Europe

PARIS (AP) — Greeks who are over age 60 and refuse coronavirus vaccinations could be hit with monthly fines of more than one-quarter of their pensions — a get-tough policy that the country’s politicians say will cost votes but save lives.

In Israel, potential carriers of the new omicron variant could be tracked by the nation’s domestic security agency in seeming defiance of a Supreme Court ruling from the last go-round.

02 Dec 2021; MEMO: Iran has started to enrich uranium up to 20 per cent purity at Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Wednesday. The equipment being used is far more efficient than the first-generation of machines, noted the agency.

02 Dec 2021; MEMO: French populist and media pundit Eric Zemmour announced on Tuesday that he is standing as a candidate in next year's presidential election with a chilling message for Europe's Muslims. The 63-year-old, who has been called a far-right "Jewish anti-Semite", peddled the racist and infamous "great replacement" conspiracy theory in a video announcing his candidacy.

02 Dec 2021; MEMO: Members of Cambridge Palestine Solidarity Society (PalSoc) joined with students across the country on Monday to call on all UK universities to "end their complicity in Israeli apartheid".

Students demonstrated to show their solidarity with the Palestinian people and demand the university review its ties "with all corporations implicated in illegal Israeli policies" and "immediately severe formal links and partnerships with BAE Systems, Caterpillar and all other companies or institutions deemed complicit."

GENEVA, Dec 01 (APP): The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has voiced deep concern at the recent arrest of Khurram Parvez, a leading human rights defender in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) under a draconian anti-terrorism law, and called for his release.

“We are deeply concerned at the arrest of Kashmiri human rights defender Khurram Parvez under Indian counter-terrorism legislation, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA),” OHCHR spokesperson Rupert Colville said in a statement issued in Geneva on Wednesday.

MOSCOW, December 1. /TASS/: A fragment of a US Pegasus rocket will fly at a distance of 5.4 km from the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday afternoon, the press office of the Russian space agency Roscosmos reported on Wednesday.

MOSCOW, December 1. /TASS/: Russia suggests opening detailed talks on legal guarantees to stop NATO’s eastward expansion, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday.

"Our diplomats are currently faced with the prime task of obtaining reliable and long-term security guarantees," Putin said speaking at a ceremony of receiving foreign ambassadors’ credentials in Moscow.

MOSCOW, December 1. /TASS/: There is no alternative to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) for Iran’s nuclear program, and proposals for other options are making it harder to salvage the deal, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday.

MOSCOW, December 1. /TASS/: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Wednesday said he expects some anti-Russian statements to be made at the meeting of the OSCE Ministerial meeting on December 2-3, adding that Moscow will call for a dialog.

MOSCOW, December 1. /TASS/: The crew of the Soyuz MS-20 spacecraft made up of cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin as TASS’ first-ever special reporter in space, Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa and his business assistant Yozo Hirano will return to Earth on the morning of December 20, Roscosmos told TASS on Wednesday.

"The undocking with the ISS is scheduled for 02:53 Moscow time, the engines will be activated from 05:24 to 05:28 and the landing is expected at 06:18 in the Kazakh steppe," the press office said.