Europe

MOSCOW, April 4. /TASS/: Kiev will consider Europe’s silent position as carte blanche for a military operation in Donbass and restoring territorial integrity by force, Deputy Speaker of the Russian Federation Council (upper house of parliament) Konstantin Kosachev said on Sunday, commenting on a joint statement by the top French and German diplomats on Donbass.

MOSCOW, April 3. /TASS/: Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine ensures quick recovery without severe symptoms in case of contagion, the Gamaleya Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology said on Saturday.

The Sputnik V developer commented as news broke out that Argentine President Alberto Fernandez, who had been inoculated with the Russian vaccine earlier, tested positive for COVID-19

MOSCOW, April 4. /TASS/: Russia confirmed 8,817 new COVID-19 cases in the past day, bringing the total case tally to 4,580,894, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told reporters on Sunday.

In relative terms, the growth rate dropped to 0.19%.

The lowest growth rates in the past day were registered in the Chukotka Autonomous Region (0%), the Magadan Region and the Tuva Republic (0.01%) and the Sakhalin Region (0.05%).

MOSCOW, April 4. /TASS/: Ukraine’s leaders have gone too far in their rhetoric about the conflict in Donbass, which is fraught with grave consequences, and they won’t get away with their actions in Donbass, speaker of the Russian State Duma lower parliament house, Vyacheslav Volodin, said on Sunday.

MOSCOW, April 4. /TASS/: NATO’s defense spending kept on increasing in 2020 to be up by 7.4% and such a policy is triggering global arms race, the Russian foreign ministry said on Sunday on the 72nd NATO anniversary.

"OTD 72 years ago NATO was founded with a declared purpose of "securing peace". By now, on its account: bombing of Yugoslavia, invasion of Iraq, intervention in Libya - and more. In 2020, NATO "defense" expenditures increased by yet another 7.4%," the ministry said on its Twitter account.

LONDON, April 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Britain reported 10 deaths from COVID-19 within 28 days of a positive test on Saturday (Apr 3), the lowest daily figure since early September, as its vaccine rollout reached another milestone.

Official data also showed 31,301,267 people had received their first shot of a COVID-19 vaccine, with five million now having had both doses in what is the fastest rollout in Europe.

PARIS, April 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) — France reported on Saturday that 5,273 people were in intensive care units for COVID-19, a rise of 19 from the previous day.

That followed one of the biggest daily jumps in months on Friday, just as France enters a third national lockdown in an effort to stem the pandemic.

Meanwhile, Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire said the French economy will expand by 5 per cent in 2021 as a third lockdown to tackle the coronavirus pandemic has prompted a downward revision in the previous government forecast for 6 per cent growth.

PARIS (Reuters) -The French government has reached the outline of a deal with the European Commission on a state-backed refinancing package to help strengthen Air France-KLM’s balance sheet, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Sunday.

Le Maire, speaking on LCI TV, declined to comment on the amount involved. He confirmed that the airline group’s board was due to meet on Monday to discuss and approve the package, as successive coronavirus shutdowns take their toll.

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece said on Sunday it was extending restrictions on domestic flights until April 12 and on international flights until April 19 as the number of new COVID-19 infections continues to rise.

Under the restrictions, passengers flying to Greece must receive a negative PCR test 72 hours before arrival and undergo random testing for COVID-19.

MADRID, April 3 (Xinhua) -- A boy born last week on the Spanish island of Ibiza has become the first newborn in Spain with COVID-19 antibodies, after his mother received the vaccine in the third trimester of her pregnancy, according to local media reports.

A sample from the baby's umbilical cord analyzed at the Hospital Son Espases in Mallorca confirmed that he had developed antibodies against COVID-19, the Spanish newspaper ABC reported.