Europe

KIEV, May 15. /TASS/: Secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council Alexei Danilov has not ruled out that Kiev could offer Moscow to exchange head of the Political Council of the Opposition Platform - For Life party Viktor Medvedchuk for Ukrainian nationals convicted in Russia in case of a guilty verdict against the opposition politician.

MOSCOW, May 15. /TASS/: Russia’s coronavirus recoveries grew by 9,866 in the past 24 hours, this is the highest number since April 15. In total, 4,547,500 people have recovered by now, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told reporters on Saturday.

According to the crisis center, recoveries remain at 92.2% of the total number of infected people.

Another 1,676 patients recovered in St. Petersburg, 551 in the Moscow Regioin, 263 in Ingushetia, 208 in the Pskov Region and 204 in the Saratov Region.

PARIS, May 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A dozen African leaders, several European leaders and a dozen heads of international organizations will be received on Tuesday May 18 by French president Emmanuel Macron for a summit on the revival of the African economy, and the impact of the pandemic.

The aim of the summit, the Elysee says, is to put in place financial resources capable of reviving the economy of the continent, which has seen only 130,000 deaths from Covid according to official figures, but whose GDP should experience its first recession in 25 years in 2021.

GENEVA, May 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) –– The World Health Organization issued a grim warning that the second year of Covid-19 was set to be “far more deadly”, as Japan extended a state of emergency amid growing calls for the Olympics to be scrapped.

“We’re on track for the second year of this pandemic to be far more deadly than the first,” said WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

ROME, May 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Argentina’s President Alberto Fernandez said he was hoping to renegotiate his country’s debt “as quickly as possible”, after talks with the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Rome.

Fernandez told reporters it had been a “very constructive” and “very frank meeting, where we expressed our will to resolve the problem of Argentine debt”.

He said he wanted to “find an agreement as quickly as possible”, while adding: “We cannot think about an agreement which demands more efforts from the Argentine people.”

(Reuters) --- Armenia said on Friday that Azerbaijan had failed to fulfil a promise in full to withdraw troops that had crossed the border in a disputed incident, and that it had sought Russia's military help.

Six months after the worst fighting in decades between Azeri and ethnic Armenian forces, the border incident this week has demonstrated the fragility of a Russian-brokered ceasefire that halted the conflict.

(Reuters) --- Portugal will allow tourist flights from European Union countries with low infection rates and from the UK, but passengers must show a negative coronavirus test on arrival, the Interior Ministry said on Saturday.

The announcement came a day after the Portuguese tourism authority gave the green light to UK tourists to enter the country from Monday. 

In a statement, it said the ban will be lifted on European countries with less than 500 cases of infections per 100,000 people.

(Reuters) --- Budapest mayor Gergely Karacsony on Saturday announced his bid to become the prime minister candidate for Hungary's six opposition parties which are trying to forge an alliance to take on Prime Minister Viktor Orban in national elections next year.

Earlier this week, the Hungarian opposition said it would hold the country's first ever primary elections this year to pick joint candidates to contest the 2022 ballot, a move that could threaten Orban's more than decade-long grip on power. 

(Reuters) --- Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi will not be able to enact key reforms demanded by the European Union because his unity government is too divided over the issues, rightist leader Matteo Salvini said on Saturday.

Salvini, who heads the League, told newspapers he would back Draghi to become the next president in a parliamentary vote due in early 2022. If Draghi accepts the post, his coalition would automatically fall, opening the way for early elections.

(Reuters) --- A former member of Greece's extreme right Golden Dawn party, Ioannis Lagos, was extradited to Athens on Saturday from Brussels, where he was a member of the European parliament.

EU lawmakers stripped Lagos of his immunity last month, paving the way for his arrest and extradition to Greece where he is to serve a prison sentence alongside other party members.