Europe

MOSCOW, November 12. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on measures for maintaining peace in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict area that stipulates sending 1,960 peacekeepers and rotating them at least every six months, according to the information posted on the government’s legal information web portal on Thursday.

KIEV, November 12. /TASS/: More than half of Ukrainians believe that Ukraine and Russia will have better relations in the future, according to a poll conducted by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology.

A total of 56.6% of those polled believe that Ukraine will improve relations with Russia in the future. As many as 30.1% said that tensions would persist between the two countries, while 12.6% found it hard to respond and 0.7% refused to answer.

MOSCOW, November 12. /TASS/: US policy on Russia is unlikely to change if Joe Biden is elected president, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with Russian and foreign media on Thursday.

"As for the Russian track, frankly speaking, our political scientists (and I agree with them in general) don’t expect any revolutionary changes [in the US foreign policy]," Lavrov said. "It’s not a very good idea to make any forecasts at this stage," he noted.

MOSCOW, November 12. /TASS/: Russia is introducing mirror-like sanctions against representatives of governing structures of Germany and France in the case of Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Thursday in an interview with Russian and foreign media about the current issues on the international agenda.

VIENNA, Nov 12 (NNN-AGENCIES) – The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), cut its forecast of global oil demand for 2020, predicting a 9.8 million barrels per day (b/d) year-on-year contraction, in its monthly report published yesterday.

The oil cartel revised down its forecast for world oil demand this year by 0.3 million b/d, citing “weaker-than-expected demand” in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Americas, in the third quarter, and recently announced COVID-19 containment measures by various governments in OECD Europe.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union called on Beijing on Thursday to immediately reverse new rules to disqualify elected legislators, saying the decision was a “severe blow” to the former British colony’s autonomy.

“This latest arbitrary decision from Beijing further significantly undermines Hong Kong’s autonomy under the ‘One Country, Two Systems’ principle,” the EU’s 27 governments said in a statement.

“These latest steps constitute a further severe blow to political pluralism and freedom of opinion in Hong Kong,” the bloc said.

MORALZARZAL, Spain (Reuters) - At 81 years old Spanish mountaineer Carlos Soria is training to tackle one of the world’s highest peaks, a challenge he will dedicate to elderly victims of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“To all those who have disappeared because of this terrible pandemic, this terrible crisis, I want as an elderly person to dedicate it to them,” Soria said outside his home in the Sierra Guadarrama mountains, north of Madrid.

Travel restrictions permitting, Soria hopes to go to Nepal in the spring to take on the 8,167-metre Dhaulagiri climb.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Armenian defence ministry declared a no-fly zone in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, except for military aircraft, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported on Thursday.

Thousands of protesters on Wednesday gathered in Armenia’s capital, Yerevan, demanding Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan step down over a ceasefire that secured territorial advances for Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh, the subject of six weeks of fighting.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A group of 165 companies and industry bodies have called on EU antitrust enforcers to take a tougher line against Google, saying the U.S. tech giant unfairly favours its own services on its web searches.

The group includes U.S. and UK companies as well as peers in 21 EU countries. It sent a joint letter to EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager on Thursday, saying Google was giving its own services, such as those for accommodation, travel and jobs, preferential placement in its search results and urging swift action to stop the practice.

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices held steady on Thursday as traders tempered expectations of an early release of a COVID-19 vaccine and the IEA raised doubts about a quick demand rebound amid surging infections in Europe and the United States.

Brent crude was up 8 cents, or 0.2%, at $43.88 a barrel at 1132 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose 10 cents, or 0.2%, to $41.55 a barrel.