News in Brief
MOSCOW (Reuters) -- Authorities in Moscow arrested a physicist on suspicion of state treason for allegedly passing classified information about Russia’s aviation industry abroad, news agencies reported late on Thursday. A Moscow court ruled that Anatoly Gubanov, who works for the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute, would be held in custody for two months pending trial. Gubanov could be jailed for up to 20 years if found guilty of state treason, though details of the accusations are unlikely to come to light as treason cases are usually classified. Russia sentenced a man to 13 years in prison for trying to pass military secrets to the United States last month, and in October detained a serviceman and his brother for allegedly passing state secrets to Estonia.
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LONDON (AP) — America’s top infectious disease expert has apologized for suggesting UK authorities rushed their authorization of a COVID-19 vaccine, saying he has "great faith” in the country’s regulators. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, had sparked controversy with an earlier interview in which he said UK regulators hadn’t acted "as carefully” as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Fauci said late Thursday that he meant to say U.S. authorities do things differently than their British counterparts, not better, but his comments weren’t phrased properly. Britain on Wednesday became the first Western nation to authorize widespread use of a COVID-19 vaccine when regulators gave emergency approval to a product made by U.S. drugmaker Pfizer and Germany-based BioNTech. Critics have suggested that UK regulators emphasized speed over thoroughness when they reviewed data on the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine.
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NEW DELHI (Reuters) -- India summoned Canada’s ambassador on Friday and said comments made by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over protests by farmers near Delhi were an interference in its domestic affairs and would seriously hurt bilateral ties. Trudeau, speaking to the Indian community in Canada, said this week that he was concerned about the farmers, most of them from the Sikh-dominated state of Punjab, camped out on the outskirts of Delhi in a protest against farm reforms. The Indian foreign ministry said in a statement that comments on "issues relating to Indian farmers constitute an unacceptable interference in our internal affairs.” India and Canada have warm ties, but in recent years there has been concern in India that some Sikh leaders in Canada have ties to separatist groups hostile to India. Canada is home to an influential Sikh community and Indian leaders say there are some fringe groups there that are still sympathetic to the cause of an independent Sikh state called Khalistan, carved out of India.
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LONDON/BRUSSELS (Reuters) -- The European Union told Britain on Friday that it was time to make a decision on a Brexit trade deal after a last-minute problem in talks prompted London to say chances of a breakthrough were receding. With less than four weeks left until the United Kingdom finally exits the EU’s orbit on Dec. 31, both sides are asking each other to compromise on fishing, state aid and how to resolve any future disputes. Ultimately, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the face of the 2016 Brexit campaign who is now grappling with Europe’s highest official COVID-19 death toll, will have to decide whether he and Britain would be better off making compromises or walking away.
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BEIJING (AP) — A Chinese spacecraft lifted off from the moon Thursday night with a load of lunar rocks, the first stage of its return to Earth, the government space agency reported. Chang’e 5, the third Chinese spacecraft to land on the moon and the first to take off from it again, is the latest in a series of increasingly ambitious missions for Beijing’s space program, which also has a orbiter and rover headed to Mars. The Chang’e 5 touched down Tuesday on the Sea of Storms on the moon’s near side. Its mission: collect about 2 kilograms (4 pounds) of lunar rocks and bring them back to Earth, the first return of samples since Soviet spacecraft did so in the 1970s. Earlier, the U.S. Apollo astronauts brought back hundreds of pounds of moon rocks. The landing site is near a formation called the Mons Rumker and may contain rocks billions of years younger than those retrieved earlier.
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Powerful gusts pushed flames from a wildfire through Southern California canyons on Thursday, one of several blazes that burned near homes and forced residents to flee amid elevated fire risk for most of the region that prompted utilities to cut off power to hundreds of thousands. The biggest blaze began late Wednesday as a house fire in Orange County’s Silverado Canyon, where gusts topped 70 mph (113 kph). The fire grew to more than 11 square miles (29 square kilometers) and blanketed a wide area with smoke and ash. Crews struggled in steep terrain amid unpredictable Santa Ana winds that sent flames racing across major roads. Two firefighters were hospitalized after being treated on scene for injuries, said Fire Chief Brian Fennessy. He said their condition was not immediately known.
