MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s ambassador to the United States said that 27 more Russian diplomats and their families were expelled from the United States and would leave on Jan. 30. “Our diplomats are being expelled...A large group of my comrades, 27 people with families, will leave us on January 30... We are facing a serious staff shortage,” Ambassador Anatoly Antonov said in a video interview for the Soloviev Live Youtube channel aired late on Saturday. Russia has previously said that over 100 of its diplomats with families had been forced to leave the United States since 2016 when the relationship between the two countries worsened. As of Oct. 29, nearly 200 Russian diplomats were still in their jobs in the United States, including the staff of the Russian mission to the United Nations, according to Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. President Joe Biden’s administration said last month that the staff of the U.S. mission in Russia had shrunk to 120 from 1,200 in early 2017 after a series of expulsions and restrictions, and it was difficult to continue with anything other than a caretaker presence at the embassy.

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LONDON (AFP) – England managing director Ashley Giles says cricket has to do much better in tackling racism but pleaded for those who had made “mistakes” to be given a second chance. English cricket has been rocked by damaging revelations of racism from Pakistan-born former Yorkshire player Azeem Rafiq, who made a number of allegations against high-profile figures in the sport. One allegation is that former England captain Vaughan told Rafiq and other Yorkshire players of Asian origin that there were “too many of you lot” during a county match. Giles, speaking to British reporters from the team’s base in Australia on Sunday, said the England squad had reflected on the Rafiq issue and hearing his story had been “hard to listen to”. The former Test bowler said cricket had to do “much better... discrimination of any form just isn’t acceptable” but he also stressed that it was important to give people second chances.

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LIMA (Sputnik) – A 7.5-magnitude quake struck northern Peru on Sunday, the United States Geological Survey said, but there was no tsunami warning issued. The offshore quake hit at 5:52 am (1052 GMT) at a depth of 112.5 kilometers (70 miles), about 42 kilometers northwest of Barranca, USGS said. At the same time, the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) reported a 7.3-magnitude quake. The epicenter of the tremor was located at a depth of 112.5 kilometers (almost 70 miles), according to the USGS. Several videos, purportedly depicting the moment of the earthquake, have since emerged online. Peru is located in a seismically active area known as the Ring of Fire, which is regularly affected by powerful earthquakes and volcanic eruptions due to the movement of tectonic plates.

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BISHKEK (AP) – People in Kyrgyzstan headed to polls on Sunday in parliamentary elections as tensions simmer in the country following last year’s vote. Twenty-one political parties competed to win 90 parliamentary seats in the Central Asian nation. The distribution of parliamentary seats follows a mixed system under which some seats are assigned to constituencies and others to parties. The Sunday vote is expected to favor allies of President Japarov, 52. Parliamentary elections a year ago in October 2020 led to instability in Kyrgyzstan. After losing, parties took to the streets to denounce the elections, claiming the vote was rigged in favor of parties close to then-president Sooronbay Jeenbekov. The vote results were annulled and tensions escalated, triggering riots that toppled the former government. Within days, Japarov was freed from prison and became prime minister and then successfully ran for president.

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London (AFP) – Britain braced for an Arctic freeze Sunday in the aftermath of a powerful storm that left three people dead and thousands in Scotland facing days without power. “Storm Arwen” brought wind gusts of almost 100 miles (160 kilometers) per hour late Friday, before weakening and drifting towards continental Europe. Heavy snow in its tail forced the cancellation of Sunday’s Premier League football match between Burnley and Tottenham Hotspur in northwest England, and the severe gale has wreaked havoc on road and rail transport across the UK. Meteorologists warned that temperatures could plunge to minus 10 degrees Celsius in parts of the country overnight, with the mercury falling below zero in London too, due to an “Arctic shot” moving south from Scotland. The UK Health Security Agency issued a weekend-long cold weather alert, urging the public to take precautions against the freeze. But in Scotland, 45,000 customers remained without power on Sunday after more than 100,000 homes were cut off on Friday night, according to the utility company Scottish Southern and Electricity Network (SSEN). Mark Rough, SSEN customer operations director, said the damage from Arwen’s high winds was three times greater than that from the “Beast from the East” winter storm that hit Europe in early 2018. Police said falling trees killed three men late Friday -- one in northwest England, one in Scotland and the third in Northern Ireland.

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TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) – Hondurans headed to the polls on Sunday to pick a new president, with leftist candidate Xiomara Castro hoping to oust the right-wing National Party, whose 12-year rule has been beset by graft scandals, chronic unemployment and waves of fleeing migrants. If she wins, Castro would become the country’s first woman president and would mark the left’s return to power for the first time since her husband former President Manuel Zelaya was deposed in a 2009 coup. She has gained favor from voters for her efforts to consolidate opposition to outgoing President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who has denied accusations of having ties to powerful gangs, among other corruption scandals. Recent voter surveys reinforced her status as favorite to win. The election is the latest political flashpoint in Central America, a major source of U.S.-bound migrants and key transit point for drug trafficking, and where concerns over increasingly authoritarian governments have grown.