Europe

MOSCOW, November 25. /TASS/: Russia has registered 33,796 new confirmed COVID-19 infections over the past 24 hours, with the total number of infections reaching 9,468,189 cases, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told reporters on Thursday.

According to the crisis center, the relative increase of new infections is at the level of 0.36%.

MINSK, November 25. /TASS/: The Belarusian Defense Ministry reported on Thursday that a decision was made to ramp up air defense quick reaction alert forces and carry out joint air patrols with Russian combat aircraft along the republic’s state border.

KEMEROVO, November 25. /TASS/: The authorities of West Siberia’s coal mining area, Kuzbass, have declared three days of mourning for the victims of the Listvyazhnaya coalmine emergency, where eleven workers are known to have died and another 35 remain unaccounted for, Governor Sergey Tsivilyov said on his official Telegram channel.

"Governor Sergey Tsivilyov declared three days of mourning on November 26-28 for the coal workers who died in the accident," the news release runs.

GENEVA, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Switzerland is open to compromise in talks on the intellectual property (IP) rights of COVID-19 vaccines and drugs at the World Trade Organization, but remains opposed to a full waiver of those rights, a senior Swiss diplomat said on Thursday.

Switzerland is one of a handful of WTO members alongside the United Kingdom and the European Union opposed to a waiver of IP rights protected by the TRIPS agreement in negotiations at the WTO that began in October 2020.

STOCKHOLM, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson, who resigned only hours after winning lawmakers' backing as prime minister earlier this week, will get a second chance to form a government, the speaker of parliament said on Thursday.

Andersson's resignation as prime minister on Wednesday was prompted by a decision by coalition partner the Greens to leave the government after the budget bill was defeated in parliament. 

Nov 25 (Reuters) - The EU's drug regulator approved the use of Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine for children between the ages of five and 11 on Thursday, paving the way for them to be given a first shot as Europe struggles with a surge in cases.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) recommended that Pfizer-BioNTech's (PFE.N)(22UAy.DE) vaccine, approved for European Union use in teenagers between 12 and 17 years old since May, be given as an injection in the upper arm in two 10 microgram doses, three weeks apart. Adult doses contain 30 micrograms.

KYIV, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Ukraine's foreign minister warned Russia on Thursday that an attack on his country would incur "political, economic and human losses" and would be too costly.

Russia has been building up forces near its border with Ukraine, and Kyiv, the United States and NATO have voiced concerns about a possible Russian attack -- a suggestion the Kremlin has dismissed as false. 

"We are not trying to guess what is in (Russian President Vladimir) Putin's head," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told a televised briefing.

ZAGREB, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) -- Croatia and France signed here Thursday a Strategic Partnership Agreement and a deal for Croatia to purchase 12 French Rafale fighter jets.

"All the talks we have represent the beginning of a new phase in the relations between Croatia and France," Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said at a press conference after his talks with visiting French President Emmanuel Macron.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Swedish lawmakers will vote next week on whether Magdalena Andersson, who briefly became the country’s first female prime minister before resigning after a budget defeat, can form a minority government, the parliament speaker said Thursday.

SOCHI, Russia (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Moscow would continue providing natural gas to Serbia on terms favorable to its ally.

Putin voiced confidence that a new contract for gas supplies to Serbia would be signed quickly to replace the current one that expires at year-end.

“We will find a solution that would definitely be acceptable to our Serbian friends,” Putin said at the start of talks at his Black Sea residence in Sochi with visiting Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic,