Europe

MOSCOW, Dec 26 (NNN-TASS) – Russian President, Vladimir Putin, attended a flag-raising ceremony, for three new warships that are set to join the country’s navy, the Kremlin reported, yesterday.

The Admiral Golovko frigate will join Russia’s Northern Fleet, while the Naro-Fominsk small-rocket ship and the Lev Chernavin minesweeper will serve in the country’s Baltic Fleet, the Russian leader said, during the ceremony he attended at the Severnaya Verf shipyard, in St. Petersburg.

Dec 26 (Reuters) - Ukraine's armed forces chief on Tuesday expressed frustration with the performance of military draft offices, in remarks suggesting they should mobilise more troops for the war against Russia.

General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi spoke at his first wartime news conference a day after Ukraine's parliament published the text of a draft law containing reforms to the army draft programme, including lowering the age of men who can be mobilised to 25 from 27.

VIENNA, Dec 26 (Reuters) - Iran has reversed a months-long slowdown in the rate at which it is enriching uranium to up to 60% purity, close to weapons grade, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Tuesday.

Many diplomats believed the slowdown, which had begun by June, was the result of secret talks between the United States and Iran that led to the release of U.S. citizens held in Iran earlier this year.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Russian naval ship in Crimea was damaged in an airstrike by Ukrainian forces, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday.

The landing ship Novocherkassk was hit at a base in the city of Feodosia by plane-launched guided missiles, the ministry said, adding that two Ukrainian fighter jets were destroyed by anti-aircraft fire during the attack.

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on Tuesday released a sardonic statement about his transfer to a Arctic prison colony nicknamed the “Polar Wolf,” his first appearance since associates lost contact with him three weeks ago.

Navalny, the most prominent and persistent domestic foe of President Vladimir Putin, is serving a 19-year sentence on an extremism conviction. He had been incarcerated in central Russia’s Vladimir region, about 230 kilometers (140 miles) east of Moscow, but supporters said he couldn’t be found beginning on Dec. 6.

LONDON, Dec. 25 (Xinhua) -- At risk of recession, the United Kingdom (UK) has witnessed a year of poor economic performance in 2023, and next year does not look promising either.

Inflation in the country has been running high for more than two years, making the cost-of-living crisis a heated topic across the nation. The consumer price index (CPI) rose by 3.9 percent in the 12 months to November 2023, mainly due to a drop in fuel prices and slower growth in food prices.

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Shipping firm Maersk says that it’s preparing to allow vessels to resume sailing through the Red Sea, thanks to the start of a U.S.-led multinational naval operation to protect shipping from attacks by Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Houthi attacks have led to a major disruption of shipping through the Suez Canal and the Red Sea, one of the most important arteries for trade in oil, natural gas, grain and consumer goods between Europe and Asia.

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbian police said Monday they have detained at least 38 people who took part in a protest against reported widespread irregularities during a recent general ballot that declared the governing populists as winners of the parliamentary and local councils’ elections.

Opposition group Serbia Against Violence has been staging protests since the Dec. 17 elections, saying there has been election fraud, particularly in the capital, Belgrade. Some politicians began a hunger strike.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday hailed the shooting down of two Russian fighter jets on Christmas Eve and said “this Christmas sets the right mood for the entire year ahead.”

In a Christmas message marking the first time the country has officially observed the holiday on Dec. 25 rather than Jan. 7, Zelenskyy also referred to Ukraine’s claim to have destroyed a further three Russian fighter planes on Friday.

MOSCOW (AP) — Associates of imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said Monday that he has been located at a prison colony above the Arctic Circle nearly three weeks after contact with him was lost.

Navalny, the most prominent foe of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is serving a 19-year sentence on charges of extremism. He had been imprisoned in the Vladimir region of central Russia, about 230 kilometers (140 miles) east of Moscow, but his lawyers said they had not been able to reach him since Dec. 6.