Europe

HELSINKI, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Danish shipping company A.P. Moller-Maersk (MAERSKb.CO) will pause all container shipments through the Red Sea until further notice, a spokesperson for the company told Reuters on Friday.

"Following the near-miss incident involving Maersk Gibraltar yesterday and yet another attack on a container vessel today, we have instructed all Maersk vessels in the area bound to pass through the Bab al-Mandab Strait to pause their journey until further notice," the company said in a statement.

MOSCOW, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Russia plans to conduct seven launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) in 2024, the commander of the Russian Strategic Missile Forces (SMF) Lieutenant General Sergei Karakayev said on Friday.

In an interview with Russian newspaper Red Star, Karakayev said that in the past five years, the SMF has conducted more than 20 ICBM launches as part of flight tests of new missile systems and training exercises for the Russian armed forces.

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union failed to agree on a 50 billion-euro ($54 billion) package in financial aid that Ukraine desperately needs to stay afloat, even as the bloc decided Thursday to open accession negotiations with the war-torn country.

The aid was vetoed by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, delivering another tough blow to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after he failed this week to persuade U.S. lawmakers to approve an additional $61 billion for Ukraine, mainly to buy weapons from the U.S.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Dozens of migrants crossed into Finland on Friday, hours before the reclosure of two southern crossing points on the border with Russia as the Nordic country experiences an influx of asylum-seekers.

The Vaalimaa and Niirala crossings had reopened briefly Thursday after being shut down at the end of last month, along with Finland’s six other posts on the border with Russia.

Finland blames Moscow for sending migrants to the border in an effort to destabilize the country, which joined NATO in April. Russia denies the accusation.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Denmark is holding two people in custody and four others are the target of a terrorism investigation, a prosecutor said Friday, in a case that coincided with an arrest in the Netherlands and several in Germany of alleged Hamas members.

Authorities in Germany said three people arrested there were suspected of preparing for attacks on Jewish institutions in Europe. Danish authorities said that one person was arrested in the Netherlands, but it wasn’t clear if there were any ties to the Hamas investigation in Germany.

LE PECQ, France (AP) — The vehicle’s headlights silhouetted the exhausted teenager walking alone in the rain in deepest rural France, with a skateboard tucked under his arm.

“I said to myself, ‘That’s strange. It’s 3 am in the morning, it’s raining, he’s all by himself on the road between two villages,” delivery driver Fabien Accidini recounted.

From there, the story gets stranger still. The youngster, it turned out, was Alex Batty, a 17-year-old from Britain who had been missing since 2017.

BAKU, December 14. /TASS/: Azerbaijan and Armenia are closer to a peace agreement than ever, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said at the press conference in Baku, where he is on an official visit.

MOSCOW, December 14. /TASS/: The conflict in Ukraine is a tragedy, akin to a civil war between brothers, President Vladimir Putin said at the combined Direct Line Q&A and year-end press conference.

"What is happening now [in Ukraine] is a huge tragedy, a kind of civil war," he said.

STOCKHOLM, December 14. /TASS/: Finland has decided to once again close all crossing points along the border with Russia, Minister of the Interior Mari Rantanen said.

"The border will be closed from tomorrow, Friday, December 15, 8:00 p.m. (6:00 p.m. GMT), and [the closing procedure] will be completed on January 14. <...> We have been able to state that illegal immigration on Finland's eastern border has continued," Rantanen said during a parliamentary question-and-answer meeting, broadcast on the Finnish Cabinet’s website.

BRUSSELS, December 15. /TASS/: Austria has lifted its objections to the 12th package of anti-Russian sanctions, but it is yet to be adopted, a European source told reporters on the sidelines of the ongoing EU summit in Brussels.

"Yes, it has withdrawn," the source said.

The diplomat emphasized that the document was still in the process of formal adoption.

Earlier, Reuters reported, citing EU sources, that the process was blocked by Austria, who demanded that Ukraine exclude its Raiffeisen Bank International from the blacklist of companies supporting Russia.