Europe

THE HAGUE, November 29. /TASS/: Russia is going to press for proper answers from France, Sweden, Britain and Germany regarding the case of blogger Alexey Navalny, Russia’s representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Alexander Shulgin told the 26th conference of the organization’s member-countries. 

He stressed that "there are traces of a provocation and of politicization of the whole affair."

RIGA (Latvia), Nov 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The European Union needs to buy time to assess fully the implications of the new Omicron coronavirus variant and to prepare, notably by pushing for greater vaccination rates, the president of the European Commission said.

First discovered in South Africa, the variant has now been detected in EU countries Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, along with Australia, Botswana, Britain, Hong Kong and Israel.

Ursula Von der Leyen, speaking during a visit to Latvia, said she took the variant seriously.

PRAGUE, Nov 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Czech President Milos Zeman appointed the leader of a centre-right alliance Petr Fiala as prime minister in a ceremony he performed from a plexiglass cubicle after testing positive for COVID-19.

Fiala leads a bloc of five centre and centre-right opposition parties that won an election in October, ousting the incumbent premier Andrej Babis and his allies.

 MADRID, Nov 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The coronavirus pandemic will cost the global tourism sector $2.0 trillion in lost revenue in 2021, the UN’s tourism body said Monday, calling the sector’s recovery “fragile” and “slow”.

  The forecast from the Madrid-based World Tourism Organization comes as Europe is grappling with a surge in infections and as a new heavily mutated Covid-19 variant, dubbed Omicron, spreads across the globe.

LONDON, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Israel urged world leaders to keep up pressure on Iran and not lift sanctions as part of nuclear negotiations that were set to resume in Vienna on Monday, saying that tighter supervision of Tehran was needed.

Negotiators were to convene in a last-ditch effort to salvage a 2015 nuclear deal abandoned three years later by the United States under then-President Donald Trump, who then reimposed sweeping U.S. sanctions on Iran. That led to breaches of the deal by Tehran, and dismayed the other powers involved.

SUNDERLAND, England, Nov 29 (Reuters) - When Britain left the European Union on Jan. 31 last year, Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his top ministers travelled to Sunderland for a special cabinet meeting and hailed "a new chapter in the United Kingdom's story."

The post-industrial city, in northeast England, holds a special significance for Johnson and his fellow Brexit campaigners. It became known as "Brexit city" when it was the first region to fall to the "Leave" side in a 2016 referendum, with support of nearly two thirds of Sunderland voters.

STOCKHOLM, Nov. 29 (Xinhua) -- Swedish parliament elected on Monday once again Magdalena Andersson as the country's new prime minister, after she was elected and later resigned last Wednesday.

Andersson is scheduled to announce her cabinet members on Tuesday, and she is scheduled to take office after a meeting with King Carl XVI Gustaf.

MOSCOW (AP) — Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Monday accused Lithuanian authorities of dumping the bodies of migrants on the border between the two countries — a claim rejected by Lithuania amid soaring tensions over migration.

Lukashenko also warned that his country with stand squarely behind its ally Russia if the Ukrainian authorities launch an offensive against Moscow-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine. He tried to cast the tensions over migrants as part of a purported Western plot against Belarus and Russia.

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — The imprisoned former president of ex-Soviet republic Georgia appeared in court Monday on charges of abuse of office, proceedings that triggered scuffles between his supporters and police.

Mikheil Saakashvili, who served as president in 2008-13, left Georgia for Ukraine after the end of his second term and was later convicted in absentia of abuse of power and sentenced to six years in prison. He was arrested on Oct. 1 after returning to Georgia to try to bolster opposition forces before nationwide municipal elections.

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s navy successfully test-fired a prospective hypersonic missile, the military said Monday.

The Defense Ministry said that the Admiral Gorshkov frigate in the White Sea launched the Zircon cruise missile, hitting a practice target 400 kilometers (215 nautical miles) away.

The launch was the latest in a series of tests of Zircon, which is set to enter service next year.