Europe

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia raised the stakes Thursday in its dispute with the West over Ukraine and NATO’s expansion when a top diplomat refused to rule out a military deployment to Cuba and Venezuela if tensions with the United States escalate.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said he could “neither confirm nor exclude” the possibility of Russia sending military assets to Latin America if the U.S. and its allies don’t curtail their military activities on Russia’s doorstep.

GENEVA (AP) — The government of Ethiopia has sent a letter to the World Health Organization, accusing its Ethiopian director-general of “misconduct” after his sharp criticism of the war and humanitarian crisis in the country.

Ethiopia nominated Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to be the head of the U.N. health agency four years ago, but says he has “not lived up to the integrity and professional expectations required from his office,” accusing him of interfering in Ethiopia’s internal affairs, according to a press release issued late Thursday.

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The risk of recession is looming for Germany after Europe’s biggest economy shrank at the end of 2021 and as it faces a bumpy start to this year, with the rapid spread of COVID-19′s omicron variant deterring people from shopping and travel and supply bottlenecks holding back manufacturers.

MOSCOW (AP) — Special envoys from Turkey and Armenia met in Moscow on Friday for a first round of meetings aimed at ending decades of bitterness between their countries and establishing diplomatic ties. Both countries said the meeting was conducted in a “positive and constructive atmosphere.”

Although Turkey was among the first countries to recognize Armenia’s independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the two neighbors share a bitter relationship and have no diplomatic ties.

ROME (AP) — To mask or not to mask is a question Italy settled early in the COVID-19 outbreak with a vigorous “yes.” Now the onetime epicenter of the pandemic in Europe hopes even stricter mask rules will help it beat the latest infection surge.

Other countries are taking similar action as the more transmissible — yet, apparently, less virulent — omicron variant spreads through the continent.

MOSCOW, January 13. / TASS /: The Russian Roscosmos state space agency and NASA are in talks on extending the operation of the International Space Station (ISS) until 2030, CEO of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin said on Thursday.

"The talks with NASA on extending the operation of the ISS until 2030 are underway," Roscosmos CEO noted. Rogozin also mentioned that the US sent an official notification relating to the extension of using ISS until 2030 on December 31.

KIEV, January 12. /TASS/: NATO is ready to negotiate with Russia on not granting Ukraine and Georgia admission to the Western-led bloc, but will not agree to bind this agreement legally, says Ruslan Bortnik, who heads the Ukrainian Institute of Politics, commenting on the Russia-NATO Council meeting in Brussels.

LONDON, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Oil prices that rallied 50% in 2021 will power further ahead this year, some analysts predict, saying a lack of production capacity and limited investment in the sector could lift crude to $90 or even above $100 a barrel.

Though the Omicron coronavirus variant has pushed COVID-19 cases far above peaks hit last year, analysts say oil prices will be supported by the reluctance of many governments to restore the strict restrictions that hammered the global economy when the pandemic took hold in 2020.

LONDON, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- An estimated 4.3 million people in private households in Britain had COVID-19 last week, up from 3.7 million in the previous week and set a new record, the British Office for National Statistics (ONS) said Wednesday.

Prevalence of the coronavirus continues to be highest in England, where around one in 15 people are estimated to have had the virus in the week to Jan. 6, according to ONS figures.

MOSCOW, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- The peacekeeping forces of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) have begun the handover of socially significant facilities to Kazakh law enforcement agencies, the Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday.

"In accordance with the plan developed by the command of the CSTO Collective Peacekeeping Forces and the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the transfer of socially significant objects guarded by peacekeepers to law enforcement agencies of the country began," it said in a statement.