Europe

MOSCOW, January 28. /TASS/: Ukraine’s Armed Forces have intentionally hit the hospital in Novoaidar in the Lugansk People’s Republic, using a US-made HIMARS rocket launchers, as a result, 14 people were killed and 24 more wounded, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Saturday.

"At about 7:30 a.m. on January 28, the Ukrainian armed forces conducted a deliberate strike, using rockets of a US-made HIMARS multiple launch rocket system, on the building of the district hospital in the urban settlement of Novoaidar in the Lugansk People’s Republic," the ministry said.

PARIS, Jan 27 (Reuters) - A total of 321 heavy tanks have been promised to Ukraine by several countries, Ukraine's ambassador to France said on BFM television on Friday.

"As of today, numerous countries have officially confirmed their agreement to deliver 321 heavy tanks to Ukraine," Vadym Omelchenko, Ukraine's ambassador to France, said in an interview with French TV station BFM.

"Delivery terms vary for each case and we need this help as soon as possible," he added.

Omelchenko did not provide a breakdown of the number of tanks per country.

STOCKHOLM, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Sweden's foreign ministry on Saturday warned Swedes in Turkey to avoid crowds and demonstrations following protests there over the burning of the Koran by a far-right politician in Stockholm last week.

Last week Turkey suspended talks with Sweden and Finland on their applications to join NATO after the protest at which Rasmus Paludan, leader of the Danish far-right political party Hard Line, burned a copy of the Koran outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm.

THE HAGUE, Jan 28 (Reuters) - ASML Holding NV (ASML.AS) said on Saturday it understood progress had been made towards an agreement among several governments on new restrictions on semiconductor manufacturing equipment exports to China.

ASML, a key supplier to chipmakers, has been restricted from selling its most advanced tools to China since 2019.

Tensions between the United States and China over semiconductors have steadily worsened since then, prompting Washington in October to impose export restrictions on its own chip manufacturing equipment companies.

LONDON, Jan 28 (Reuters) - British regional airline Flybe on Saturday ceased trading for the second time in three years, with all flights cancelled and 276 workers made redundant.

A statement on Flybe's website said the airline, which operated scheduled services from Belfast, Birmingham and Heathrow across the UK and to Amsterdam and Geneva, had entered administration, a form of protection from creditors.

"Flybe has now ceased trading and all flights from and to the UK operated by Flybe have been cancelled and will not be rescheduled," it said.

ST. PETERSBURG, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Russia's second largest city St. Petersburg on Friday held the annual "900 Days and Nights" memorial event marking the 79th anniversary of the lifting of the Siege of Leningrad during World War II.

The commemoration featured an interactive performance held among military installations in the courtyard of the St. Petersburg State Academic Capella, the oldest Russian professional musical institution. The audience watched the light and sound performance of air raids and bombardments.

PRAGUE (AP) — Petr Pavel, a retired army general, defeated populist billionaire Andrej Babis in a runoff vote Saturday to become the new Czech president.

Pavel, 61, will succeed controversy-courting Milos Zeman in the largely ceremonial but prestigious post. With the ballots from 99.5% of polling stations counted by the Czech Statistics Office, Pavel had 58.2% of the vote compared with 42.8% for Babis.

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — The foreign ministers of France and the Netherlands visited a NATO battlegroup at a base in Romania Friday and later agreed to bolster their ties amid Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Catherine Colonna of France and Wopke Hoekstra of the Netherlands visited the military base in Cincu, central Romania, along with their Romanian counterpart, Bogdan Aurescu. France and the Netherlands both have troops in the battlegroup, which was strengthened in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, Romania’s neighbor.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Hundreds of climate activists blocked one of the main roads into The Hague on Saturday, defying attempts to prevent their protest that have sparked concerns about restrictions on the right to demonstrate in the Netherlands.

The protesters, many waving colored flags with the symbol of environmental group Extinction Rebellion and one holding a sign saying, in Dutch, “This is a dead end road,” gathered on the A12 road near the temporary home of the Dutch parliament. Police and hundreds more demonstrators looked on.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine and its Western allies are engaged in “fast-track” talks on the possibility of equipping the invaded country with long-range missiles and military aircraft, a top Ukrainian presidential aide said Saturday.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said Ukraine’s supporters in the West “understand how the war is developing” and the need to supply planes capable of providing cover for the armored fighting vehicles that the United States and Germany pledged at the beginning of the month.