Europe

MINSK, June 5. /TASS/: The terms of further presence of Russia’s two military facilities in Belarus are in the process of internal coordination. Russia will be notified of the decision in due time, the Belarusian Defense Ministry told TASS on Friday.

"The terms of further presence of Russia’s military facilities in Belarus are in the process of internal coordination. A final decision is to be taken by the Belarusian government. The Russian side will be notified of the decision in a working mode," the Defense Ministry said.

MOSCOW, June 5. /TASS/: The guard tank army of Russia’s Western Military District was reinforced to protect the country on the Western strategic direction, the military district told journalists Friday.

In late May, Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu said that the Western strategic direction remains under the highest threat for Russia’s military security, adding that, in accordance with the 2019-2025 plan of action, Russia conducts a complex of measures to neutralize the emerging threats.

NOVO-OGAREVO, June 5. /TASS/: The situation with the petroleum products spill in Norilsk should be under total control and causes should be found out uncompromisingly, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday.

MOSCOW, June 5. /TASS/: Moscow’s Research Institute of Emergency Care (Sklifosovsky Institute) has begun experiments to use hyperbaric oxygenation therapy (HBOT) to treat COVID-19 patients, the Moscow mayor’s website said on Friday.

MOSCOW, June 5. /TASS/: The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Russia rose by 8,726 to 449,834 in the past 24 hours, the anti-coronavirus crisis center said on Friday.

According to the crisis center, the country’s daily coronavirus growth rate has for the first time fallen below 2%, to 1.98%.

Another 762 cases have been recorded in the Moscow region, 378 in St. Petersburg, 330 in the Nizhny Novgorod region, 251 in the Sverdlovsk region and 196 in the Rostov region.

There are currently 231,626 active cases in the country.

5 June 2020; AFP: Sweden's former ambassador to Beijing goes on trial in Stockholm on Friday accused of overstepping her mandate by trying to negotiate the release of a Chinese-Swedish dissident held in China.

Anna Lindstedt is accused of brokering an unauthorised meeting during her time as ambassador to get publisher Gui Minhai freed.

05 June 2020; MEMO: A new feature film set around the murder of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi is to be directed by Swedish filmmaker Daniel Espinosa, entitled “The Execution” named after the incident at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018, w

5 June 2020; AFP: The latest round of Brexit trade talks ended with no breakthrough Friday, as the EU and Britain stuck to long-held positions and called for negotiations to be ramped up.

The EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier could report "no significant progress this week", accusing London of backtracking on divorce terms agreed last year.

"This situation cannot go on forever," Barnier told reporters after hundreds of officials completed four days of virtual talks on forging future EU-UK ties.

PRAGUE (Reuters) - The Czech government has declared two staff at the Russian Embassy in Prague as persona non grata and ordered them to leave, Prime Minister Andrej Babis said on Friday.

He said the decision came after what he called infighting among Russian embassy personnel that led to false allegations about a planned Russian assault on three Czech politicians.

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices rose on Friday after OPEC decided to move up discussions on whether to extend record production cuts to Saturday, indicating that some laggard countries may have agreed to align themselves with the deal.

Brent crude futures were up 95 cents, or 2.4%, at $40.94 a barrel as of 0920 GMT, after rising over $1 to $41.18.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 64 cents, or 1.7%, to $38.05 a barrel.