Europe

MOSCOW, November 14. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded the Orders of Courage to three crewmembers of a Mi-24 helicopter shot down over Armenia, according to the presidential decree posted on the Kremlin’s website on Saturday.

The award has been bestowed on Senior Lieutenant Vladislav Gryazin, Major Yuri Ishchuk (posthumously) and Senior Lieutenant Roman Fedina (posthumously) "for the courage, valor and selflessness displayed in the performance of the military duty," the decree says.

MOSCOW, November 14. /TASS/: Coronavirus cases in Russia grew by 22,702 in the past twenty-four hours to 1,903,253, the federal anti-coronavirus crisis center reported on Saturday.

"This is a new record high since the start of the pandemic. The previous daily record high of 21,983 cases was registered on Friday, November 13," the crisis center said.

KIEV, Nov 14 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Ukraine has said Iran is dragging its feet on investigating the downing of a Ukrainian airliner near Tehran in January by not sharing information and not responding to requests for cooperation.

Iran has also rejected Kyiv’s calls for life sentences for those responsible, Deputy Prosecutor General Gyunduz Mamedov said, in written comments ahead of a third round of talks on the crash next month.

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson plans to announce next week a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030, five years earlier than previously planned, the Financial Times reported on Saturday.

Britain had originally planned to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel-powered cars from 2040, as part of efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and in February Johnson brought this forward to 2035.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany expects to pay out 22 billion euros ($26 billion) in COVID-19 relief aid from January through June 2021 to companies and self-employed people, people close to the matter said, as the impact of the pandemic extends into next year.

Separately, Germany’s November coronavirus aid package to compensate firms affected by lockdown measures will this month amount to 14 billion euros, they said. Initially, the government had expected to pay out 10 billion euros.

PARIS (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived Saturday in Paris, at the start of a seven-country tour of Europe and the Middle East, travels that were certain to be awkward since all the nations on his schedule have congratulated Joe Biden for his victory in the U.S. presidential race.

The trip is aimed at shoring up the priorities of the outgoing administration of President Donald Trump. It will include visits to Israeli settlements in the West Bank that have been avoided by previous secretaries of state.

London, Nov 14 (PTI) UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Prince Charles used the analogy of victory of light over darkness as reflective of overcoming the coronavirus pandemic crisis as part of their annual messages to mark the festival of Diwali on Saturday.

Johnson issued his 10 Downing Street statement to mark the spectacular, joyful festival of Diwali , which bursts through the autumnal darkness with an underlying theme of hope and triumph over COVID-19.

MOSCOW, November 13. /TASS/: Russia’s latest TOS-2 ‘Tosochka’ heavy flamethrowers are currently on trial tests with national troops, a senior Russian military official said on Friday.

"Heavy flamethrower TOS-2 is one of the newest weapons with the RCBD [Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defense] troops," Chief of Russia’s Chemical, Biological and Radiation Protection Forces Lieutenant-General Igor Kirillov said in an interview with the Russian Defense Ministry’s Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper.

MOSCOW, November 13. /TASS/: Disagreements that emerged during the administration of Barack Obama have led to the current degradation of relations with the US, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with the RT TV channel.

MOSCOW, November 13. /TASS/: Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov is certain that "Russophobic antibodies" won’t take long to disappear in Ukraine.

"We still believe that we have been and remain two related nations but not brotherly, at the same time," he said Friday in an interview with RT when speaking about the ties between Russia and Ukraine. Moreover, he underlined, "the Ukrainian leadership made a lot of effort in these years to provoke certain animosity in their nation."