Europe

MOSCOW, April 12. /TASS/: Over 400,000 Russian military personnel have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus and more than 530,000 have received their first vaccine dose, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.

"As many as 531,758 people have been vaccinated so far, 41% of them are troops, 59% are military university professors and students, as well as teachers at pre-university facilities. A total of 400,384 military personnel have received both vaccine doses," the statement reads.

MOSCOW, April 12. /TASS/: Russian speakers in Donbass have been rejected by their own state and Russia considers it a priority to protect their interests, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.

"Russia believes that it is important to take care of the interests of Russian speakers around the world in general," he said in response to a question. "It particularly concerns the Russian-speaking people who live in the two self-proclaimed republics [in Donbass], especially because they have been rejected by their own state," Peskov added.

MOSCOW, April 12. /TASS/: Russia recorded 277 coronavirus deaths in the past 24 hours, the lowest number since November 9, the anti-coronavirus crisis center said on Monday. The total death toll has reached 103,263.

According to data from the crisis center, 2.22% of coronavirus patients have died in Russia.

In particular, 34 fatalities were reported in St. Petersburg in the past day, 14 in the Krasnoyarsk region, 12 in the Krasnodar region, ten in the Tula region and nine in the Moscow region.

MADRID, Apr 12 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Four migrants, trying to reach the Canary Islands from the coast of Africa, were found dead inside a dinghy, in which they attempted the crossing, the government delegate of the Spanish-controlled Canary Islands confirmed, yesterday.

The dinghy was first spotted by a fishing boat, around 120 nautical miles south of the island of El Hierro, and three rescue helicopters were called to the scene.

ZURICH (Reuters) - Switzerland’s executive government on Monday urged voters to back the nation’s COVID-19 law, which is being challenged by people who fear it eases approval requirements for vaccines and has shifted too much political power away from parliament.

With Switzerland’s direct democracy, voters go to the polls on June 13 to weigh in on whether the law to help combat the pandemic went too far. The seven-member executive on Monday agreed at a closed-door session to recommend to voters to back the law.

LONDON (Reuters) - The British government has opened an official independently-run investigation into former Prime Minister David Cameron’s lobbying activities for financier Lex Greensill, The Sun newspaper reported.

While Cameron was British prime minister from 2010 to 2016, the Australian banker was brought in as an adviser to the government. After leaving office, Cameron in turn became an adviser to Greensill’s now-insolvent finance firm.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The global chemical weapons watchdog has “reasonable grounds to believe” that Syria’s air force dropped a chlorine bomb on a residential neighbourhood in the rebel-controlled Idlib region in February 2018, a report released on Monday said.

There was no immediate comment from the Syrian government. Syria and its military ally Russia have consistently denied using chemical weapons during President Bashar al-Assad’s decade-old conflict with rebel forces, saying any such attacks were staged by opponents to make Damascus look like the culprit.

MOSCOW, April 11 (Xinhua) -- Russia does not seek a war with Ukraine but is concerned for the Russian-speaking population in the country's eastern Donbass region, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Sunday.

"No one is going to move towards a war, and no one at all accepts any possibility of such a war," Peskov told a Russian TV program.

"Russia has never been a party to this conflict (between Kiev and insurgents in Donbass). But Russia has always said that it will not remain indifferent to the fate of Russian speakers who live in the southeast of Ukraine," he added.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A man has been charged in Norway for his alleged role in plans to carry out three extremist attacks in Denmark and in London, and for purportedly spreading Islamic State group propaganda on the internet.

Authorities believe the 24-year-old man, who wasn’t identified, was part of a group that sought to strike a church in England, possibly St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, but British police thwarted the plot, Norwegian broadcaster NRK reported Monday.

MOSCOW, April 11. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin’s address to the parliament, the Federal Assembly, on April 21 will be devoted to ironing out the crisis after COVID-19 and support measures, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with Moscow. Kremlin. Putin program.