Europe

VIENNA (AP) — Negotiators gathered in Vienna on Monday to resume talks over reviving Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, with hopes of quick progress muted after the arrival of a hard-line new government in Tehran led to a more than five-month hiatus.

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — From appliance stores in the United States to food markets in Hungary and gas stations in Poland, rising consumer prices fueled by high energy costs and supply chain disruptions are putting a pinch on households and businesses worldwide.

Rising inflation is leading to price increases for food, gas and other products and pushing many people to choose between digging deeper into their pockets or tightening their belts. In developing economies, it’s especially dire.

29 Nov 2021; MEMO: Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid arrived in the UK capital London yesterday on a two-day trip that will also see him visit France in a bid to mobilise against the possible signing of a new Iranian nuclear deal, a statement said yesterday.

According to Haaretz, Lapid will meet several high-ranking British officials including Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Cases of the omicron variant of the coronavirus popped up in countries on opposite sides of the world Sunday and many governments rushed to close their borders even as scientists cautioned that it’s not clear if the new variant is more alarming than other versions of the virus.

ATHENS, November 28. /TASS/: The visit of Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to Russia on December 8 will open a new chapter in relations between both countries, Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece and Co-Chair of the Russian-Greek Commission on Economic, Industrial, Scientific and Technical Cooperation, Miltiadis Varvitsiodis, reported on Sunday. The diplomat will take part in the 13th session of the commission in Moscow on November 29-30, as well as prepare the visit of the Greek prime minister to Russia.

MOSCOW, November 28. /TASS/: None of the Western countries wants open confrontation between Russia and NATO. The West will do its utmost to prevent this, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in an interview with the RT TV channel.

"I believe, and that’s my personal opinion, that even in the western part of Europe no one wants to have such a conflict. So, I think that everyone in the West does everything possible to avoid conflict. I’m pretty sure of that," he said.

MOSCOW, November 28. /TASS/: Russia has registered 33,548 new confirmed COVID-19 infections over the past 24 hours, with the total number of infections reaching 9,570,373 cases, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told reporters on Sunday.

According to the crisis center, the relative increase of new infections is at the level of 0.35%.

In the past 24-hour period, 2,072 new cases were uncovered in St. Petersburg, 2,046 - in the Moscow Region, 974 - in the Samara Region, 754 - in the Voronezh Region, and 719 - in the Nizhny Novgorod Region.

MOSCOW, November 28. /TASS/: The omicron variant of the novel coronavirus has not been registered in Russia at present, Head of the Scientific Group for the Development of New Methods for Diagnosing Human Diseases at the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology of Rospotrebnadzor, Kamil Khafizov, reported on Sunday.

"As of Sunday, the Omicron variant has not been detected. At the same time, intensive work has been underway to sequence the coronavirus genome, including from patients who have recently visited foreign countries."

MOSCOW, November 28. /TASS/: Allegations that Russia is planning to attack anyone are absolutely groundless, Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov told TASS on Sunday.

"Allegations that Russia is planning to attack anyone and rebukes that it is behaving aggressively are absolutely groundless and wrong," he said, when asked to comment Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s statement that Russian President Vladimir Putin "must say it publicly" that Russia has no plans to attack Ukraine.

GENEVA, Nov 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The World Trade Organization (WTO) became the first major diplomatic casualty of the new coronavirus variant on Friday when it postponed its first ministerial meeting in four years due to the deteriorating health situation.

Ministers from WTO members were due to have gathered next week for a meeting widely seen as a test of the WTO’s relevance.