Europe

LONDON, Nov 27 (Reuters) - At least two people died and tens of thousands were left without power as Storm Arwen brought strong winds across many parts of the United Kingdom, with gusts of up to 100 miles per hour (160 kph).

One man died in Northern Ireland's County Antrim when his car was struck by a falling tree on Friday evening, police said in a statement. Local media reported the man was the principal of a primary school.

Another man was killed in Cumbria in the northwest of England when he was hit by a falling tree, police said.

VIENNA, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese and Russian envoys expressed their solemn stance against the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal between the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia at the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) Board of Governors meeting in Vienna on Friday.

The board set up a new agenda suggested by China, and for the first time dedicated discussions on the "Transfer of nuclear materials in the context of AUKUS and its safeguards in all aspects under the NPT (Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons)."

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian authorities on Friday released the names of 51 people presumed dead after a devastating methane explosion in a coal mine in Siberia, believed to be the deadliest since 2010.

The list with names of 46 miners and five rescuers was published online by the government of the Kemerovo region in southwestern Siberia, where the mine is located. Authorities had initially reported 52 possible fatalities, but search teams on Friday found a survivor in what officials described as a “miracle.”

26 Nov 2021; MEMO: Germany, on Friday, called on Iran to "fully cooperate" with the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and "answer all open questions" about its nuclear program, Anadolu News Agency reports.

"We support the IAEA's call on Iran. The country must cooperate fully and extensively with the IAEA. Ensure the transparency of its nuclear program and answer all open questions," Foreign Ministry deputy spokeswoman, Andrea Sasse, told a news conference in Berlin.

27 Nov 2021; MEMO: Russia, on Friday, chided the United States for threatening a diplomatic escalation with Iran at the UN nuclear watchdog next month unless it improves cooperation with the agency, saying it risked harming wider talks on the Iran nuclear deal, Reuters reports.

New Delhi, Nov 26 (PTI) Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit India for summit talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 6, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) announced on Friday.

Both the countries have a mechanism under which India's prime minister and the Russian president hold a summit meeting annually to review the entire gamut of ties.

GENEVA (AP) — The World Trade Organization is postponing its conference of government ministers set to open Tuesday after Switzerland initiated new travel restrictions following the emergence of a worrying new coronavirus variant, officials said.

The MC12 conference at WTO headquarters in Geneva was set to take up key issues like a long-awaited agreement on subsidies for fisheries, seen as a major way to prevent overfishing in the world’s seas, and an effort to waive patent and other intellectual property protections linked to COVID-19 vaccines.

BRUSSELS (AP) — Nearly two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, the world raced Friday to contain a new coronavirus variant potentially more dangerous than the one that has fueled relentless waves of infection on nearly every continent.

A World Health Organization panel named the variant “omicron” and classified it as a highly transmissible virus of concern, the same category that includes the predominant delta variant, which is still a scourge driving higher cases of sickness and death in Europe and parts of the United States.

MOSCOW, November 26. /TASS/: The upgrade of MiG-31 high-altitude fighter-interceptors will boost the efficiency of their missions, in particular to protect Russia’s northern frontiers amid other states’ growing interest in the Northern Sea Route, Merited Military Pilot of Russia, Major-General Vladimir Popov told TASS on Friday.

The pilot spoke about the modernization of MiG-31 fighters currently underway at the Sokol aviation enterprise in Nizhny Novgorod in the Volga area.

MOSCOW, November 26. /TASS/: Russia’s Sputnik V jab, if necessary, can be quickly adjusted to take on a new strain of coronavirus found in South Africa, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) Kirill Dmitriev said in an interview with the RT TV channel.

"We can quickly adapt the vaccine to the new variant of the coronavirus, if it is required," he said.

"We do believe that Sputnik V is for the moment the most effective vaccine against mutations of the coronavirus," he added.