Europe

DONETSK, March 31. /TASS/: Head of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Denis Pushilin has ordered the formation of a city administration in Mariupol, according to a decree published on the DPR head’s website on Thursday.

"A local administration of the Donetsk People’s Republic is to be formed in the city of Mariupol," the document reads.

LONDON, March 31. /TASS/: The British government has put the Russian TV channel RT (the TV-Novosti autonomous non-profit organization), the Rossiya Segodnya media holding, and 12 Russian citizens, including Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, Chief of the National Defense Command and Control Center, and journalist Sergey Brilev, on a sanctions list.

The updated blacklist was published on the British government's website on Thursday morning.

MOSCOW, March 31. /TASS/: If gas buyers from unfriendly states refuse to pay for gas in rubles, Russia will view it as breach of contract, President Vladimir Putin said at the meeting on the situation in the aviation sector.

"If such [ruble] payments are not made, we will consider this to be the buyers’ failure to perform commitments with all ensuing implications," Putin said.

Putin signed earlier today the decree stipulating acceptance of payments for gas in rubles.

GENEVA, March 31 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United Nations urged the world to stand by Afghanistan at a pledging conference on Thursday where it is seeking a record $4.4 billion in humanitarian assistance to the broken country.

The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan on Aug 15 amid the hasty withdrawal of US-led foreign forces, and the country’s humanitarian crisis has rapidly worsened since.

BERLIN, March 31 (Reuters) - Germany plans to end mandatory quarantine for most people who catch COVID-19, the health ministry proposed on Thursday, as numbers isolating with the infection top four million.

Under the existing rules, people with COVID must quarantine for at least seven days.

But Health Minister Karl Lauterbach wants to change that to a voluntary five days of self-isolation with the recommendation of a COVID test at the end of that period, proposals seen by Reuters showed.

LISBON, March 24 (Reuters) - Authorities on a mid-Atlantic Portuguese island hit by thousands of small earthquakes in recent days started evacuating people living at the bottom of coastal cliffs on Thursday as fears of a stronger tremor or a volcanic eruption grow.

Since Saturday, over 2,000 earthquakes, with a magnitude of between 1.6 and 3.3, have been recorded on the volcanic island of Sao Jorge in the Azores archipelago, according to the region's CIVISA seismo-volcanic surveillance centre.

ROME, March 31 (Reuters) - Italy will only hit the NATO goal of spending 2% of GDP on defence in 2028, Prime Minister Mario Draghi said on Thursday, confirming it will miss an original target of 2024 after opposition from within his ruling coalition.

The government currently earmarks around 1.4% of economic output for military spending and would have had to increase its defence budget by 12 billion euros ($13.4 billion) over the next two years to reach a goal established by members of the Atlantic alliance in 2014.

LONDON, March 31 (Reuters) - Russia said on Thursday it had greatly expanded the number of European Union officials, lawmakers, public figures and journalists barred from Russia for allegedly being responsible for sanctions and stoking anti-Russian feelings.

"The restrictions apply to the top leadership of the European Union, including a number of European commissioners and heads of EU military structures, as well as the vast majority of members of the European Parliament who promote anti-Russian policies," Russia's foreign ministry said.

LONDON, March 31 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed a decree ordering 134,500 new conscripts into the army as part of Russia's annual spring draft, but the defence ministry said the call-up had nothing to do with the war in Ukraine.

The order came five weeks into Russia's invasion, which has run into fierce Ukrainian resistance. Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday that none of those called up would be sent to any "hot spots".

MOSCOW, March 31 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Thursday on new rules of natural gas trade with "unfriendly" countries and regions, vowing to halt existing contracts if these buyers refuse to pay in rubles.

"Today I signed a decree ... To purchase Russian natural gas, they must open ruble accounts in Russian banks. It is these accounts that will be used to pay for the gas supplies, starting April 1," Putin told a government meeting.