Europe

PARIS, Dec 20 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A European operation to ensure safe shipping in the Gulf region, scene of attacks on merchant vessels this year, will get underway next month when a French warship starts patrolling there, a French armed forces spokeswoman said.

The French government has pushed for a European security alternative in the Strait of Hormuz after ruling out taking part in a US-led coalition protecting oil tankers and cargo ships from what Washington says is a threat from Iran.

MOSCOW, December 19. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin's statetements about the Libyan crisis will be heard by the parties in the conflict, senior lecturer at the Department of Political Science at the Higher School of Economics Grigory Lukyanov told TASS.

Putin said at the traditional annual press conference on Thursday that it would be right for the parties in the Libyan conflict to find a solution that "would allow to stop military actions" and to "agree on who, how and with what powers would govern the country."

MOSCOW, December 20. /TASS/: Russian air defense units detect about 250 reconnaissance aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles near the country’s southern borders per year, Commander of the Fourth Air and Air Defense Force Major-General Nikolai Gostev told the Russian Armed Forces’ newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda.

BERLIN, December 19. /TASS/: Talks on Russian gas transit between Russia, Ukraine and the European Commission (EC) will be held once more until the end of 2019, executive director of Naftogaz Yury Vitrenko told TASS on Thursday after trilateral consultations in Berlin.

"Yes, there will be [another meeting]. It will be held soon, by the end of the year," Vitrenko said in response to a corresponding question. He added that the meeting will be most likely held in the trilateral format. "Let's see, we have three parties — the European Union, Ukraine and Russia," Vitrenko noted.

BERLIN, December 19. /TASS/: Russia and Ukraine with the mediation from the European Commission have reached at consultations in Berlin a principla agreement on gas transit, former vice president for Energy Union Maros Sefcovic said on Thursday.

"Talks were very intensive," Sefcovic said. "We have a principal agreement today, details will be discussed tomorrow in the capitals," he added.

This represents "good news for Europe, Russia, Ukraine and the gas market," Sefcovic noted.

MOSCOW, December 20. /TASS/: A closing ceremony of Russian-Indian joint military exercise "Indra-2019" has been held in the Uttar Pradesh state in India's north-west, the press service of the Russian Pacific Fleet said on Friday.

SEVERODVINSK /Arkhangelsk Region/, December 20. /TASS/: The Sevmash Shipyard (part of the United Shipbuilding Corporation) plans to deliver four nuclear-powered submarines to the Russian Navy in 2020, Sevmash CEO Mikhail Budnichenko told TASS on Friday.

20 December 2019; AFP: Britain's freshly-elected parliament prepared on Friday to move past years of partisan wrangling and initially approve Prime Minister Boris Johnson's divorce deal with the EU.

The all-but-certain outcome in the lower House of Commons will help Johnson on his way towards meeting his winning campaign promise to "get Brexit done" on January 31.

But it will also push London and Brussels closer to another cliff edge at the end of 2020 that might disrupt decades of unfettered trade.

MOSCOW (AP) — An unidentified gunman opened fire Thursday outside the Moscow headquarters of Russia’s top security agency, killing one officer and wounding five others, officials said.

The Federal Security Service, or FSB, said the assailant was acting alone and didn’t enter its building. Earlier, it said the assailant had been “neutralized” — a term usually used by Russian officials when an assailant is killed.

19 Dec 2019; MEMO: Prince Charles is scheduled to visit the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel for the first time in January, Clarence House announced in a statement yesterday.

On behalf of the British government, the Prince of Wales will meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank, where the heir to the throne will “undertake engagements”.

His five-day trip will begin in Amman, the capital of Jordan, at the end of January and end in Jerusalem.