Europe

PARIS, Dec 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The French government can go ahead with plans to trawl social media to detect tax avoidance, the constitutional court has ruled.

Customs and tax officials will be allowed to review users’ profiles, posts and pictures for evidence of undisclosed income.

The new rules are part of a broader law on tax changes passed last week.

Human rights groups and the French data protection authority had expressed concern over the moves.

MOSCOW, Dec 29 (NNN-TASS) – The Russian Defence Ministry, spent more than 1.5 trillion rubles (24.2 billion U.S. dollars) this year, on weapons and state defence activities, Deputy Defence Minister, Aleksey Krivoruchko, said.

These funds made it possible to further develop the armament system of the Armed Forces, Krivoruchko told the defence ministry’s official newspaper, Krasnaya Zvezda, in an interview, published Saturday.

MOSCOW, December 28. /TASS/: The upcoming year of 2020 on the international arena will be marked by the presidential election in the United States, Russian Foreign Ministry's official spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Rossiya-24 TV channel on Friday.

"The next year will be marked by the US presidential election in terms of international politics," Zakharova said.

MOSCOW, December 23: German company Uniper, which is a partner of Gazprom in the Nord Stream 2 construction project, expressed confidence that opportunities would be found to quickly complete the construction of the pipeline.

"We are confident that ways will be found to quickly complete the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. This would be important for Europe, because the pipeline will strengthen the security of gas supplies and competition in our markets for the benefit of consumers," the company’s spokesman Georg Oppermann told TASS.

DONETSK, December 28. /TASS/: A prisoner swap between the self-proclaimed Donbass republics and Kiev will take place on December 29 under the "all identified for all identified" formula, Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) envoy to the Contact Group for settlement in eastern Ukraine Daria Morozova informed on Saturday. She added that Kiev is expected to hand over 87 people for Donbass’ 55.

MOSCOW, December 28. /TASS/: An Ural Airlines plane is preparing for emergency landing at Koltsovo Airport in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg, a source in the region’s emergency services informed TASS.

"An Ural Airlines plane is getting ready for emergency landing at Koltsovo. This is a flight from Yekaterinburg to Simferopol," the source stated, adding that currently, the aircraft is burning off fuel.

A source in the emergency services of Yekaterinburg informed TASS that according to the preliminary data, the plane’s systems detected a technical malfunction.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia deployed its first regiment of hypersonic nuclear-capable missiles on Friday, the Defence Ministry said, a move which President Vladimir Putin has boasted puts his country in a class of its own.

Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has informed Putin of the deployment, according to a ministry statement that did not disclose where the missiles were located.

Moscow, Dec 28 (NNN-Prensa Latina) — Russia reiterated its call to support the process of dialogue in Venezuela and its rejection of foreign interference in the South American nation, where opposition forces continue to promote acts of violence.

Spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, María Zakharova, recalled that last Sunday, a plan was foiled to assault garrisons in the Venezuelan state of Bolívar.

PARIS, Dec 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The French government can go ahead with plans to trawl social media to detect tax avoidance, the constitutional court has ruled.

Customs and tax officials will be allowed to review users’ profiles, posts and pictures for evidence of undisclosed income.

The new rules are part of a broader law on tax changes passed last week.

Human rights groups and the French data protection authority had expressed concern over the moves.

RIGA, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- A signature campaign will start in Latvia in mid-January in a bid to stop controversial amendments to the municipal election law coming into effect, the Baltic country's election authority announced on Friday.

Eligible voters will be able to sign the petition against the disputed amendments from Jan. 16 to Feb. 14, 2020, the Central Election Commission said.