Europe

MOSCOW, December 6. /TASS/: The leader of the oppositional party Democratic Movement - United Georgia, Nino Burjanadze, has apologized for the anti-Russian provocation that took place during a session of the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy in the Georgian parliament’s building last summer.

MOSCOW, December 6. /TASS/: Russia’s Federal Security Service has detained a chieftain of an international criminal group and its six members who illegally supplied weapons, ammunition and drugs from abroad, the FSB press service said on Friday.

MOSCOW, December 6. /TASS/: Russia will increase gas extraction by 2% to 740 billion cubic meters in 2019 compared to last year, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said in an article published in the Energeticheskaya Politika (Energy Policy) magazine.

"For further reliable gas supplies to domestic and foreign consumers, gas production continues to increase. This year this rate is expected to increase by 2% compared to last year's record for the gas industry and reach aroudn 740 million cubic meters," Novak said.

SOCHI, December 6. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to hold separate meetings with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, French leader Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the sidelines of the Normandy Four summit in Paris on December 9, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

According to Peskov, there are plans "to hold important bilateral meetings with President Macron, German Chancellor Merkel and Ukrainian President Zelensky."

SOCHI, December 6. /TASS/: The Kremlin is not turning a blind eye to the public reaction over legal proceedings linked to the Moscow protests, but is unlikely to exaggerate this, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday, commenting on a sentence for student Yegor Zhukov.

"We have seen various discussions on this and different viewpoints, which were expressed mainly in the Internet. We don’t want to turn a blind eye to anything, but we are not in favor of exaggerating anything," Peskov said, declining to comment on the court’s sentence.

SOCHI, December 6. /TASS/: Commissioning of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline does not mean that Russia will abandon gas transit through Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin said on Friday at the meeting with the German business executives.

6 December 2019; AFP: Financial institutions have channeled $745 billion over the past three years into companies planning new coal-fired power plants, according to a report by environmental groups, who are urging global banks to stop financing the sector.

The report's release comes as world leaders met this week in Madrid for a 12-day UN climate summit, where they are expected to hammer out some of the details of the 2015 Paris agreement.

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece said on Friday it was expelling the Libyan ambassador, angered at an accord between Libya and Turkey signed on Nov. 27 that maps out a sea boundary between the two countries close to the Greek island of Crete.

Mohamed Younis AB Menfi had 72 hours to leave the country, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias told a news briefing. Dendias called the Turkey-Libyan accord a “blatant violation of international law”.

DETLING, England (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday said that a confidential government document detailing possible disruption to Northern Ireland under his Brexit deal obtained by the opposition Labour party was “nonsense”.

Asked about the customs, regulatory and rules of origin checks between Northern Ireland and Britain, outlined in the document, Johnson said: “I haven’t seen the document you’re referring to, but that’s complete nonsense.”

“With the deal we have, we can come out as one whole UK.”

LONDON (Reuters) - British opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said on Friday he had a confidential government report which showed there would be customs checks between Northern Ireland and mainland Britain under a Brexit deal negotiated by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

“This is the cold, hard evidence that categorically shows the impact Johnson’s damaging Brexit deal will have on large parts of our country,” Corbyn said in a speech in London.