Europe

SOFIA, Bugaria (AP) — Bulgarians are heading to the polls on Sunday to cast ballots for a new parliament after months of anti-government protests and amid a surge in coronavirus infections.

The 12,000 polling stations opened at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. for the 6.7 million eligible voters who are electing 240 lawmakers.

The vote is widely seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Boyko Borissov. The 61-year-old macho-style political maverick has led his center-right GERB party with an iron grip for more than a decade and now hopes to win his fourth term in office.

VIENNA, April 2. /TASS/: The Joint Commission of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) will gather for an offline meeting in Vienna on April 6 to set tasks to the two working groups and begin to discuss matters of complete resumption of the implementation of the Iran nuclear deal, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the Vienna-based international organization Mikhail Ulyanov told TASS on Friday.

PRAGUE, April 3. /TASS/: By failing to ensure a sufficient supply of anti-coronavirus vaccines to the Czech Republic, the European Union ‘indirectly prompts’ the republic’s government to start talks with Russia on Sputnik V before it is approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said on Friday.

"[The EU] indirectly prompts us to do this [buy the Russian-made vaccine]," the premier said. "It is of no surprise to me that Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz says he is ready to buy one million doses of Sputnik V [for his country]."

BERLIN, April 3. /TASS/: German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer has claimed that "challenges are growing" for Europe over Russia’s behavior, she said in an interview with the media group RND on Saturday.

Germany should boost military spending in own interests, but not "as a favor for the United States," the German defense minister said.

"Challenges are growing — with new technologies, in the form of hybrid threats, but also at the regional level, for example, taking into account the behavior of Russia," she claimed.

DONETSK, April 3. /TASS/: A child was killed in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) in a Ukrainian drone strike, the DPR People’s Militia wrote on the Telegram channel.

According to the DPR defense agency, Ukrainian troops dropped an explosive device from an unmanned aerial vehicle onto an inhabited locality in the DPR.

FRANKFURT, April 3 (NNN-AGENCIES) — German airline Lufthansa said that it would resume flights from Frankfurt to Tehran from Apr 16.

Lufthansa had suspended flights in January 2020 after a Ukranian airliner was shot down soon after take-off from Tehran.

The airline said it has since assessed security measures by Iran with national and international authorities.

“The conditions for safe flight operations in Iranian airspace are currently in place,” it said in an emailed statement. 

MOSCOW, April 3 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Russia has recorded over 225,000 deaths related to COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic in April, the Rosstat statistics service said on Friday, a figure that is more than double the death toll cited by the government coronavirus task force.

The statistics, which are reported on a monthly basis and with a lag, covering the period from April 2020 to February 2021, suggest that Russia has the third highest death toll in the world.

LONDON (Reuters) - The majority of British firms have faced disruption with trade with the European Union since Brexit, with many expecting the problem to last for some time, according to a survey published on Saturday.

A trade agreement between London and Brussels which came into force on Jan. 1 has meant some companies have had to deal with new bureaucracy and rules.

The Survation survey for London First/EY, conducted in February, found 75% had experienced some disruption, even though 71% said they had felt prepared for the changes.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s prospects of forming a new government waned on Saturday as a coalition partner seen as vital for securing a parliamentary majority ruled out joining a new administration led by him.

Rutte narrowly survived a no-confidence vote on Friday after parliament passed a motion disapproving of his behaviour during talks about forming a new government.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Russian government approved extending an agreement on cooperation in space with the United States until December 2030, news agencies cited the cabinet’s press service as saying on Saturday.

Moscow’s ties with Washington are at a post-Cold War low, with U.S. President Joe Biden saying he believes his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin is a killer who deserves to be hit with sanctions for meddling in U.S. politics, charges the Kremlin denies.