Новости за 12.02.2017

Chairman of the Department of External Church Relations Metropolitan Hilarion said that Russian Orthodox Church together with Vatican will try to institutionalize the joint work on the monitoring of the issue of Christians’ persecutions in the Middle East and other regions.

67% of Russians consider the North Atlantic alliance a 'threat,' with only 3% seeing the alliance as 'protection,' according to recent polling by the US-based polling and research firm Gallup. Over 54% of Belarusians and 35% of Ukrainians also see the alliance as a threat, the results showed.

Leader of the Daesh terrorist organization Abu Bakr Baghdadi was possibly injured during an airstrike carried out by the Iraqi Air Force in the city of Qaim on February 9, according to Iraqi media.

Russia's Commission against Pseudoscience has called for the Health Ministry to ban homeopathy; however, the psychological effect of the medicine will continue to ensure its popularity, expert in pharmaceutical economics Roland Cash told Sputnik.

Syrian lawyer Mohammed Sabra was named as the chief negotiator of the Syrian opposition delegation for the forthcoming Syrian peace talks in Geneva, the High Negotiations Committee (HNC) said in a statement obtained by Sputnik on Sunday.

The recent ballistic missile test conducted by Pyongyang could require new international consultations, including in the UN Security Council (UNSC), the chairman of the Russian lower house of parliament's international affairs committee, Leonid Slutsky, told Sputnik on Sunday.

RT and Sputnik Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan gave the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) sarcastic recommendations on how to ensure that the public opinion of Russia does not change.

North Korea is likely to have launched an intermediate-range Musudan missile during the Sunday missile test, and not the Rodong medium-range missile as it was previously assessed, South Korean military said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated that Turkish forces together with Free Syrian Army entered the center of the northern Syrian town of al-Bab.

The Russian Defense Ministry is due to get a sophisticated mobile laser system capable of "blinding" aircraft optics and laser GPS-guided bombs and missiles from dozens of kilometers away, according to the Russian newspaper Izvestia.

French law enforcement officers have detained 37 people following anti-police protests in the town of Bobigny in Paris suburbs.

The Lugansk People's Republic accused Kiev troops of shelling its territory 11 times.

New evidence has emerged in an investigation into insider trading at Deutsche Boerse involving CEO Carsten Kengeter.

31-year-old Italian politician Gianni Musetti has founded a "Trump Party" to run for the mayoral elections in the Italian city of Carrara (in the Tuscany region). The aim of the politician is simply to "enliven" the center-right movement in the country and be very close to the people, as Donald Trump, he says, was the choice of the ordinary people.

A top official of Britain's Government Communications Headquarters described how those horrible, terrible (and unlikely real) pro-Russian hackers changed their strategy of aggression.

If you are going to San Francisco to enjoy the view of the Golden Gate Bridge, it may be quite disappointing because of the strong winds recorded around the Bay Area.

Although it's extremely difficult to predict who will win the upcoming presidential elections in France, it's safe to assume that former Prime Minister Francois Fillon and National Front leader Marine Le Pen are very unlikely to prevail, French political analyst Arnaud Mercier told RIA Novosti.

A 5.2-magnitude earthquake occurred 15 kilometers (9 miles) north-west of the town of Culverden in New Zealand’s South Island, the country's official earthquake monitoring service GeoNet Science said Sunday.

At least two Indian junior servicemen and four terrorists were killed in a Sunday clash that took place in the Kulgam district of India's Jammu and Kashmir state.

China’s capital Beijing has registered the first case of the H7N9 avian influenza virus infecting a human this year.

The abolition of a visa regime for nationals of 80 countries, including 39 European ones, as well as Australia, Japan, India and the United States among others, who intend to make short trips to Belarus, comes into effect on February 12.

Donald Trump discussed a wide range of issues while golfing with Shinzo Abe at his Palm Beach retreat.

A majority of Germans expect Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the government’s favorite, to make a good federal president, a fresh Emnid poll published by a local newspaper revealed Sunday.

Peru has asked the world for help and offered a reward for any information leading to the discovery of its former president, Alejandro Toledo, who is accused of taking bribes from a Brazilian construction company.

North Korea has fired a ballistic missile, the Yonhap News Agency reports, citing South Korean military sources.