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LONDON (AP) — America’s top infectious disease expert has apologized for suggesting UK authorities rushed their authorization of a COVID-19 vaccine, saying he has "great faith” in the country’s regulators. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, had sparked controversy with an earlier interview in which he said UK regulators hadn’t acted "as carefully” as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Fauci said late Thursday that he meant to say U.S. authorities do things differently than their British counterparts, not better, but his comments weren’t phrased properly. Britain on Wednesday became the first Western nation to authorize widespread use of a COVID-19 vaccine when regulators gave emergency approval to a product made by U.S. drugmaker Pfizer and Germany-based BioNTech. Critics have suggested that UK regulators emphasized speed over thoroughness when they reviewed data on the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine.
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NEW DELHI (Reuters) -- India summoned Canada’s ambassador on Friday and said comments made by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over protests by farmers near Delhi were an interference in its domestic affairs and would seriously hurt bilateral ties. Trudeau, speaking to the Indian community in Canada, said this week that he was concerned about the farmers, most of them from the Sikh-dominated state of Punjab, camped out on the outskirts of Delhi in a protest against farm reforms. The Indian foreign ministry said in a statement that comments on "issues relating to Indian farmers constitute an unacceptable interference in our internal affairs.” India and Canada have warm ties, but in recent years there has been concern in India that some Sikh leaders in Canada have ties to separatist groups hostile to India. Canada is home to an influential Sikh community and Indian leaders say there are some fringe groups there that are still sympathetic to the cause of an independent Sikh state called Khalistan, carved out of India.
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LONDON/BRUSSELS (Reuters) -- The European Union told Britain on Friday that it was time to make a decision on a Brexit trade deal after a last-minute problem in talks prompted London to say chances of a breakthrough were receding. With less than four weeks left until the United Kingdom finally exits the EU’s orbit on Dec. 31, both sides are asking each other to compromise on fishing, state aid and how to resolve any future disputes. Ultimately, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the face of the 2016 Brexit campaign who is now grappling with Europe’s highest official COVID-19 death toll, will have to decide whether he and Britain would be better off making compromises or walking away.
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BEIJING (AP) — A Chinese spacecraft lifted off from the moon Thursday night with a load of lunar rocks, the first stage of its return to Earth, the government space agency reported. Chang’e 5, the third Chinese spacecraft to land on the moon and the first to take off from it again, is the latest in a series of increasingly ambitious missions for Beijing’s space program, which also has a orbiter and rover headed to Mars. The Chang’e 5 touched down Tuesday on the Sea of Storms on the moon’s near side. Its mission: collect about 2 kilograms (4 pounds) of lunar rocks and bring them back to Earth, the first return of samples since Soviet spacecraft did so in the 1970s. Earlier, the U.S. Apollo astronauts brought back hundreds of pounds of moon rocks. The landing site is near a formation called the Mons Rumker and may contain rocks billions of years younger than those retrieved earlier.
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Powerful gusts pushed flames from a wildfire through Southern California canyons on Thursday, one of several blazes that burned near homes and forced residents to flee amid elevated fire risk for most of the region that prompted utilities to cut off power to hundreds of thousands. The biggest blaze began late Wednesday as a house fire in Orange County’s Silverado Canyon, where gusts topped 70 mph (113 kph). The fire grew to more than 11 square miles (29 square kilometers) and blanketed a wide area with smoke and ash. Crews struggled in steep terrain amid unpredictable Santa Ana winds that sent flames racing across major roads. Two firefighters were hospitalized after being treated on scene for injuries, said Fire Chief Brian Fennessy. He said their condition was not immediately known.