Europe

BRUSSELS, Nov 20 (NNN-XINHUA) — Faced with soaring numbers of COVID-19 cases, many European countries have tightened anti-pandemic measures and accelerated vaccination programmes.

  According to the World Health Organization’s weekly report on Tuesday, during the past week there were 230 newly confirmed cases per 100,000 people in Europe within seven days, the highest rate in the world.

BRUSSELS, Nov 20 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan will meet in Brussels in mid-December to discuss tensions that have led to border clashes, the European Union said.

“Leaders have agreed to meet in Brussels to discuss the regional situation and ways of overcoming tensions for a prosperous and stable South Caucasus, which the EU supports,” a spokesman for Charles Michel, the president of the European Council representing EU member states, said in a statement.

BRUSSELS, Nov 20 (Reuters) - The European Commission has started a long-awaited probe into whether Poland and Hungary should continue to receive billions of euros from the EU budget because of problems with corruption and the rule of law.

Commission documents on Saturday showed letters were sent to Warsaw and Budapest on Friday asking governments for clarifications under a recent EU law allowing the suspension of EU cash if it may be misspent.

PARIS, Nov 20 (Reuters) - A large fire broke out in a building on boulevard des Capucines, near the Place de L'Opera square in central Paris on Saturday, sending clouds of smoke rising into the air.

"Firemen are intervening, avoid the area," the Prefecture de Police said in a statement on Twitter.

It was not immediately clear what caused the fire.

BERLIN, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Germany's next cabinet is taking shape as coalition negotiations near a deal, with chancellor-in-waiting Olaf Scholz determined to deliver on his campaign pledge to have as many women as men in his team, sources said on Saturday.

Scholz's centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), who narrowly won the federal election in September by beating Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives, are trying to form a three-way ruling coalition with the pro-spending Greens and the fiscally conservative Free Democrats (FDP).

LONDON, Nov 20 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has ordered a cross-government review into the migrant crisis as he is “exasperated” by a failure to stem the number of crossings from France, The Times reported on Saturday.

British frustration at the number of migrants illegally crossing the English Channel from French shores has resurfaced in recent days after more than 1,000 refugees reached southern England in a single day last week. Some 22,000 migrants have made the crossing this year.

WARSAW/BIALYSTOK, Poland, Nov 20 (Reuters) - The number of migrants trying to force their way into Poland from Belarus fell again on Friday after an apparent change in tack by Minsk that could help calm a crisis that has escalated into a major East-West confrontation.

The Polish Border Guard said on Twitter that there were 195 attempts to cross the frontier on Friday, down from 250 on Thursday and 501 the day before, though Warsaw warned that the migrant crisis was far from over.

FRANKFURT, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- The European Central Bank (ECB) must not rush to tighten its monetary policy since the elevated inflation rates look transitory, the bank's President, Christine Lagarde, told the Frankfurt European Banking Congress on Friday.

Speaking via video link, Lagarde stressed that the ECB's monetary policy should be kept consistent to facilitate the return of inflation to the two percent target over the medium term when interest rates remain low.

PRAGUE (AP) — Coronavirus infections rates in the Czech Republic hit a new record for the second time this week, the Health Ministry said on Saturday.

It announced that the daily tally jumped to 22,936 on Friday, almost 500 more than the previous record set on Tuesday.

The country’s infection rate has risen to 929 new cases per 100,000 residents over the past seven days.

In a worrying sign, 110 people died on Thursday, the ministry said, with the daily death toll surpassing 100 for the first time since April.

VIENNA (AP) — Thousands of protesters gathered in Vienna on Saturday after the Austrian government announced a nationwide lockdown to contain the quickly rising coronavirus infections in the country.

The far-right opposition Freedom Party was among those who have called for the protest and vowed to combat the new restrictions.

Demonstrations against virus measures were also expected in other European countries including Switzerland, Croatia and Italy.