Europe

GENEVA, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Although the first clusters of atypical pneumonia were reported in Wuhan, China, it doesn't necessarily mean that is where the COVID-19 disease crossed from animals into humans, a senior World Health Organization (WHO) expert said on Monday.

Dr. Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Program, said at a routine COVID-19 briefing on Monday that a much more "extensive retrospective epidemiological study" should be taken to fully understand the links between the cases.

MOSCOW, August 3. /TASS/: The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and the ChemRar Group of companies have begun supplying the Avifavir anti-coronavirus drug to South Africa, RDIF announced in a press release.

According to the press release, Chromis, a joint venture established by RDIF, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, and ChemRar Group, announced the signing of a distribution agreement with South Africa’s 3Sixty Biopharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of 3Sixty Global Solutions Group, to deliver Avifavir, the first Russian anti-COVID drug, to South Africa.

MOSCOW, August 3. /TASS/: The Il-114-300 regional turboprop aircraft will make its first flight in September 2020, Chief Executive Officer of the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) Yuri Slyusar said on Monday at the meeting with President Vladimir Putin.

"The aircraft [Il-114-300 - TASS] has already been assembled. The airplane undergoes ground tests and is preparing for the first flight. I believe in September, according to our plans, this aircraft will take off in the Moscow Region, in Zhukovsky," Slyusar said.

MINSK, August 3. /TASS/: Belarusian human rights activists said that the conditions for the presidential election campaign in the country were unequal, with the authorities often hampering events held by the incumbent president’s top rival Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, a report posted on the website of the Viasna human rights center (not registered by the Belarusian Ministry of Justice) said.

MOSCOW, August 3. /TASS/: Russia will initiate denunciation of the double tax agreement with Cyprus from August 3, the Russian Finance Ministry said on Monday.

"The Russian Finance Ministry starts the agreement denouncing procedure to fulfill the assignment of the Russian President on taxation of incomes in the form of dividends and interest paid from the territory of the Russian Federation to the Republic of Cyprus at the rate of 15%," the Ministry says.

The Russian Finance Ministry considered Cyprus’ proposals on amendments to tax laws as unfeasible, the Ministry said.

WARSAW, June 3. /TASS/: Poland’s Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) has imposed a penalty of around $57 mln on Russia’s top gas producer Gazprom for failure to cooperate in the investigation conducted in relation to construction of Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, the regulator said in a statement on Monday.

PARIS, Aug 3 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The number of coronavirus cases recorded worldwide has passed 18 million, according to tally from official sources at 2240 GMT Sunday.

At least 18,011,763 cases have now been registered as the pandemic’s rate of infection continues to accelerate. A million more cases have been detected in just the last four days.

More than half of the world’s cases have been recorded in the United States and in Latin America and the Caribbean region.

LONDON (Reuters) - The location of TikTok owner ByteDance’s headquarters is a commercial decision for the company to make, a spokesman for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday, responding to a report that the firm could move to London.

“It would be a commercial decision, and I’m not aware that one has been taken,” the spokesman said.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union is willing to compromise to help break a deadlock in Brexit talks by softening its demand that Britain heed EU rules on state aid in the future, diplomatic sources told Reuters.

They said Brussels could go for a compromise entailing a dispute-settling mechanism on any state aid granted by the UK to its companies in the future, rather than obliging London to follow the bloc’s own rules from the outset.

LILLE, France (Reuters) - Prime Minister Jean Castex urged France on Monday to remain as vigilant as possible against COVID-19, which has shown signs of a resurgence in the country, as the virus was “not on holiday”.

“We must not let our guard down,” Castex told reporters in Lille, where masks are now compulsory in many of the northern city’s pedestrian areas and parks.

“The virus is not on holiday, and neither are we,” he said, adding it was vital that France avoided another nationwide shutdown.