Europe

WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland’s Health Minister Adam Niedzielski has not ruled out imposing restrictions at the country’s borders with Slovakia and the Czech Republic due to their rising number of COVID-19 cases.

“Borders will be open for persons with negative test results, but this is as of today, as the dynamics of the situation may change,” Niedzielski told Radio Zet on Saturday, adding the decisions will be taken next week.

PARIS (Reuters) - The head of European planemaker Airbus called on Saturday for a “ceasefire” in a trade war with the United States over aircraft subsidies, which has led to billions of dollars in tit-for-tat tariffs on airplanes and other goods.

In an interview on France Inter radio, Chief Executive Guillaume Faury also urged European nations to ease border restrictions that have crippled air travel across the continent during the coronavirus crisis.

PARIS (Reuters) - A Sudanese asylum seeker who fatally stabbed an employee at a migrant reception centre in the southern French city of Pau on Friday had no terrorist motives, the Pau prosecutor said on Saturday.

She said that following Friday’s attack the assailant had been detained by two staff of the asylum centre.

BRUSSELS, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) announced on Friday to double its contribution to COVAX, an international program devised to help low and middle-income countries to have more access to COVID-19 vaccines.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen told the G7 leaders' virtual summit that the bloc was pledging an additional 500 million euros (about 606 million U.S. dollars), bringing its contribution to the global initiative to one billion euros.

GENEVA, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- Although the global number of new COVID-19 cases has fallen for the fifth consecutive week, the world is still not out of the woods and now is not the time to let the guard down, senior officials from the World Health Organization (WHO) have warned.

WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press briefing here on Thursday that last week saw the lowest number of reported weekly cases since October 2020.

LONDON (AP) — Leaders of the Group of Seven economic powers promised Friday to immunize the world’s neediest people against the coronavirus by giving money, and precious vaccine doses, to a U.N.-backed vaccine distribution effort.

But the leaders, under pressure over their vaccination campaigns at home, were unwilling to say exactly how much vaccine they were willing to share with the developing world, or when.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said after the G-7 leaders held a virtual meeting that fair distribution of vaccines was “an elementary question of fairness.”

MOSCOW, February 19. /TASS/: Talks of colonization of Mars today is futurism, says Ivan Moskatinyev, Deputy Chief Designer of the Lavochkin Research and Production Association.

"This is futurism, of course. One can hardly talk about it seriously today," Moskatinyev said in an interview for the Russian TV, commenting on Mars colonization options.

According to the designer, interplanetary flights will become easier after the colonization of the Moon.

MOSCOW, February 19. /TASS/: The oldest constitutional republic of San Marino has approved the use of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus, according to a press release by the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF).

MOSCOW, February 19. /TASS/: Russia’s COVID-19 case tally grew by 13,433 in the past day to 4,139,031, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told reporters on Friday.

In relative terms, the growth rate reached 0.33%.

The lowest growth rates were registered in the Tuva Republic (0.01%), the Magadan Region, the Jewish Autonomous Region, the Chechen Republic and the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region (0.1%).

ROTTERDAM, Feb 19 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Dutch customs investigators discovered over 1,300 kilograms of cocaine hidden between a load of coffee beans in the port of Rotterdam, the public prosecutor’s office said.

The sales value of the illegal cargo was estimated at almost 100 million euros (120 million dollars).

The container had arrived from Brazil and was destined for a company in the Netherlands, according to the authorities.

However, the company probably was not involved in drug smuggling, the prosecutor’s office said.