Europe

Paris, Jun 20 (AP-PTI) Marine Le Pen's far right party is riding high on her tough-on-security, stop-immigration message as French voters start choosing regional leaders Sunday in an election that's seen as a dress rehearsal for next year's presidential vote.

President Emmanuel Macron's young centrist party is expected to fare poorly, lacking a strong local political base and suffering from frustration at his government's handling of the pandemic.

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Armenians are voting Sunday in a national election after months of tensions over last year’s defeat in fighting against Azerbaijan over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The snap parliamentary election was called by Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in a bid to resolve public anger over the peace deal he signed in November that triggered months of protests demanding his resignation. He stepped down from the premiership as required by law to allow the election to take place but remains the country’s leader.

LONDON (AP) — Former U.K. House of Commons Speaker John Bercow, a longtime Conservative lawmaker who gained international fame refereeing the country’s bruising political drama over Brexit, said Sunday he has switched allegiances and joined the opposition Labour Party.

Bercow was a Conservative member of Parliament for 12 years until being elected in 2009 to the neutral role of Speaker, responsible for running House of Commons business and interpreting its rules of procedure.

PARIS (AP) — A school undergoing construction work collapsed in the Belgian city of Antwerp, killing five workers and injuring nine others, according to local authorities. An investigation is underway into the cause of the accident.

Firefighters and rescue dogs labored through the night after Friday’s accident to pull out the victims one by one, while the construction company cleared rubble and worked to secure the site, according to a running account on Twitter by the Antwerp fire service.

VIENNA (AP) — Further talks between Iran and global powers were planned Sunday to try to negotiate and restore a landmark 2015 agreement to contain Iranian nuclear development that was later abandoned by the Trump administration.

Senior diplomats from China, Germany, France, Russia, and Britain were due to meet at a hotel in the Austrian capital.

MOSCOW, June 19. /TASS/: Russia’s flag carrier Aeroflot will launch new flights from Moscow to Turkey on June 25, its spokesman Mikhail Demin told reporters.

The airline currently operates two flights a week between Moscow and Istanbul.

"Aeroflot has opened additional flights to Turkey from June 25: Istanbul - an increase to two flights a day, Antalya - one flight a day, Bodrum - one flight a day and Dalaman - one flight a day," he said.

According to Demin, the air carrier "will monitor the load and make decisions depending on the actual demand."

MOSCOW, June 19. /TASS/: The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Russia grew by 17,906 in the past 24 hours reaching 5,299,215. This is the highest number since January 31, as follows from the data provided by the anti-coronavirus crisis center on Saturday.

The relative growth rate stands at 0.34%.

The lowest daily growth rates were recorded in Karachay-Cherkessia and North Ossetia-Alania (0.06% each), the Yamalo-Nenets autonomous region, Ingushetia and Kabardino-Balkaria (0.08% each), Tuva and Adygea (0.09% each).

MOSCOW, June 19. /TASS/: Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said that a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is possible if the British authorities have "political will."

"No, such a meeting is not being prepared, but it is potentially possible. It is possible if political will prevails in London to mend our bilateral relations, which have been damaged badly at the initiative of London," he told the Govorit Moskva radio station on Saturday.

MOSCOW, June 19. /TASS/: The election to the State Duma (the lower house of Russia’s parliament) should be held fairly and openly to enjoy the trust of the people, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the congress of the United Russia ruling party on Saturday.

"Our common task is to do our utmost to ensure that the election is held openly and honestly in accordance with law, so that its results can reflect the true will of the nation, while enjoying the unconditional trust of the country’s citizens," he said.

MOSCOW, June 19 (NNN-AGENCIES) — New coronavirus infections hit a pandemic high in Moscow, tripling in just weeks due to the Delta variant and forcing Russia’s capital to close its Euro fan zone and extend other curbs.

A total of 9,056 new cases were recorded in the megapolis of 12 million in the past 24 hours, with Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin saying that the highly infectious Delta variant first identified in India represented almost 90 per cent of new cases.