Europe

30 Dec 2021; MEMO: Iran's lead nuclear negotiator has noted "good progress" in the eighth round of talks with world powers in Vienna, focusing primarily on the removal of sanctions, Anadolu News Agency reports.

Speaking to reporters after the latest round was adjourned on Thursday due to the New Year holidays, Ali Bagheri said negotiations were held at various levels since Monday, and relatively good progress was made.

BRUSSELS, Dec 30 (APP): Ambassador of Pakistan to Belgium, Luxembourg and the European Union, Zaheer A. Janjua, on Thursday held the 12th monthly Khuli Katchery in virtual format with Pakistani diaspora in Belgium and Luxembourg.

During the meeting, the Ambassador conveyed greetings on the occasion of Christmas, Jinnah Day and New Year to the participants and hoped that new year would be a harbinger of peace and happiness for all Pakistanis as well as the global community.

KIEV, December 30. /TASS/: Ukraine sees neither any great danger on the country’s borders nor aggression from Russia, National Security and Defense Council Secretary Alexey Danilov said at a briefing on Thursday.

"We don’t see any great danger on our borders at the moment," he pointed out, adding that no large presence of foreign troops had been detected on the border.

According to Danilov, the situation on the border with Russia is not alarming. "So far, we don’t see any threat of outright aggression from Russia," he stressed.

MOSCOW, December 30. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin in his upcoming phone call with US President Joe Biden may warn Washington against provocations, particularly involving Ukraine, ahead of the Russian-US talks on security guarantees that are scheduled to take place in Geneva on January 10, Chairman of the Board of the Valdai International Discussion Club’s Development and Support Foundation Andrey Bystritsky told TASS on Thursday.

MOSCOW, December 30. /TASS/: Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Joe Biden of the United States will hold their upcoming conversation over the phone, and there will be no public part, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"This time, it is about a phone conversation, a regular phone call. Accordingly, there will be no public part," he explained.

The phone call is scheduled for 11:30 pm Moscow time on Thursday, Peskov added. "The phone call with Biden is planned to begin half an hour before midnight, at 11:30 pm," he specified.

MOSCOW, December 30. /TASS/: The European Union’s dialogue with Russia has for years had an impermissible form, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a news briefing on Thursday in the wake of an interview the chief of European diplomacy Josep Borrell granted to the daily Die Welt. In that interview Borrell dismissed Russia’s proposals for security guarantees as unacceptable and warned that negotiations on them could not be held without the European Union taking part.

   GENEVA, Dec 30 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A “tsunami” of Omicron and Delta Covid-19 cases will pile pressure on health systems already being stretched to their limits, the World Health Organization warned.
 
  The WHO said the Delta and Omicron variants of concern were “twin threats” that were driving new case numbers to record highs, leading to spikes in hospitalisations and deaths.
 
  The WHO said new global cases had risen by 11 percent last week, while the United States and France both registered record daily case numbers on Wednesday.
 

LONDON, Dec 30 (Reuters) - A British rail operator has been forced to suspend all direct services to the busy London Victoria train station until Jan. 10 after staff fell ill with COVID-19 and others had to isolate.

Southern Rail said on Twitter that due to coronavirus isolation and sickness, there would be no direct services to or from London Victoria, disrupting commuter routes from south London and lines that run to the south of the country.

ROME, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Italy on Wednesday scrapped self-isolation rules for those coming into contact with someone testing positive for coronavirus providing they have had a booster shot, have recently recovered or been vaccinated.

The move comes after health experts urged the government to rethink its policies amid worries that the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant could paralyse the country by forcing millions to stay at home. 

BERLIN, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Germany will pull the plug on three of its last six nuclear power stations on Friday, another step towards completing its withdrawal from nuclear power as it turns its focus to renewables.

The government decided to speed up its phasing out of nuclear power following Japan's Fukushima reactor meltdown in 2011 when an earthquake and tsunami destroyed the coastal plant in the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl 25 years earlier.