Europe

MOSCOW, November 22. /TASS/: Gazprom’s 3.59% stake owned by Gazprom Gazoraspredelenie (the holding’s subsidiary) is to be sold to one buyer, according to the Moscow Exchange.

The selling price of the holding’s package was set at 220.72 rubles ($3) per share. Thus, Gazprom shares could be sold for about 187.7 bln rubles ($2.9 bln), Gazprom reported.

MOSCOW, November 22. /TASS/: New tests of the latest Tsirkon hypersonic missile will take place at a naval range of the Northern Fleet before the end of the year, a source in defense circles of Russia’s North-Western Federal District told TASS on Friday.

"A Tsirkon missile is expected to be launched from the White Sea before the end of the year. The specific date will be set as soon as the technical equipment is ready," the source said.

Specialists are now making a special stand based on a pontoon, from which the latest missile will be test-fired, the source added.

MOSCOW, November 21. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold a customary year-end news conference on December 19, the Kremlin’s press service has said. Accreditation for the event has been announced.

"The Presidential Press and Information Office’s Department of Accreditation and Briefings is beginning accreditation for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annual news conference," the press service announced in a news release on Friday.

London, Nov 21, IRNA - Russia says the US remained isolated in Thursday night’s session of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)’s Board of Governors that discussed Iran’s nuclear energy programme. 

“Debates on Iran in IAEA Board of Governors today were tough… Almost all are fully committed to the JCPOA. The US remain isolated,” tweeted Russia’s Ambassador to international organisations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov on Thursday. 

Paris, 22 Nov 2019; AA: NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg highlighted the importance of Turkey for the alliance in an interview Thursday with French newspaper Le Figaro. 

“All allies have criticized the operation, but no one questioned Turkey’s place in NATO,” Stoltenberg told the paper, referring to Operation Peace Spring launched by Turkey in October.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has handed top state awards to the widows of five scientists killed in an accident while testing what he called an advanced weapons system without equal in the world.

The five men died on Aug. 8 in what their employer, state nuclear agency Rosatom, said was an accident during a rocket test on a sea platform off northern Russia, an incident which caused radiation levels in the surrounding area to briefly spike.

LONDON (Reuters) - London’s Canary Wharf underground station reopened on Friday after an incident involving a faulty fan left dust on the platform, the city’s transport operator said.

British transport police said the incident was not a security or police matter.

LONDON (Reuters) - British police arrested a 23-year old man from Northern Ireland on Friday as part of their enquiry into the deaths of 39 Vietnamese people found in the back of a truck near London last month.

“He was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to traffic people and conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration and remains in custody,” Essex Police said in a statement.

The man was arrested on a motorway in Beaconsfield, a town 25 miles west of London, the statement said.

ZAGREB, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) -- The European People's Party's (EPP) congress adopted here on Thursday a resolution in which they reject climate skepticism, "green socialism" and "Utopian environmentalist policies".

The party believes that green innovation is conducive to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the Croatian news agency HINA reported.

"Investments in research and development of all available low-carbon and carbon-free technologies to reduce greenhouse gases are necessary to achieve zero net emissions," the resolution said.

OSLO, Nov 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) – A 32-year-old Norwegian, who stole and sped in the streets for 15 minutes in Oslo last month, was charged with five attempted murders, newspaper VG reported.

“He is charged with attempted murders and it concerns an elderly married couple and a mother with pram with twins,” Kari Kirkhorn, police attorney, told VG.

Norwegian police arrested the man on Oct 22, the same day when he drove over a woman with the baby pram, and forced an elderly couple to jump away in front of the car he had hijacked.