Europe

BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned Tuesday that the military organization could pay a heavy price for leaving Afghanistan too early, after a U.S. official said President Donald Trump is expected to withdraw a significant number of American troops from the conflict-ravaged country in coming weeks.

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has inflamed Scottish discontent with his Conservative government by reportedly saying that giving governing powers to Scotland had been a “disaster.”

British media reported that Johnson made the remarks during a video meeting with Conservative Party lawmakers on Monday evening, in which he also said Scottish devolution had been former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s “biggest mistake.”

MOSCOW, November 16. /TASS/: Gazprom Export signed the first deal for gas sales to Turkey in the amount of 700,000 cubic meters through an electronic trading platform, the holding said on Monday.

Delivery will take place at Malkochlar point in December 2020.

NOVO-OGARYOVO, November 16. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has called on Russian officials to denounce fake propaganda of "civilized" use of "soft" drugs.

During a session of the Russian Security Council on Monday, the Russian leader pointed out that Russia’s anti-drug information campaign should be expanded in the media, on social networks and in schools and universities.

CHISINAU, November 16. /TASS/: Maia Sandu has won Moldova’s presidential election with 57.75% of the vote, while Igor Dodon gained 42.25% with 100% of ballots counted, according to the country’s Central Election Commission.

According to data published on the commission’s website, voter turnout was 52.78%.

Moldova held the second round of its presidential election on Sunday. The run-off pit leader of the pro-EU Party of Action and Solidarity Maia Sandu against incumbent President Igor Dodon.

MOSCOW, November 16. /TASS/: The number of coronavirus patients in intensive care units has risen to 5,300 in Russia, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said at a meeting of the presidium of the government’s Anti-Coronavirus Coordination Council on Monday.

"The number of intensive care patients has grown. As many as 5,300 hospital beds are occupied as of now. The share of reserved hospital beds that have been put into use is below 25%," the minister pointed out.

MOSCOW, November 16. /TASS/: Russia identified 22,778 coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, hitting an all-time high, the anti-coronavirus crisis center said on Monday.

The overall case tally has reached 1,948,603.

According to the crisis center, the coronavirus growth rate has been at or below 1.2% for five days.

The rate is the lowest in Dagestan (0.6%), the Mari El, Kalmykia, Tatarstan and Khanty—Mansiysk regions (0.7%).

ROME, Nov 16 (NNN-AGENCIES) – COVID-19 may have been circulating in Italy since Sept, 2019, three months before it first emerged in China, according to a study released by the National Cancer Institute (INT).

If true, it would mean that the virus was present in Italy three months before it was first reported in China in Dec, 2019, and five months before the first official case was recorded in Italy on Feb 21, 2019.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission said on Monday that positive results announced by U.S. biotech firm Moderna for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate were encouraging and said the bloc was working to sign more supply deals with vaccine makers.

Moderna said its experimental vaccine was 94.5% effective in preventing COVID-19, based on interim data from a late-stage clinical trial, becoming the second developer to report results that far exceeded expectations, after Pfizer and BioNTech said last week their vaccine candidate was more than 90% effective.

London, Nov 16 (AP-PTI) Britain will be the first country to run final stage trials of an experimental coronavirus vaccine being developed by the pharmaceutical company Janssen, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson.

Scientists will begin recruiting some 6,000 people across the U.K. on Monday for the 12-month trial.

Dr. Saul Faust, who is helping lead the study, said the research will start first in Britain but aims to recruit a total of 30,000 people in six countries around the world.