Europe

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian military transport planes on Saturday delivered a shipment of humanitarian supplies to Afghanistan and flew back 200 Russians, Afghan students and others, the defense ministry said.

The ministry said that three Il-76 cargo planes will make stopovers in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan before flying to Moscow. It said the planes were carrying citizens of Russia and Kyrgyzstan who wanted to leave Afghanistan, and Afghan students enlisted in Russian universities.

LONDON (AP) — U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s first choice to investigate allegations that government officials held Christmas parties last year when COVID-19 rules barred such gatherings has stepped aside after he, too, was caught up in the “partygate” scandal.

Simon Case, the head of the civil service, resigned from leading the investigation after the Guido Fawkes website reported Friday that Case’s department held two parties in December 2020. Johnson tapped Sue Gray, a former senior government ethics adviser, to take over the inquiry.

VIENNA (AP) — The omicron variant of the coronavirus has been detected in 89 countries, and COVID-19 cases involving the variant are doubling every 1.5 to 3 days in places with community transmission and not just infections acquired abroad, the World Health Organization said Saturday.

Omicron’s “substantial growth advantage” over the delta variant means it is likely to soon overtake delta as the dominant form of the virus in countries where the new variant is spreading locally, the U.N. health agency said.

ROME (AP) — A moderate earthquake rattled Italy’s financial capital of Milan on Saturday morning. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

Italy’s Institute for Geophysics and Vulcanology said the quake had a preliminary magnitude between 4.3 and 4.8. It struck at 11:34 a.m. (1034 GMT; 5:34 a.m. EST) in the province of Bergamo.

Italy’s fire department tweeted that “at the moment no reports of damage or requests for rescue” had arrived in its operations center.

18 Dec 2021; MEMO: Negotiators from France, Britain and Germany at talks on salvaging the Iran nuclear deal called on Tehran on Friday to pick up the pace when negotiations resume, as the discussions took a break at Iran's request, Reuters reported.

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia may take unspecified new measures to ensure its security if the U.S. and its allies continue to take provocative action and ignore Moscow’s demand for guarantees precluding NATO’s expansion to Ukraine, a senior diplomat said Saturday.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov accused Western allies of continuously pushing the envelope in relations with Russia, and warned that Moscow could also up the ante if the West doesn’t treat its demands seriously.

New Delhi, Dec 17 (PTI) India has lost its seat on the FIA's all powerful World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) for the first time in more than three decades.

Incumbent Gautam Singhania lost in the elections held for 14 WMSC seats reserved for titular members. The development came on the day when Mohammed Ben Sulayem replaced Jean Todt as the next FIA president.

The WMSC members also include the president, deputy president and seven vice-presidents.

MOSCOW, December 17. /TASS/: Russia recorded 27,743 coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, the lowest daily number since October 8, the anti-coronavirus crisis center said on Friday. The total number of cases has reached 10,159,389.

Russia’s coronavirus growth rate was 0.27%.

In particular, 2,755 cases were reported in Moscow in the past day, 1,984 in St. Petersburg, 1,452 in the Moscow region, 677 in the Krasnoyarsk region, 667 in the Nizhny Novgorod region and 652 in the Perm region.

There are currently 950,060 active coronavirus cases in Russia.

ROME, December 17. /TASS/: The ISS crew commander must be ready for any challenges and bear the responsibility for the safety of the crew in an emergency, Samantha Cristoforetti, a European Space Agency astronaut that will lead a mission to the space outpost, said in an interview with TASS on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, December 17. /TASS/: The Bank of Russia raised its key rate for the seventh time in a row, this time by 1 percentage point to 8.5% per annum, the regulator reported following a meeting of the Board of Directors.