Paris Saint-Germain called off its upcoming trip to the Persian Gulf region on Wednesday because of coronavirus concerns.

The French league leader was scheduled to fly to Qatar for a three-day training camp starting Sunday and then play a friendly match in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on Jan. 19.

The head of the International Energy Agency blamed Russia for worsening Europe's natural gas crisis, saying Wednesday that high prices and low storage levels largely stem from the behavior of state-owned gas supplier Gazprom.

Russia could send up to a third more gas through existing pipelines, said Fatih Birol, executive director of the Paris-based 30-member organization that provides policy recommendations on affordable and sustainable energy. That would amount to some 10% of European daily consumption — about what industry officials say would be needed to avoid a severe shortage in case of colder-than-expected weather.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson apologized Wednesday for attending a garden party during Britain's coronavirus lockdown in 2020, but brushed aside opposition demands that he resign for breaching the rules his own government had imposed.

Johnson is facing a tide of anger from public and politicians over claims he and his staff flouted pandemic restrictions by socializing when it was banned. Some members of his Conservative Party have joined in the criticism, saying he must quit if he can't quell the furor.

Pope Francis grew up listening to the opera on the radio, is a fan of Argentine tango and thinks Mozart "lifts you to God."

But it still came as a something of a shock to see the 85-year-old pontiff coming out of a downtown Rome record shop late Tuesday with a CD in hand. He had made an unannounced visit that was caught on camera by a Vatican reporter who happened to be nearby.

A trilogy by award-winning children's author Kwame Alexander that tells the saga of an African family begins this fall with "The Door of No Return."

The book will be published Sept. 27, Little Brown & Company announced Tuesday. According to the publisher, the three books follow the lives of 11-year-old Kofi and his family from pre-colonial Ghana to the "woes and wonders" they face in Europe and America.

Here are some good things about the fourth Hotel Transylvania movie: Kathryn Hahn, who is as evocative a voice actor as she is in live action; The monster sidekicks voiced by David Spade, Keegan-Michael Key, Steve Buscemi and Brad Abrell; A joke about a single marshmallow (really); The revelation that the invisible man has been naked this whole time; The 94-minute runtime; And its easy accessibility on Amazon Prime Video starting on Jan. 14.

But perhaps the best thing about " Hotel Transylvania: Transformania " is that it's the end. The well of ideas on this particular property has apparently run dry and they have made the wise decision to show themselves the door. Though not wise enough to end on a particularly high note.

A veterinarian has said that a brown bear cub found exhausted in snowy woods in southeastern Poland has been diagnosed with a disease that will be treated with antibiotics.

The young male named Ada has been diagnosed with anaplasmosis, a dangerous disease that has affected the cub's lungs and is probably behind the neurological symptoms like the shaking of the head.

A land mine-detecting rat in Cambodia who received a prestigious award for his life-saving duty has died in retirement, the charity for which he had worked has announced.

Magawa, an African giant pouched rat, passed away last weekend, said an announcement on the website of APOPO, a Belgium-headquartered non-profit group. The organization trains rats and dogs to sniff out land mines and tuberculosis.

A British skier crashes through wooden fencing on a downhill corner and slams into a pole, breaking his leg. An American hits an icy patch at the bottom of a hill and crashes into a fence, breaking one ski and twisting the other, also breaking his leg.

Another American, training before a biathlon race, slides out on an icy corner and flies off the trail into a tree, breaking ribs and a shoulder blade and punctures a lung.

Romania's president wants to add sections on climate change and environmental issues to the national school curriculum to enable students to learn more about the challenges the world faces from climate change.

President Klaus Iohannis has launched a public debate over a 141-page proposal and attended a meeting at the presidential palace on it with Prime Minister Nicolae Cuica, Romania's environment and education ministers, teachers, students and nongovernmental organizations.