Europe

MOSCOW, June 20. / TASS /: Moscow’s COVID-19 cases surged by 51,853 this week, having reached a record high since the start of the pandemic, according to TASS estimates based on the anti-coronavirus crisis center’s data.

Last week, some 36,710 people were infected in the Russian capital.

Russia recorded a total of 108,139 COVID-19 weekly cases versus 82,250 in the previous seven days (a 31.5% increase). This is a new high since the first week of February 2021.

MOSCOW, June 20. /TASS/: At the talks with OSCE Secretary-General Helga Schmid on June 21, Russia is planning to call on the organization’s leadership to use its leverage on Kiev, which has been sabotaging the Minsk agreements and evading dialogue with Donetsk and Lugansk, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

MOSCOW, June 20. /TASS/: Anti-bodies developed after using the Sputnik V vaccine protect against all known coronavirus strains, Head of the vaccine’s developer, the Gamaleya National Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Alexander Gintsburg told Rossiya-1 on Sunday.

"The anti-bodies as a result of using Sputnik V protect against all strains known today, ranging from the British to the Delta Indian strain," Gintsburg said.

He noted that Indian strain of COVID-19 causes a more rapid transition from mild symptoms to more serious types of the disease.

BARCELONA, June 20 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The obligation to wear masks outdoors in Spain is to be lifted on June 26, with the corresponding decision to be approved at an extraordinary Cabinet meeting next week, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on the sidelines of an event in Barcelona.

“This will be the last weekend that people will have to wear masks outdoors in Spain,” the socialist politician said. He said he was happy to be able to convey this “important message” to his 47 million compatriots.

BELLINZONA (Switzerland), June 20 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Alieu Kosiah has been found guilty of war crimes in a Swiss court, becoming the first Liberian to be convicted over the country’s civil war.

He was sentenced to 20 years for crimes including murder and rape.

Around 250,000 people were killed in Liberia’s two conflicts between 1989 and 2003, and many thousands more fled.

Switzerland recognises the principle of universal justice, meaning suspects accused of high-profile crimes elsewhere can be tried in its courts.

LONDON, June 20 (NNN-Xinhua) — Civic leaders in Liverpool Saturday pleaded with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)’s World Heritage Committee to keep the city’s World Heritage status.

A letter, signed by City Mayor Joanne Anderson, Liverpool Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram and the CEOs of English Premier League clubs Everton FC and Liverpool FC, has been sent to the committee ahead of a critical decision over the city’s World Heritage status to be made in July.

20 June 2021; MEMO: Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said Ebrahim Raisi's election as Iran's new president was a blow for human rights and called for him to be investigated over his role in what Washington and rights groups have called the extrajudicial executions of thousands of political prisoners in 1988, reports Reuters.

MOSCOW, June 20 (Reuters) - Russia's ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, was in an optimistic mood ahead of his return to Washington on Sunday, expecting meetings scheduled with U.S. colleagues next week to be constructive, the RIA news agency reported.

President Vladimir Putin and his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden agreed to return their respective ambassadors to Washington and Moscow during talks in Geneva on Wednesday, a first summit between the two that they both described as pragmatic rather than friendly. 

STOCKHOLM, June 20 (Reuters) - Sweden's Prime Minister Stefan Lofven on Sunday appeared to have failed to stave off a no-confidence vote on Monday he is likely to lose after the Left Party dismissed his compromise for a new system of setting apartment rents.

Lofven earlier on Sunday offered a compromise that would mean counterparts in the housing market would work to reach an agreement for a new rent-setting model for new production, which has been the norm in Sweden.

LONDON, June 19 (Xinhua) -- Britain reported more than 10,000 coronavirus cases for a third consecutive day on Saturday as there has been a 79 percent rise in the highly contagious Delta variant in the country in the past week.

Britain has reported another 10,321 coronavirus cases in the latest 24-hour period, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 4,620,968, according to official figures released Saturday.