Europe

MOSCOW, December 4. /TASS/: Eight out of 12 flats in a four-story apartment building were severely damaged as a result of a gas explosion in the community of Yakovlevo, in the Belgorod Region, the press service of the Emergencies Ministry’s regional directorate told TASS on Wednesday.

"According to preliminary information, eight out of 12 flats were damaged," a source said, noting that there were no further plans to examine the house in question, because earlier the regional governor reported that "the building is bound to be torn down," the source said.

MURMANSK, December 4. /TASS/: Sailors from a Russian trawler, which caught fire in northern Norway’s port, have been evacuated, the vessel’s owner Murmanrybflot-2 told TASS on Wednesday.

"The crew members of our trawler have been evacuated to the shore, no one has been injured," a spokesman for the company said.

According to the ship owner, four crew members were onboard the vessel, which was being prepared for sailing. "Now we only have information about smoke onboard the trawler. The situation is under control," a spokesman said.

LONDON, December 3. /TASS/: Europe should take part in creating a new treaty on intermediate-range nuclear forces and join the agreement, French President Emmanuel Macron told a press conference after talks with US President Donald Trump in London.

MOSCOW, December 4. /TASS/: One person died and two others were wounded after a citizen of Perm, in Russia’s Urals, opened gunfire, a source in local law enforcement agencies told TASS on Wednesday.

"A drunk man in Perm killed his wife from a hunting weapon and started firing at the passers-by. He wounded an eyewitness and one of the National Guard (Rosgvardia) members, who arrived to detain him. Other National Guard members apprehended the attacker," the source said. The life of the National Guard member is not under threat.

PARIS, Dec 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) — French authorities said that they removed some 600 asylum-seekers from Tibet from a camp on the edge of a forest outside Paris, which had grown into a rallying point for Tibetans in exile in recent years.

The camp sprang up last August, the latest to emerge after several others were evacuated near Acheres, some 30 kilometres northwest of the capital.

The area began attracting Tibetans after 2010, when a local aid association started offering meals, showers and help with their asylum requests.

4 December 2019; AFP: The leaders of Britain, Canada, France and the Netherlands have been caught on camera at a Buckingham Palace reception mocking US President Donald Trump's lengthy media appearances ahead of Wedensday's NATO summit.

The footage, shot by the British host's camera pool on Tuesday evening and spotted and subtitled by Canada's CBC, set the tone for the allies' summit in Watford, just outside London.

GENEVA, Dec 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) — THE United Nations said it was procuring food assistance for 4.1 million Zimbabweans, a quarter of the population in a country where shortages are being exacerbated by runaway inflation and climate-induced drought.

Zimbabwe, once the breadbasket of southern Africa, is experiencing its worst economic crisis in a decade, marked by soaring inflation and shortages of food, fuel, medicines and electricity.

LONDON, Dec 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) — NATO leaders will attempt to make a convincing show of unity on Wednesday when they meet to conclude a summit already overshadowed by bitter rows about the future of the alliance.

Last year, the Western allies’ get-together was derailed by US President Donald Trump’s demand for greater European defence spending, but 2019’s provocateur was France’s Emmanuel Macron.

PARIS, Dec 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) — France and the European Union are ready to fight back over the latest U.S. tariff threats on French products, French government ministers said.

On Monday, the U.S. government said it may impose punitive duties of up to 100% on $2.4 billion of imports from France, including champagne, handbags, cheese and other products, after concluding that France’s new digital services tax would harm U.S. tech companies.

PARIS, Dec. 3 (Xinhua) -- French commuters will face travel misery on Thursday as rail and metro workers will go on strike with which labor unions eye to show enough force to make President Emmanuel Macron reconsider his pension reform.

"Thursday will be extremely difficult. The networks will be badly disturbed. We will only succeed to operate about 10 percent of the trains," Agnes Ogier, national rail operator SNCF's spokesperson told a press conference on Tuesday.

"We ask our clients to cancel their trips or postpone them if they can," she added