Europe

MOSCOW, February 4. /TASS/: Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has called on the UK prime minister to stop disseminating fabricated ideas about the alleged threat of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.

"UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson posted a video on the government’s official account in social networks, where he tells viewers about Russian troops near the border with Ukraine and threatens with ‘very real’ perspectives of an imminent Russian aggression," she said. "Stop intimidating people, stop spreading fake news and threats."

WARSAW, Feb 4 - U.S. military equipment has begun to arrive in Poland, the Polish defence ministry said on Friday, to reinforce NATO's eastern flank as the West and Russia wrangle over Russia's military presence near the Ukrainian border.

President Joe Biden's administration announced on Wednesday the deployment of nearly 3,000 American troops to eastern Europe in the coming days amid a standoff with Russia over Ukraine.

STOCKHOLM, Feb 4 (Reuters) - There is no evidence that foreign powers were behind drones sighted at Swedish nuclear plants in January, the prosecutor leading the investigation told publicly funded Swedish Radio.

Police in Sweden deployed patrols and helicopters in mid-January to the Forsmark nuclear plant to hunt for a drone seen flying over the site, but were unable to catch the unmanned vehicle. 

PARIS, Feb 4 (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron heads to talks with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday hoping to ensure Europe gets a say in broader U.S.-Russian negotiations over Ukraine, but risks embarrassment if he returns empty-handed.

France, Russia and Ukraine have had numerous phone conversations over the past 10 days that culminated on Friday with Macron's office confirming that he would travel to Moscow and the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Feb. 7 and 8.

BRUSSELS, Feb 4 (Reuters) - The European Union imposed sanctions on Mali's transitional prime minister and members of interim president Assimi Goita's inner circle, after the military ditched a plan for elections in February, the bloc's official journal said.

The travel bans and asset freezes hit five individuals. They include top military commanders who ousted former Malian president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in August 2020, the first of two coups. A second coup followed in May 2021.

BERLIN, Feb 4 (Reuters) - The first U.S. troops reinforcing NATO allies in Eastern Europe and Germany amid a Russian military build-up on Ukraine's border have arrived in Germany, the U.S. military's European Command said on Friday.

"Soldiers from the 18th Airborne Corps arrived in Wiesbaden today," a spokesperson for the command said in a statement, adding that they would establish a headquarters in Germany to support 1,700 paratroopers meant to deploy to Poland.

BRUSSELS, Feb 4 (Reuters) - The European Union and the United States have agreed to resume trade in mussels, clams and oysters from the end of February after they were halted more than a decade ago, marking another step in improved transatlantic relations.

Trade in bivalve molluscs, also including cockles and scallops, came to a halt in 2011 due to differences in food safety rules, but transatlantic exports will initially resume for the Netherlands and Spain and the U.S. states of Massachusetts and Washington, the two sides said on Friday.

ROME, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Italian President Sergio Mattarella was sworn in here on Thursday, inaugurating his second seven-year mandate.

His re-election -- which the parliament voted with a broad majority on Jan. 29 -- came after the country's major political forces failed to find a deal on a possible successor.

Although initially reluctant, Mattarella accepted to serve a second term citing a" sense of responsibility during the (current) health and economic emergency" linked to the pandemic.

BRUSSELS, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said on Thursday that there was "insufficient evidence" for it to recommend the administration of a second booster vaccine against COVID-19.

"At the moment, there is insufficient evidence from clinical trials or real-world evidence that could support our recommendation for the general population," said Marco Cavaleri, who heads the EMA's Biological Health Threats and Vaccines Strategy Office.

LONDON (AP) — This was the week British Prime Minister Boris Johnson hoped to get a grip on his government after weeks of scandal. By Friday, he was struggling to hang on after a scathing report on lockdown-breaching parties and the departure of several top aides.