Europe

MOSCOW, November 17. /TASS/: Legendary Russian figure skater and President of the Russian Figure Skating Federation (RFSF) Alexander Gorshkov passed away at the age of 76, the federation’s director general, Alexander Kogan, told TASS on Wednesday.

"Alexander Georgiyevich devoted his whole life to the sport of figure skating," Kogan said. "A bright man has left us, it is hard to find words, this is a huge loss."

LONDON, Nov 17 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — The ball Argentine football star Diego Maradona punched through English keeper Peter Shilton’s fists to score the opening goal of the quarterfinal match the eventual champions went past during the Mexico 1986 World Cup sold Wednesday at auction for £2 million (US$2.4 million).

VIENNA, Nov 17 (Reuters) - The U.N. atomic watchdog's 35-nation Board of Governors passed a resolution on Thursday ordering Iran to cooperate urgently with the agency's investigation into uranium traces found at three undeclared sites, diplomats at the closed-door vote said.

The resolution drafted by the United States, Britain, France and Germany says the board "decides it is essential and urgent" that Iran explain the origin of the uranium particles and more generally give the International Atomic Energy Agency all the answers it requires.

KYIV, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Russia pounded Ukrainian energy facilities and a huge rocket booster factory on Thursday in a new wave of missile strikes that Ukrainian officials denounced as terrorism.

Explosions echoed though cities including the southern port of Odesa, the capital Kyiv, the central city of Dnipro and the southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia where officials said two people were killed.

AMSTERDAM, Nov 17 (Reuters) - A Dutch court on Thursday handed down life long jail sentences to three suspects it convicted of murder for their role in shooting down Malaysia Airlines passenger flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014.

The convicted men, two Russian former intelligence officers and a Ukrainian separatist leader, were also ordered to pay at least 16 million euros ($16.5 million) in compensation to relatives of the victims.

The men remain fugitives. They are all believed to be in Russia, which will not extradite them.

AMSTERDAM, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down in 2014 by a Russian-made missile fired from a field in eastern Ukraine, the Dutch court handling the trial of four suspects in the downing of the plane said on Thursday.

"The court is of the opinion that MH17 was brought down by the firing of a BUK missile from a farm field near Pervomaisk, killing al 283 passengers and 15 crew members," presiding judge Hendrik Steenhuis said.

LONDON (AP) — U.K. Treasury chief Jeremy Hunt has pledged help to the most vulnerable weather Britain’s cost-of-living crisis, even as he announced a raft of spending cuts and tax increases designed to mend the country’s battered finances.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Italy’s Catholic bishops on Thursday provided their first-ever accounting of clergy sexual abuse, but Italy’s main survivor advocate said it was “shamefully” inadequate given it only covered reports to church authorities over the last two years and omitted documentary research into church archives.

LONDON (AP) — The British government was increasing the windfall tax on the profits of oil and natural gas companies in an emergency budget announced Thursday that was aimed at restoring the nation’s economic credibility and patching up its battered finances.

Saying the U.K. faces “unprecedented global headwinds,” Treasury chief Jeremy Hunt is unveiling tax increases and spending cuts in a speech to the House of Commons in a bid to tame double-digit inflation and rein in a growing deficit.

SCHIPHOL, Netherlands (AP) — Relatives of those killed when Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine in 2014 gathered at a Dutch courtroom Thursday before the verdicts in the trial of three Russians and a Ukrainian charged in the aviation disaster.