Europe

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian officials say 15 people are injured after a passenger helicopter made a rough emergency landing in Siberia on Wednesday morning.

The Mi-8 helicopter with 21 passengers and three crew members got caught in a snowstorm soon after taking off in the village of Baykit, officials from the local branch of Russia’s Emergency Ministry said.

The helicopter toppled over upon landing. The injured have received medical help and two remain in a hospital, health care officials said.

Police are investigating the accident.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis offered a Christmas message of hope Wednesday against darkness that cloaks conflicts and relationships in large parts of the world from the Middle East to the Americas to Africa.

The pope told tens of thousands of tourists, pilgrims and Romans gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the annual Christmas Day message that “the light of Christ is greater″ than the darkness “in human hearts” and ’’in economic, geopolitical and ecological conflicts.″

PARIS (AP) — The rector of Notre Dame Cathedral says the Paris landmark is still so fragile that there’s a “50% chance” the structure might not be saved, because scaffolding installed before this year’s fire is threatening the vaults of the Gothic monument.

Monsignor Patrick Chauvet said restoration work isn’t likely to begin until 2021 — and described his “heartache” that Notre Dame couldn’t hold Christmas services this year, for the first time since the French Revolution.

BERLIN, Dec 25 (NNN-AGENCIES) – President of the German federal parliament, Wolfgang Schaeuble, urged Germans to cut back on their consumption for climate protection.

In an interview with German newspaper, Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung, Schaeuble said, “Climate protection is not for free,” and warned against promoting recent climate reforms to citizens as a “social benefit.”

Last week, Germany’s upper house of parliament finally approved a package of climate laws, seeking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 55 percent by 2030, compared to 1990 levels.

MOSCOW, Dec 25 (NNN-TASS) – Russian officials say, a top-of-the-line fighter jet crashed, on a training mission, but that its pilot bailed out safely.

Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation, said that, the Su-57 fighter came down, during a training flight near Komsomolsk-on-Amur, in the country’s far east. It said, the plane’s pilot ejected safely and there was no damage on the ground.

The cause of the crash wasn’t immediately known.

MOSCOW (AP) — President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that Russia has got a strong edge in designing new weapons and that it has become the only country in the world to deploy hypersonic weapons.

Speaking at a meeting with top military brass, Putin said that for the first time in history Russia is now leading the world in developing an entire new class of weapons unlike in the past when it was catching up with the United States.

MOSCOW, December 24. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has described as a "scum and anti-Semitic pig" Poland’s ambassador to Nazi Germany, who said Hitler deserved a monument for his idea of the expulsion of Jews to Africa.

"He is a scum and anti-Semitic pig, there is no other way of describing him," Putin said while commenting on a diary note left by Poland’s ambassador to Germany in the 1930s. "He shared Hitler’s anti-Semitic sentiment and moreover, he promised to erect a monument in Warsaw for the persecution of the Jewish people."

MOSCOW, December 24. /TASS/: All missile brigades of the Russian land troops have been rearmed with Iskander tactical ballistic missile systems, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday.

"Large-scale work on rearming all missile brigades of the land troops with Iskander systems is over," Shoigu reported to Russian President Vladimir Putin at a Russian defense ministry board meeting.

MOSCOW, December 24. /TASS/: Two buildings of Moscow State Linguistic University are currently undergoing a security sweep due to an anonymous bomb threat, over 600 people have been evacuated, a source in the emergency services informed TASS.

"We have received an anonymous message claiming that an explosive device has been placed in two buildings of Moscow State Linguistic University on Ostozhenka Street. Dog handlers are currently inspecting the buildings, 600 professors and students have been evacuated while the sweep is underway," the source informed.

MOSCOW, December 24. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has described the resolution recently adopted by the European Parliament alleging that the Soviet Union bears responsibility for the Second World War outbreak as "complete nonsense."

The Russian leader noted at the annual Defense Ministry’s board meeting on Tuesday, "Certain European countries and those from overseas often try to pervert history and come up with some incredible scenarios of events unfolding in the world and Europe on the verge of World War 2."