Europe

MOSCOW, December 24. /TASS/: One of Russia’s Meteor-M satellites has become uncontrollable following an external impact, presumably a micrometeorite strike, Russia’s Roscosmos state space corporation said on its website on Tuesday.

"On December 18, 2019, an emergency situation caused by external influence (presumably, a micrometeorite) was reported on board Meteor-M (identification number 2-2) spacecraft," the space agency said. "As a result, the parameters of the spacecraft’s orbit were changed, and it entered the non-directed flight mode with high angular velocity."

MOSCOW, December 24. /TASS/: Russia’s fifth-generation Su-57 fighter jet crashed in the Khabarovsk Region in the Far East due to a technical failure of the aircraft control system, two sources in the defense industry told TASS on Tuesday.

"According to the preliminary information, the crash is due to a failure of the Su-57’s control system," one of the sources said.

As the other source noted, most likely, "the tail control failed."

MOSCOW, December 24. /TASS/: The first regiment of Avangard hypersonic missile systems will go on combat alert this week, Russian Defense Minister Army General Sergei Shoigu said at the ministry’s enlarged board meeting with the participation of President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.

"This week, the first missile regiment armed with the Avangard system with the hypersonic boost-glide vehicle will assume combat duty," the defense minister said.

MOSCOW, December 24. /TASS/: Advanced weaponry in Russia’s nuclear triad has reached 82%, President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday.

"The share of modern armament in the nuclear triad has reached 82% and the latest Avangard strategic hypersonic missile system with the boost-glide vehicle has started to arrive for the Strategic Missile Force," Putin told a Defense Ministry expanded board meeting.

Putin called the Avangard system the weapon of the future capable of overcoming both existing and promising missile defenses.

LONDON/TOKYO (Reuters) - Oil prices rose on Tuesday in thin pre-Christmas trading after Russia said cooperation with OPEC on supply cuts would continue and amid signs Saudi Arabia and Kuwait could take as much as a year to bring a major field back to full capacity.

Brent crude LCOc1 was up 30 cents, or 0.45%, at $66.69 a barrel by 1321 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate CLc1 was 23 cents higher at $60.75 a barrel.

RIGA, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- The dissolution of Riga City Council, which has been proposed by the Latvian Regional Development Ministry, is likely to be delayed by several months as President Egils Levits has suspended the draft legislation enabling the process, the president's office said on Monday.

KERCH (Crimea), Dec 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — President Vladimir Putin has heralded the opening of a railway bridge to the Russian-annexed Crimea peninsula by posing in the driver’s cab and praising construction workers.

But the opening of the railway was immediately condemned by the European Union as “another violation” by Russia of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territory.

Russia’s 19km bridge to Crimea first opened in May last year.

Putin marked that occasion by driving a lorry over it.

PARIS, Dec 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — French train and metro drivers took their crippling transport strike into its 19th straight day on Monday in a standoff with the government over pension reform, casting a pall over Christmas plans with many unable to reach loved ones.

Talks between the government and unions last week failed to find middle ground, and strikers vowed there would be no holiday truce unless the overhaul plan is scrapped.

PARIS (AP) — France’s defense ministry announced Monday it had carried out its first armed drone strike, killing seven Islamic extremists in central Mali over the weekend.

France joins a tiny group of countries that use armed drones, including the United States.

The drone deployment came nearly one month after two French helicopters collided in Mali, killing 13 soldiers in the deadliest military loss for France in nearly four decades.

LONDON (AP) — Queen Elizabeth II plans to acknowledge that both Britain and her family have endured a difficult year by saying during her Christmas message that it has been a “bumpy” time.

The pre-recorded message will be broadcast in Britain and the Commonwealth nations on Christmas Day. It was recorded before the queen’s husband, Prince Philip, was hospitalized in London as a precautionary measure.

Excerpts released by Buckingham Palace before the speech show the queen admits difficulties during the course of the year.