Europe

ROME, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- The inflow of new bad loans in Italy will remain at pre-crisis levels in the next two years, although it would stop decreasing due to an economic slowdown, the Italian Banking Association (ABI) forecast on Friday.

In its new Outlook, provided together with credit rating company Cerved, ABI said levels of non-performing loans (NPLs) to non-financial companies dropped as expected in 2019, reaching 3.1 percent.

France (AP) --- France’s government has summoned Iran’s ambassador to demand the release of two French researchers held in a notorious Tehran prison, and to express “extreme concern” about the health of one who is on a hunger strike.

France considers the months-long detention of Fariba Adelkhah and Roland Marchal “unacceptable” and is seeking permission for consular officials to visit them, according to a foreign ministry statement.

MOSCOW, December 27. /TASS/: Russia as signed 39 agreements in the military sphere with countries in the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and Latin America, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin told the Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star) newspaper on Friday.

Fomin was responding to a question on whether freezing military contacts with NATO five years ago has led to the international isolation of the Russian Defense Ministry.

MOSCOW, December 27. /TASS/: Director General of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) Yury Ganus has notified the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) that he disagrees with sanctions against Russian sports.

Participants of the RUSADA General Meeting on December 24 approved a recommendation of the agency’s Supervisory Board to issue a disagreement to sanctions against Russian sports proposed by WADA. RUSADA needed to send this notification to WADA by December 30. Now WADA will take this case to the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS).

MOSCOW, December 27. /TASS/: Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) plans to produce at least 30 Sukhoi Superjet (SSJ 100) jets per year starting 2021, UAC's President Yuri Slyusar said in an interview aired by the Rossiya-24 TV news channel on Friday.

"Next year we plan to produce around 20 jets. We are going to produce around 150 jets by 2024-2025. Our target from 2021 is to return to production of at least 30 jets per year," he said.

ST. PETERSBURG, December 27. /TASS/: St. Petersburg courts received bomb threat letters on Friday morning, and evacuations are underway, the joint press service of the city courts told journalists.

"The Primorsky, Leninsky, Kolpinsky, Sestroretsky, Krasnogvardeisky, Dzerzhinsky, Kuibyshevsky and Oktyabrsky district courts are being evacuated," the press service said in a statement.

In addition, the letters contained bomb threats at almost 100 schools and college prep institutions around the city.

MOSCOW, December 27. /TASS/: A Sukhoi Superjet passenger plane has skidded off a runway at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, a source in the emergency services informed TASS.

The plane was en route to Samara. "While preparing for takeoff during taxiing, it skidded off the runway," the source said. There were 74 passengers and five crew members aboard the plane. Nobody was injured.

MOSCOW, December 27. /TASS/: Russia has sent one ship and two auxiliary vessels to the joint naval drills with China and Iran in the Gulf of Oman, the Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star) newspaper reported on Friday citing the Russian Defense Ministry.

"From 27 to 30 December 2019, the group of military ships of the Baltic Fleet — including the Yaroslav Mudry frigate, the Elnya tanker and the Viktor Konetsky tugboat — will take part in the Russian-Iranian-Chinese naval drills which will be held in the northern part of the Indian Ocean," the defense ministry said.

YEREVAN, December 27. /TASS/: The first pair of Russian-made Su-30SM multirole fighters purchased by Armenia at the beginning of 2019 landed at an aerodrome in Southern Caucasus republic, Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced on his Facebook page on Friday.

"Our most important acquisition this year," Pashinyan noted, demonstrating the delivered aircraft to his subscribers.

The Armenian authorities announced in early 2019 that they had acquired four Su-30SM multirole fighters from Russia.

27 December 2019; AFP: An anti-racist association said Friday it has filed a complaint with French prosecutors over racist comments posted on social media after a black woman from Guadeloupe was chosen Miss France 2020.

Clemence Botino has been the target of racist comments, especially on Twitter, since she won the title on December 14, the Representative Council of Black Associations (CRAN) said in a statement.