Europe

London, May 7 (PTI) Health authorities in England are believed to be especially concerned about one strain out of three Indian variants they have been tracking since last month.

According to a report based on leaked data by the BBC, Public Health England (PHE) is said to have recommended the B.1.617.2 version of the Indian variant to be classed as Variant of Concern (VOC) as it appears to spread more quickly than two other identified subtypes of the Indian variant.

GENEVA (AP) — The World Health Organization gave emergency use authorization Friday to a COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by China’s Sinopharm, potentially paving the way for millions of the doses to reach needy countries through a U.N.-backed program rolling out coronavirus vaccines.

The decision by a WHO technical advisory group — a first for a Chinese vaccine — opens the possibility that Sinopharm’s offering could be included in the U.N.-backed COVAX program in coming weeks or months and distributed through UNICEF and the WHO’s Americas regional office.

MINSK, May 7. /TASS/: Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has promised to make public new factual information as part of the case of an attempted coup in Belarus.

"What you - journalists and intelligence agents - who carried out these operations and showed the public is nothing compared to what is going to happen next. You will be horrified at what we are going to show you," BelTA news agency quotes him as saying on Friday.

MOSCOW, May 7. /TASS/: Russia has documented 8,386 cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the overall case count to 4,863,514, the federal anti-coronavirus crisis center informed reporters on Friday.

The relative daily increase rate has reached 0.17%.

In the past 24 hours, 2,846 COVID-19 cases were documented in Moscow, 722 in St. Petersburg, 608 in the Moscow Region, 210 in the Rostov Region, 142 in the Voronezh Region, 124 in the Saratov Region.

MINSK, May 7. /TASS/: Belarus has put together retaliatory measures towards the West, in case it slaps new sanctions against the Belarusian state, Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei told journalists Friday.

"We’ve discussed these measures before, they have been prepared. They will fit the situation that is unfolding. Steps by both European and Western opponents won’t be left unanswered. These measures have indeed been hammered out, so we are awaiting further development of the situation and further decisions by our Western partners," the top Belarusian diplomat said.

PRAGUE, May 7. /TASS/: A specialized laboratory in Hungary has confirmed the reliability of Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine, after its first batch arrived in Slovakia on March 1, the TA3 TV channel reported on Friday citing Slovak Health Minister Vladimir Lengvarsky.

"The results of the research on the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus jab conducted in Hungary [at Slovakia’s request] are all right," the minister stated.

07 May 2021; MEMO: The European Union called on Wednesday for Israel to reverse its decision to build new housing units in Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. It added that the bloc will not recognise changes to the 1967 nominal borders without agreement.

(Reuters) --- The third wave of the coronavirus pandemic appears to be broken, German Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Friday, as social distancing measures and an accelerating vaccination campaign help lower the infection rate.

"The third wave appears to be broken," Spahn told a regular weekly news briefing on Germany's pandemic management.

(Reuters) --- Lobbying by Poland and Hungary has led to the removal of the phrase "gender equality" from a draft declaration on advancing social cohesion that the EU is due to publish on Friday, according to diplomats and documents seen by Reuters.

Poland's nationalist ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) and its eurosceptic ally, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, promote what they call traditional social values at home and have repeatedly clashed with their more liberal Western peers over the rights of women, gays and migrants.

(Reuters) --- Swiss voters are set to back government measures to contain the coronavirus pandemic and to support a crackdown on pesticide use -- in defiance of Bern's wishes -- in binding referendums next month, a poll for broadcaster SRF showed on Friday.

Parliament passed the COVID-19 act in September, but critics of the steps to restrict public life and provide financial support to the economy forced a vote on them under the Swiss system of direct democracy.