead of us,” he was quoted as saying. “It is possible that the restrictions will remain in place in the first months of 2021.”

LONDON, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Britain and the European Union (EU) will resume face-to-face trade talks in London on Saturday, Britain's chief Brexit negotiator David Frost said Friday.

"I look forward to welcoming @michelbarnier (EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier) and his team to London and to resuming face-to-face talks tomorrow. We are glad all are safe and well," Frost wrote on Twitter.

His comment came as Britain and the EU suspended their talks in Brussels -- and later resumed virtually -- after an EU negotiator tested positive for COVID-19 last week.

TUTTLINGEN, Germany (AP) — Hulking gray boxes are rolling off the production line at a factory in the southern town of Tuttlingen, ready to be shipped to the front in the next phase of Germany’s battle against the coronavirus as it became the latest country to hit the milestone of 1 million confirmed cases Friday.

Man-sized freezers such as those manufactured by family-owned firm Binder GmbH could become a key part of the vast immunization program the German government is preparing to roll out when the first vaccines become available next month.

MOSCOW, November 27. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin maintains intense dialogue with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday, commenting on Pashinyan’s words about two phone calls with Putin.

"We don’t issue official statements on every international telephone conversation that the president holds," Peskov pointed out.

SEVASTOPOL, November 27. /TASS/: The Project 22160 latest patrol vessel Pavel Derzhavin has entered service with Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, the Fleet’s press office reported on Friday.

"An official ceremony was held at the Black Sea Fleet’s Novorossiysk naval base to accept the new patrol ship Pavel Derzhavin into the Fleet’s structure. Black Sea Fleet Deputy Commander Vice-Admiral Sergei Lipilin congratulated the first crew of the new ship on the commencement of its service in the Russian Navy," the press office said in a statement.

MOSCOW, November 27. /TASS/: Russian defense enterprises will deliver over 200 aircraft, helicopters and surface-to-air missile systems to the troops this year, Aerospace Force Deputy Commander-in-Chief Lieutenant-General Andrei Yudin said in an interview with the Defense Ministry’s Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper on Friday.

MOSCOW, November 27. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold his annual press conference via video link on December 17, the Kremlin press service said in a statement on Friday.

"At noon on November 29, the Russian Presidential Media and Information Department will begin accrediting journalists for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annual news conference set to take place on December 17, 2020," the statement reads.

BRUSSELS, November 27. /TASS/: Leaders of 27 European Union’s member-states will take a political decision to extend economic sanctions against Russia that expire on January 31, 2021, for half a year at a summit on December 10-11, a source in a delegation of one of European countries in the EU Council told TASS on Friday.