Europe

MOSCOW, December 20. /TASS/: Russia is ready for a military response if NATO keeps ignoring Moscow’s security concerns, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Monday.

"I said that we would find forms to respond, including by military and military-technical means [if NATO ignores Moscow’s concerns again]," the high-ranking Russian diplomat told TASS.

"I reaffirm this. We will have to balance the activities that are of concern to us, because they increase the risks, with our countermeasures," Ryabkov said.

MOSCOW, Dec 20 (NNN-AGENCIES) — All 128 miners were evacuated from a Siberian coal mine on Sunday after fire sensors were triggered, Russia’s emergencies ministry said, just weeks after a blast at a mine in the same region killed 51 people.

The SUEK coal company, which owns the Ruban mine in Russia’s Kemerovo region, said sensors had detected an increase in carbon monoxide emissions, caused by a seam heating up, but it had not ignited and there was no fire.

“All 128 people got out to the surface, there are no casualties,” the emergencies ministry said in a statement.

  THE HAGUE, Dec 20 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The EU’s drug regulator will decide Monday whether to approve a Covid jab by Novavax, which uses a more conventional technology that the US biotech firm hopes will reduce vaccine
hesitancy.

   Novavax’s jab, a protein-based vaccine of the kind used around the world to protect against many childhood illnesses, would be the fifth coronavirus shot authorised for the European Union.

   Approval would also be a boost for the Maryland company, whose jab has been plagued by delays.

THE HAGUE, Dec 20 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Dutch prosecutors will this week set out their sentencing demands for four men on trial in absentia over the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in war-torn Ukraine in 2014.

Prosecutors will also formally present the indictment during three days of hearings from Monday, charging the men with the murders of all 298 people on the Boeing 777.

The four suspects – Russian nationals Igor Girkin, Sergei Dubinsky and Oleg Pulatov, and Ukrainian citizen Leonid Kharchenko – have all refused to attend the trial in the Netherlands.

BERLIN, Dec 20 (Reuters) - German leaders are considering tougher contact restrictions and an accelerated booster campaign among other measures after experts warned that the Omicron coronavirus variant could bring critical infrastructure to breaking point.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he supported the likely decision of a meeting of federal and state leaders planned for Tuesday to restrict private contacts for those who have been vaccinated, or have been infected and recovered.

BRUSSELS, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Novavax (NVAX.O) is expected to start delivering its COVID-19 vaccines to the European Union in the first quarter of 2022, an EU source said, as experts for the region's drug regulator met on Monday to decide whether to approve the shot.

The EU Commission had no immediate comment and the U.S. biotech company was not immediately available for comment. The EU source declined to be identified because they were not authorised to speak to the media.

ROME, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Italy's government is considering new measures to avoid a surge in COVID-19 infections during the holiday period, local newspapers reported on Sunday, amid worries over the spread of the highly contagious Omicron coronavirus variant.

After holding a meeting with ministers on Dec. 23, Prime Minister Mario Draghi could impose an obligation on the vaccinated to show a negative test to access crowded places, including discos and stadiums, daily Corriere della Sera reported.

MOSCOW, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Russia said on Monday it urgently needed a response from the United States on its sweeping security demands and again warned of a possible Russian military response unless it saw political action to assuage its concerns.

Moscow, which has unnerved the West with a troop buildup near Ukraine, last week unveiled a wish list of security proposals it wants to negotiate, including a promise NATO would give up any military activity in Eastern Europe and Ukraine. 

LONDON, Dec 20 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday he was looking at all kinds of measures to keep the Omicron coronavirus variant under control as the situation was extremely difficult, cautioning that further restrictions might be needed.

Britain has reported record levels of COVID-19 cases over the past week, with officials and ministers warning that hospitalisations are also rising.

GENEVA, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The World Economic Forum (WEF) will defer its 2022 annual meeting from January to early summer, it said on Monday.

The meeting, scheduled for Jan. 17-21 in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, was postponed due to the "continued uncertainty over the Omicron outbreak."

"Current pandemic conditions make it extremely difficult to deliver a global in-person meeting," the WEF explained in a news release published on its website.