Europe

MOSCOW, February 17. /TASS/: Russia’s COVID-19 case tally rose by 180,622 over the past day to 14,840,502, the anti-coronavirus crisis center reported on Thursday.

In relative terms, the growth rate reached 1.23%.

As many as 18,090 patients with COVID-19 were hospitalized in Russia in the past day, down 7.6% from a day earlier. Meanwhile, in 58 regions the number of those hospitalized has decreased, while in 27 regions the number has increased, according to the crisis center.

MOSCOW, February 17. /TASS/: The Kremlin is not ready to and will not consider complaints, including from the US, on how Russia deploys its armed forces on its own soil, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.

LISBON, Feb 17 (Reuters) - As an Omicron-fuelled wave of infections ebbs, Portugal said on Thursday it would drop most of its remaining coronavirus rules, including the requirement to show the COVID-19 digital pass to stay at hotels or a negative test to enter nightclubs.

"This is a very important moment," Cabinet Minister Mariana Vieira da Silva told a news conference. "This is another a step towards a return to normal life."

BRUSSELS, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Estonia's prime minister said on Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin is enjoying the international attention generated by Russia's massive military drills on Ukraine's borders and is looking for a successful war to lift support at home.

Speaking to Reuters, Kaja Kallas also said the situation was extremely grave and that Moscow must not be given any kind of concessions as long as it maintained more than 100,000 troops near Ukraine. It would be a negotiation at gunpoint, she said.

STOCKHOLM, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Ericsson (ERICb.ST) informed the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) about an internal investigation into payments in Iraq when it signed a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) in 2019 to settle resolve separate corruption probes, sources familiar with the matter said.

The Swedish company's shares fell 14% on Wednesday over concerns that the company might be subject to another fine by the DoJ.

LISBON, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Thousands of Portuguese voters living across Europe will be asked to cast their ballots for a second time in March, the National Electoral Commission (CNE) has announced, delaying the swearing in of a new Socialist government elected on Jan. 30.

The partial rerun comes after the top court ruled on Tuesday that an informal agreement by political parties to scrap a requirement for voters to include a copy of their identity document with their mail-in ballot was "grossly illegal", deeming 157,000 such votes invalid.

AMSTERDAM/BANGKOK, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Myanmar's military junta is to take part in hearings at the top United Nations court in The Hague next week despite a complaint from political opponents that this could give it international recognition without legal standing.

The hearings complicate a jurisdictional dispute arising from Gambia's claim filed in 2019 at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), also known as the World Court, accusing Myanmar of genocide against its minority Muslim Rohingya population.

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leader held a short summit meeting Thursday to push the chances of diplomacy to unlock the standoff over Ukraine and reaffirm their joint determination to impose massive sanctions if Russia invades its neighbor.

The hastily called summit preceded a two-day EU-Africa meeting which brought the 27 EU leaders to Brussels. It did not go into deep detail of what sanctions should be used and how those measures would hit the economies of the member states.

PARIS (AP) — Two words, taboo for many in France because they evoke a conspiracy theory embraced by white supremacists, have been haunting the French presidential campaign.

“Great replacement” rolls off the tongue of presidential candidate Eric Zemmour, an outsider with views to the right of the far-right who has made the term the underpinning of his campaign. But when mainstream conservative presidential candidate Valerie Pecresse pronounced them at her first major rally last weekend, politicians and pundits screamed foul, saying she had crossed a red line.

16 Feb 2022; MEMO: A coalition of civilian society, human rights and religious organisation in the UK have stepped up the coordination of opposition activities against a controversial law which is currently being debated in parliament.

The Nationality and Borders Bill which has already passed its third and final reading in the House of commons will give the Home Secretary the right to strip Britons with foreign ancestry of their nationality without notice.