EU weighs troubled Russia ties, new curbs

Brussels,

European Union foreign ministers on Monday will look at options for imposing fresh sanctions against Russia over the jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, as the 27-nation bloc considers the future of its troubled ties with the country. The ministers will discuss possible names of Russian officials and whether to target them individually or whether to use a new system of measures aimed at human rights abuses.

But they appear unlikely to impose restrictions on oligarchs close to President Vladimir Putin, as Navalny has requested. “It's clear that Russia is on a confrontational course with the European Union,” EU foreign policy chief

Josep Borrell said.

“In the case of Mr Navalny, there is a blunt refusal to respect their engagements, including the refusal of taking into account the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights.” Navalny, 44, an anticorruption investigator and Putin's most prominent critic, was arrested in Moscow last month.

Hospitals across the South grappled with water shortages as the region carried on with recovery efforts in the wake of a devastating winter storm, and the weather offered a balmy respite — temperatures as high as the

mid-60s. At the height of the storm on Sunday, hospitals were left scrambling to care for patients amid record cold, snow and ice that battered parts of the country more accustomed to going through winter with light jackets and short sleeves.

The icy blast ruptured water mains, knocked out power to millions of utility customers and contributed to at least 76 deaths — half of which occurred in Texas.

At least seven people died in Tennessee and four in Portland, Oregon. A rural hospital in Anahuac, Texas, about 50 miles east of Houston, lost both water and power. William Kiefer, CEO of Chambers Health, which runs the hospital along with two clinics and a wellness centre, said the facilities resorted to backup generators and water from a 275-gallon storage tank. They refilled it three times using water from a swimming pool in the wellness centre. Houston Methodist Hospital spokeswoman Gale Smith said water had been restored at two of the system's community hospitals.