Europe

KIEV, December 29. /TASS/: Ukrainian and Russian representatives started a process of signing gas transit agreements in Vienna, Ukraine’s Justice Minister Denis Malyuska announced on Sunday, posting a photo of the document-signing ceremony on his Facebook page.

"The process of signing is not yet finished," he said, commenting on the event. Head of the Ukrainian Gas Transport System Operator Sergei Makogon also posted a photo on his Facebook page, saying "the process has started.".

GORLOVKA, December 29. /TASS/: The self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) has received 63 people in a prisoner swap with Kiev and handed over 25 persons, the republic’s envoy in the humanitarian subgroup of the Contact Group on settlement in eastern Ukraine, head of the LPR’s group on the prisoner exchange Olga Kobtseva announced on Sunday.

"We have held the swap. We handed over 25 and took back 63 people," she told journalists. Nine people refused to participate in the swap and remained in Ukraine, she added.

MOSCOW, December 29. /TASS/: Deputy Army Commander for Coordination Affairs Habibollah Sayyari said his country planned to hold more military exercises with Russia and China.

A trilateral naval exercise of Russia, China and Iran, codenamed Maritime Security Belt, began in the Gulf of Oman on December 27 and will continue until December 30. The active phase of the exercise began on Saturday.

‘We [Iran, Russia and China] will find a way to hold maneuvers in future," he said, adding that the three nations had no plans of creating a formal military coalition.

MOSCOW, December 29. /TASS/: The Syrian armed forces entered the town of Al Halba in the southeast of the Idlib governorate, an outpost of the Jabhat al-Nusrah terrorist group (outlawed in Russia), the SANA news agency reported on Saturday night.

According to the agency, the town was completely liberated from terrorists.

MOSCOW, December 29. /TASS/: The Crimean Bridge has been built using the latest technologies and can operate for centuries, if it is maintained properly, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with the TV program ‘Moscow. Kremlin. Putin’ on the Rossiya-1 TV Channel on Sunday.

On December 23, Putin took part in the ceremony of opening the railway service on the Crimean Bridge across the Kerch Strait that connects Crimea with mainland Russia.

MOSCOW, December 29. /TASS/: The United States has boosted its Navy’s activity near the Chukotka Peninsula, building up its grouping and holding various drills, Chief of Staff of Russia’s North-Eastern Joint Command Mikhail Bilichenko said in an interview with the Zvezda TV Channel on Sunday.

"The Chukotka operational area because the US Navy conducts its operations in that area," Bilichenko said, replying to a question about what the North-Eastern Joint Command was especially concerned about at present.

29 Dec 2019; MEMO: Greece’s Prime Minister said in remarks published on Sunday that if Athens and Ankara cannot solve their dispute about maritime zones in the Mediterranean they should turn to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague to settle the disagreement, reported Reuters.

KIEV/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine started a full prisoner swap on Sunday, driving all remaining detainees in the five-year conflict to a handover point and starting to unload them.

The swap, at a checkpoint near the industrial town of Horlivka in the Donetsk region, was expected see Ukraine hand over 87 separatists in exchange for 55 pro-government Ukrainians, with armed troops from both sides looking on.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders on Saturday said he had revived his plan to hold a contest for cartoons caricaturing the Prophet Muhammad, more than a year after canceling such an event out of fear for attacks in the Netherlands.

In a post on Twitter late on Saturday, Wilders called on people to send in their Mohammad cartoons.

“Freedom of speech must prevail over violence and Islamic fatwa’s”, the leader of the largest opposition party in the Dutch parliament wrote.

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece’s Prime Minister said in remarks published on Sunday that if Athens and Ankara cannot solve their dispute about maritime zones in the Mediterranean they should turn to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague to settle the disagreement.

Turkey signed an accord with Libya’s internationally recognized government last month that seeks to create an exclusive economic zone from Turkey’s southern Mediterranean shore to Libya’s northeast coast.