Europe

MOSCOW, July 20. /TASS/: Russia’s COVID-19 fatalities grew by 85 in the past 24 hours reaching 12,427, the anti-coronavirus crisis center said on Monday.

That was the lowest number of deaths since May 4.

Fifteen patients died in Moscow in the past 24 hours, the Nizhny Novgorod and Tula regions reported four fatalities each, while the Novosibirsk, Murmansk, Moscow and Khanty-Mansi regions confirmed three deaths each.

ROME, July 20 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The captain of an Italian-flagged ship is to be tried for allegedly forcing migrants back to Libya, in the first such case in Italy.

The Asso 28 supply ship picked up 101 migrants near an oil and gas rig in international waters, before taking them to the port of Tripoli and handing them over to the Libyan coast guard, according to prosecutors in Naples.

PARIS (Reuters) - Ivory Coast’s ruling party said on Monday it had asked President Alassane Ouattara to stand for a third term after the death of his chosen successor.

Ouattara, 78, had said he would step down and named his close ally, Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly, as the RHDP party’s candidate for the Oct. 31 ballot.

But Gon Coulibaly died on July 8, leaving the party without a candidate in the run-up to an election that is expected to test political stability in the world’s top cocoa producing nation.

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices fell on Monday as coronavirus cases increased in many countries across the globe, but investors remained cautiously optimistic about ongoing talks over a European Union-wide recovery fund to revive economies affected by the pandemic.

Brent crude LCOc1 was down 24 cents, or 0.6%, at $42.90 per barrel by 0943 GMT while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) CLc1 slipped 23 cents, or 0.6%, to $40.36.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch health technology company Philips has seen a strong rebound in consumer demand in Europe during the second quarter as lockdowns were relaxed, Chief Executive Frans van Houten said on Monday.

“In Europe we have seen a strong recovery of consumer demand. Perhaps even a even a bit better than we had anticipated. So that bodes well”, van Houten told reporters.

The recovery of demand in China had stagnated after an initial surge when lockdowns were eased, the CEO added, due to the overall economic slowdown in the country.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain is to announce changes to its extradition arrangements with China and Hong Kong on Monday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said, citing concerns over new national security laws imposed on the former British colony by Beijing.

“We obviously have concerns about what’s happening in Hong Kong,” Johnson said.

“You’ll be hearing a bit later on from the Foreign Secretary about how we’re going to change our extradition arrangements to reflect our concerns about what’s happening with the security law in Hong Kong.”

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A Dutch military helicopter crashed in the Caribbean Sea near the island of Aruba, killing two of the four people on board, the Dutch defence ministry said on Monday.

Rob Bauer, the Dutch armed forces chief, said it was not clear what caused the helicopter to crash some 12.5 kilometres (7.77 miles) off the coast of the Dutch island at the end of a coast patrol surveillance flight on Sunday.

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday he could not promise there would be successful vaccine against COVID-19 developed by the end of this year, saying “we’re not there yet” even as Britain lines up supplies.

“To say that I’m 100% confident that we’ll get a vaccine, this year or indeed next year, is alas, just an exaggeration. We’re not there yet,” Johnson said after Britain announced supply deals for two more vaccines under development.

20 July 2020; MEMO: The UK home office was slammed for its “alarming inaction” as it faces accusations it has made no attempt to return British children from war-torn Syria.

Save the Children said that nothing has been done in the past eight months to bring British children trapped in Syria to safety, despite Prime Minister Boris Johnson describing the repatriation of children as a “great success”.

GENEVA, July 19 (Xinhua) -- Number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has passed 14 million globally as of Sunday morning, the World Health Organization's dashboard showed.

The WHO has received reports of 14,007,791 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 597,105 deaths as of 10:35 a.m. CEST (0835 GMT) Sunday.

A record high of 259,848 cases were registered on Satuday, according to the organization's daily situation update.

The United States reported the largest single-day rise of 71,484 confirmed cases on Saturday, bringing the total number of infections to 3,544,143.