Europe

STOCKHOLM, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Sweden will be part of the European Sky Shield Initiative (ESSI) and participate in air policing over the Baltics, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said on Sunday.

The Scandinavian country, which last year decided to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), is also prepared to participate in air policing above the Black Sea and Iceland, Swedish Television (SVT) quoted Kristersson as saying at an annual defense and security policy conference in Salen, some 430 km northwest of Stockholm.

BERLIN (AP) — Climate activists pledged Sunday to defend a tiny village in western Germany from being bulldozed for the expansion of a nearby coal mine that has become a battlegroundbetween the government and environmental campaigners.

Hundreds of people from across Germany gathered for protest training and a subsequent demonstration in the hamlet of Luetzerath, which lies west of Cologne next to the vast Garzweiler coal mine.

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — NATO-led peacekeepers in Kosovo have rejected a demand from Serbia that its security forces be allowed to return to the breakaway province amid ongoing tensions, Serbia’s president said Sunday.

The KFOR peacekeepers, who deployed in Kosovo in 1999 after the NATO alliance’s bombing forced the Serbian army and police out of the territory, said in their response that there’s no need for the return of the Serbian forces, President Aleksandar Vucic said.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian soldiers, family and mourners gathered in frigid weather in Kyiv on Sunday to pay tribute to a soldier killed fighting against Russian forces in Bakhmut, the strategic city under siege on the eastern front.

An open casket, outdoor service was held in Kyiv’s Independence Square for Maj. Oleh Yurchenko who was killed in Bakhmut on Jan. 2. Fellow soldiers carried the coffin while others knelt on the ground. A bugle played and later a male quartet sang solemn hymns as an Orthodox priest conducted the service attended by about 200 people.

BERLIN (AP) — A 32-year-old Iranian man has been arrested in Germany on suspicion of planning an attack with deadly chemicals, officials said Sunday.

Police and prosecutors said the man and another person were detained overnight in the town of Castrop-Rauxel, northwest of Dortmund.

In a joint statement they said the man is suspected to have planned a serious attack motivated by Islamic extremism, for which he had allegedly obtained the potent toxins cyanide and ricin.

MOSCOW, January 6. /TASS/: Russia’s COVID-19 case tally rose by 3,439 over the past day to 21,820,552, the anti-coronavirus crisis center reported on Friday.

A day earlier, 3,274 daily cases were recorded.

As many as 673 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in Russia over the past day, down 6.7% from a day earlier. The number of hospitalized patients decreased in 38 regions, while in 30 regions the figure increased. The situation remained unchanged in 17 regions. A day earlier, 721 people were rushed to hospitals.

LONDON, January 7. /TASS/: French President Emmanuel Macron, by agreeing to send AMX-10 RC wheeled tanks to Ukraine, has crossed a red line and broke a military taboo, becoming the first Western leader to make the step, the Daily Telegraph reported on Friday.

The French president has beaten his counterparts in the US, UK and Germany in sending armored vehicles to Ukraine, according to the report. He has taken the initiative in helping Kiev from London, the newspaper said.

KIEV, January 7. /TASS/: Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky signed a decree on Saturday introducing sanctions against Russian film director Nikita Mikhalkov and 118 others, according to a document published on the website of Ukraine's presidential office.

MOSCOW, January 7. /TASS/: Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov on Saturday said Russian forces foiled an attempted attack on Russian positions by Ukraine’s 110th mechanized brigade and 79th paratrooper brigade near Donetsk.

"An attempted attack on Russian positions by Ukraine’s 110th mechanized brigade and 79th paratrooper brigade has been foiled on the Donetsk axis in the area of the settlements of Krasnogorovka and Georgiyevka in the Donetsk People’s Republic," he said.

PRISTINA, Jan 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A man was arrested after a gunman shot and wounded two Serbs, one an 11-year-old child, in Kosovo on Friday, Orthodox Christmas Eve, police there said, sparking protests.

Kosovo police said in a statement that they had arrested “a 33-year-old man” in southern Kosovo, who Defence Minister Armend Mehaj said the man was a member of the security forces.

Shortly after the shooting incident, local Serbs blocked traffic on a regional road in protest, Serbian national television (RTS) reported.