Europe

MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian girl shot several classmates at school Thursday, killing one person and wounding five others before killing herself, state news agencies and authorities said.

The shooting happened at a school in Bryansk, a city in a region of the same name that borders Ukraine, Russia’s Investigative Committee said.

One of the people wounded was in serious condition, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti said.

MOSCOW, December 6. /TASS/: Russian forces destroyed command posts of two Ukrainian army brigades over the past day in the special military operation in Ukraine, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Wednesday.

"Command posts of the 31st mechanized brigade and the 12th special operations brigade, a UAV control post of the Ukrainian army’s 109th mechanized brigade, ammunition and fuel depots were destroyed," the ministry said in a statement.

MOSCOW, December 6. /TASS/: The Russian Foreign Ministry has warned about possible delays in the provision of consular services in Germany following the closure of the Russian Consulate General in Frankfurt am Main.

MOSCOW, December 6. /TASS/: British diplomats these days are keen to position themselves as peacemakers in the situation around Ukraine, although it was London that banned Kiev from conducting peace talks with Moscow, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has told a news briefing.

She was commenting on media reports that British diplomats were allegedly putting pressure on the Ukrainian authorities in order to make them to come to the negotiating table with Russia.

PARIS, Dec 6 (NNN-AGENCIES) — This year will be the hottest in recorded history after November became the sixth record-breaking month in a row, Europe’s climate monitor said Wednesday, piling pressure on the COP28 talks to act on climate change.

“The extraordinary global November temperatures, including two days warmer than 2C above pre-industrial (levels), mean that 2023 is the warmest year in recorded history,” said Samantha Burgess, deputy head of the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

ROME, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Italy has officially informed China that it is quitting the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), dismissing fears the move might sour relations and damage the Italian economy, government sources said on Wednesday.

Italy in 2019 became the first and so far only major Western nation to join the trade and investment programme, ignoring warnings from the United States that it might let China take control of sensitive technologies and vital infrastructure.

LONDON, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (UK) Boris Johnson admitted on Wednesday that he made mistakes during the COVID-19 pandemic and was "deeply sorry," but he insisted the mistakes were inevitable.

"Can I say that I understand the feelings of the victims and their families, and I am deeply sorry for the pain and the loss and the suffering of those victims and their families," Johnson said as he began two days of questioning by lawyers for a judge-led inquiry about his handling of the pandemic while serving as prime minister.

STOCKHOLM (AP) — On the brink of joining NATO, Sweden has signed a defense cooperation agreement with Washington that will allow the United States access to all of the military bases across the Scandinavian country, saying the deal would bolster regional security.

Swedish Defense Minister Pål Jonson said the deal, signed in Washington Tuesday, “will create better conditions for Sweden to be able to receive support from the United States in the event of a war or crisis.”

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — When Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000, the outside world viewed those Russians known as “oligarchs” as men who whose vast wealth, ruthlessly amassed, made them almost shadow rulers. A “government of the few,” in the word’s etymology.

The term has persisted well into Putin’s rule, broadening in popular usage to refer to almost any Russian with a substantial fortune.

How much political power any of Russia’s uber-rich now wield, however, is doubtful.

LONDON (AP) — Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson defended his handling of COVID-19 on Wednesday at a public inquiry into the pandemic, saying his government “got some things wrong” but did its best.

Johnson began two days of questioning under oath by lawyers for the judge-led inquiry about his initial reluctance to impose a national lockdown in early 2020 and other fateful decisions.