PARIS: As the race to send people to the Moon and beyond heats up, Europe faces calls to make a choice: Keep paying for seats on spacecraft or finally fly its own manned vehicle. Imagine if Christopher Columbus did not have a ship to sail to the Americas, the head of the European Space Agency said recently, lamenting that the continent lacked a vessel to “explore the next frontier”. 

KAMPALA: Chinese and French oil giants finally sealed a $10-billion deal yesterday to unlock Uganda’s energy resources and build a vast regional oil pipeline, a mega-project that has incensed environmental groups. The so-called Final Investment Decision should pave the way for the export of millions of barrels of black gold that was first discovered in 2006 in Uganda, one of the world’s most biodiverse regions.

BRUSSELS: The eurozone’s unemployment rate fell to a historic low in December, official figures showed yesterday, as hiring in Europe rode a solid recovery and shrugged off the explosive spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant. 

QUITO: An oil spill in eastern Ecuador has reached a nature reserve and polluted a river that supplies water to indigenous communities, according to the country’s environmental ministry. 

WASHINGTON: Boeing launched a new freighter jet Monday while announcing a pair of major agreements with Qatar Airways, in a boost to the still-struggling US aviation giant. 

SAN FRANCISCO: The Facebook-backed digital currency project Diem announced Monday the winding down and $182-million sale of its technology, capping a years-long initiative that drew significant concern from regulators. 

ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopian Airlines will operate the Boeing 737 MAX for the first time since a crash nearly three years ago killed all 157 people on board and triggered the global grounding of the aircraft. 

RAYONG, Thailand: The nightly armada of bobbing green lights from squid boats has all but disappeared near the site of an oil spill in the Gulf of Thailand, as devastated local crews brace for lost income and damaged fish stocks.

LONDON: The UK government will introduce new legislation allowing it to change or scrap retained European Union laws, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced yesterday to mark two years since Brexit.