Europe

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain is seeking far-reaching reductions in tariffs in a trade deal with the United States, trade minister Liz Truss said on Thursday, setting out the broad aims of her post-Brexit push to secure new free trade agreements.

“The FTA (Free Trade Agreement) will secure comprehensive, far-reaching and mutually beneficial tariff reductions - taking into account sensitive UK products - which will increase access to the U.S. market for UK businesses, and lower prices and increase choice for UK consumers,” Truss said in a written statement to parliament.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia said on Thursday that some of its troops had been killed in militant attacks in Syria’s Idlib province - its first confirmation of casualties in the current round of fighting.

Attacks on Russian military positions and on Syrian government forces were continuing from a Turkish-controlled zone in the region, the Kremlin said.

“There has recently been a dangerous increase in tension and a surge of violence in Idlib,” it said. “Russian and Turkish military experts were tragically killed,” the Foreign Ministry said, without giving a number.

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil futures rose for a second day on Thursday boosted by potential OPEC+ action to counter oil demand loss from the coronavirus outbreak and by optimism that trade tensions between the world’s two biggest economies were easing.

A technical committee advising the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies led by Russia, known as OPEC+, may reach consensus on Thursday on the need to further cut oil output by at least 500,000 barrels per day (bpd), two sources told Reuters.

GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States urged the World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday to “engage directly with Taiwan public health authorities” in the fight against coronavirus.

Taiwan is not a WHO member because of China’s objections. Beijing says the island is a wayward Chinese province and not a country and is adequately represented in the organisation by China.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Senior figures in Germany’s governing coalition will hold crisis talks on Saturday in response to growing outrage after a state premier was elected with support from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives.

The election of Thomas Kemmerich, a little-known liberal Free Democrat (FDP) in the eastern state of Thuringia, was the first in which a state premier won with the support of the AfD, shattering the post-war consensus among established parties of shunning the far right.

LONDON, Feb 05 (APP): Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan on Tuesday evening called upon the international community, including the United Kingdom (UK), to play their vital role and save humanity in the Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJ&K), who were undergoing the worst kind of atrocities and human right violations at the hands of Modi-led fascist Indian government and his brutal occupation forces.

05 Feb 2020; MEMO: EU High Representative and Vice-President, Josep Borrell, yesterday rejected the US-drafted Middle East “peace” proposal to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict commonly known as the “deal of the century”, saying it will not pass unchallenged.

Geneva, Feb 4 (AFP/PTI) The World Health Organization said Tuesday that the outbreak of the deadly novel coronavirus, which has spread from China to two dozen countries, does not yet constitute a "pandemic".

"Currently we are not in a pandemic," Sylvie Briand, head of WHO's Global Infectious Hazard Preparedness division, told reporters in Geneva.

MOSCOW, February 4. /TASS/: The situation in Syria was in focus of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s telephone conversation with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Kremlin press service said on Tuesday.

"The president discussed in detail the situation in Syria. Mutual concern was expressed over the escalation of the situation in the Idlib de-escalation zone," the press service said.

MOSCOW, February 5. /TASS/: Rosneft and Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) have signed a contract to supply up to 2 mln tonnes of oil to India via the port of Novorossiysk by the end of 2020, Russia’s oil major said in a statement on Wednesday.

The contract was signed as part of the visit of Chief Executive Officer of Rosneft Igor Sechin to New Delhi. During that visit, a working meeting was also held with Indian minister of oil and gas Dharmendra Pradhan.