Europe

MOSCOW, January 27. /TASS/: Afghan Airlines passenger plane crashed in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province, Ariana News TV channel reports.

The province governor spokesman disclosed that the plane crashed in Deh Yak district, the report says.

According to latest reports, 110 people were onboard. The plane reportedly headed from Herat to Kabul. Other reports suggest the plane was headed from Herat to India’s New Delhi.

Afghan Airlines spokesman denied reports about a plane crash in Ghazni province, Ariana News report says.

27 January 2020; AFP: Lawyers for a Portuguese computer hacker said on Monday he was responsible for revealing the dealings of Angolan billionaire Isabel dos Santos, a corruption scandal with fallout across Europe and Africa.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU antitrust regulators will decide by Feb. 27 whether to clear state energy firm Saudi Aramco’s $69.1 billion acquisition of world number four petrochemicals group Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC), a European Commission filing showed.

Aramco, the world’s largest oil producer, announced the deal to buy a 70% stake in SABIC from the Public Investment Fund in March last year. It hopes the move will boost its downstream growth.

PARIS (Reuters) - French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Monday he hoped the United States would have the “good sense” not to withdraw its support for French military operations in West Africa, where al Qaeda and Islamic State-linked groups are expanding their foothold.

France has about 4,500 troops operating in the Sahel region.

He also told a news conference he had no new information on three French nationals who went missing last week in Iraq.

BERLIN, Jan 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — German charity Sea-Eye said it had rescued 78 migrants off the Libyan coast and accused Libyan authorities of harassing rescuers and acting illegally.

The Alan Kurdi, named after a Syrian child whose drowning in the Mediterranean in 2015 brought global attention to the migrant crisis, received distress calls and rushed to aid migrants stranded on two boats.

PARIS, Jan 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — France will withdraw from use an explosive tear gas grenade used by riot police and blamed for injuring numerous protesters, the interior minister said, amid growing anger at perceived police brutality.

Sanctioned for use by French law enforcement since 2011, the GLI-F4 grenade explodes with a loud, powerful blast to release a cloud of tear gas. Each shell contains 26 grammes of TNT.

VATICAN CITY, Jan 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Pope Francis praised China’s “great commitment” to contain the coronavirus outbreak and said he was praying for the dead, the sick, and families of victims.

“I would like also to be close to and pray for the people who are sick because of the virus that has spread through China,” Francis told tens of thousands of people in St Peter’s Square for his weekly message and blessing.

PARIS, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- Gunshots were heard in a sensitive district in Nimes, southern France, no victim was reported, according to local newspaper Midi Libre.

At around 20:00 local time (1900 GMT), the shooting, in which "war weapons" were used, broke the calm in Pissevin, a neighborhood classified as urban policy priority districts, where poverty, unemployment and crime are high, the newspaper reported.

PARIS, Jan 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — French citizens will be evacuated from the Wuhan area in China that is the centre of a coronavirus outbreak, French Health Minister Agnès Buzyn said.

“French citizens will be repatriated by airplane directly to France, with the agreement of the Chinese authorities. This will take place midweek,” Buzyn told reporters.

Brussels; 27 January 2020 (UMM): Six contemptuous resolutions on both Jammu and Kashmir and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) have been filed by an overwhelming majority of members in the European Parliament, which will be taken up for discussion and voting this week.

The outcome of these resolutions could have a deep impact on ties between India and the European Union.