Europe

KIEV, November 30. /TASS/: Nartogaz of Ukraine is ready to discuss abandonment of its latest claims against Gazprom in the amount of $12.2 bln given that it receives a compensation, Naftogaz’ executive director Yury Vitrenko said on Friday.

LUGANSK, November 30. /TASS/: Ukraine’s forces violated ceasefire one time over the past 24 hours, opening fire at the territory of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic, the LPR’s mission to the Joint Ceasefire Control and Coordination Center said.

"The shelling targeted an area in the village of Logvinovo," the LuganskInformCenter reported, citing the militias. According to the report, the Kiev forces opened fire from anti-tank grenade launcher.

MOSCOW, November 30. /TASS/: Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller and Wintershall Dea CEO Mario Mehren discussed the current aspects of the companies’ interaction at a meeting in St. Petersburg on Friday. In particular, the parties noted the contribution of the Nord Stream gas pipeline to the reliability and safety of gas supplies to consumers in Germany and Europe, Gazprom said in a press release.

"Special emphasis at the meeting was placed on the progress of the Nord Stream 2 project and the development of the German gas transmission system," the company said.

KIEV, November 30. /TASS/: The gas price for Ukrainians may increase to 12,000 hryvnias (about $500) per 1,000 cubic meters in the event of the termination of transit from Russia from January 1, 2020, Minister of Energy and Environment of Ukraine Alexey Orzhel said on Friday.

"The price of 12,000 hryvnia is possible in the absence of transit," he said speaking on the national television.

KRASNODAR, November 30. / TASS /: The pilot of helicopter crashed near Abrau-Durso in the Krasnodar Territory killed in crash, spokesperson for the Novorossiysk administration told TASS on Saturday.

"The pilot died," the source said.

Yuri Korolev, director of the Abrau Air Transport non-profit partnership, died during a helicopter crash in the Krasnodar Region, the press service of the Abrau-Durso group of companies told TASS on Saturday.

"This is Yuri Korolev; he led the non-profit partnership Air Transport Abrau. He was our employee," the source said.

MOSCOW, November 30. / TASS /: The manifestations of nationalism and the oppression of small nations can lead to the exit of a number of regions from Ukraine, said State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin on Saturday, commenting on the attempts of the Ukrainian delegation to interfere with the speech of the State Duma deputy from Crimea Ruslan Balbek at the 12th session of the UN Forum on Minority Issues in Geneva.

VALLETTA (Reuters) - Malta’s Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has told associates he plans to resign over the political and legal crisis stemming from the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, the Times of Malta reported on Friday.

Muscat’s spokesman would neither confirm nor deny the report. His Labour Party canceled an event scheduled for Sunday at which Muscat was set to speak.

Muscat’s chief of staff and two members of the cabinet have already stepped aside this week over the murder case, which threatens to bring down the island nation’s close-knit elite.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD) will on Saturday announce the winner of a party leadership ballot, whose first task will be to decide whether to quit the ruling coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives.

The oldest party in Germany is in turmoil after a run of dismal regional and European election results and a six-month long leadership race which has left them trailing in polls. Many members want to leave government and rebuild in opposition.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch police hunted on Saturday for an unidentified suspect who stabbed three youths on a street in the center of The Hague on Friday during one of the busiest shopping evenings of the year.

Investigators were keeping “all scenarios open” on the perpetrator’s identity and motive, police spokeswoman Marije Kuiper said.

The people injured were discharged from hospital late on Friday.

Police have not released any information about the suspect’s appearance, but said an initial description of him as a man in his 40’s was wrong.

LONDON (Reuters) - The 28-year-old British man who killed two people in a stabbing spree on London Bridge before police shot him dead had been released from prison after a previous conviction for terrorism offenses, prompting recriminations ahead of an election.

Wearing a fake suicide vest and wielding knives, Usman Khan went on the rampage on Friday afternoon at a conference on criminal rehabilitation beside London Bridge. He was wrestled to the ground by bystanders and then shot dead by police.