Europe

MOSCOW, May 29. /TASS/: Russian paratroopers have received over 160 items of the armor since the start of the year, including the latest BMD-4M airborne infantry fighting vehicles and BTR-MDM ‘Rakushka’ armored personnel carriers, the Defense Ministry reported on Friday.

MOSCOW, May 29. /TASS/: Russian researchers have discovered a new way to produce nanoparticles of hematite - an iron mineral, used in oncology, among other things. They made this discovery thanks to a reaction that takes place on Mars, said the press service of the Russian Science Foundation, which supported the research.

MOSCOW, May 29. /TASS/: Russia’s coronavirus death toll rose by 232 to 4,374 in the past 24 hours, the anti-coronavirus crisis center said on Friday.

The previous high of 174 was reported on May 26 and 28.

As many as 50 deaths were recorded in Dagestan in the past day, 20 in the Moscow region and 11 in St. Petersburg. The North Ossetia, Krasnoyarsk and Oryol regions reported six coronavirus deaths each.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union foreign ministers sought to toughen their strategy on China on Friday to counter Beijing’s increasingly assertive diplomacy and accelerate efforts to end unfettered access for Chinese business in Europe.

Amid European criticism of Beijing’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak, EU foreign ministers met via videolink for their first discussion before two possible EU-China summits this year, one expected at the end of June and another in September.

KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine expects the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to approve a $5 billion (4.05 billion pounds) loan package at a board meeting on June 5 and the first tranche of $1.9 billion to be disbursed the following day, Prime Minister Denys Shmygal told Reuters on Friday.

Ukraine needs the loans to weather an economic shock caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Gross domestic product could fall by 12% in the second quarter of this year, according to a preliminary estimate, Shmygal said in an interview.

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices were dragged sharply lower on Friday by weak U.S. fuel demand, fears of a second wave of coronavirus cases in South Korea and a worsening in U.S.-China relations, but were still on track for a hefty monthly gain.

July Brent crude LCOc1 fell $1.16, or 3.3%, to $34.13 a barrel by 0927 GMT while the more active August contract fell $1.11, or 3.1%, to $34.92. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 was down $1.28, or 3.8%, at $32.43.

VIENNA, May 29 (Xinhua) -- The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries' (OPEC) daily basket price stood at 28.45 U.S. dollars a barrel on Thursday, compared with 29.03 dollars on Wednesday, according to OPEC Secretariat calculations released on Friday.

Also known as the OPEC reference basket of crude oil, the OPEC basket, a weighted average of oil prices from different OPEC members around the world, is used as an important benchmark for crude oil prices. 

ROME, May 28 (Xinhua) -- The novel coronavirus infection trend continued downward in Italy as the number of recoveries jumped by 3,503 on Thursday, bringing the total to 150,604, the Civil Protection Department said.

Meanwhile, another 70 people died, bringing the death toll from COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, to 33,142 on Thursday.

The total active infections stood at 47,986, down by 2,980 from Wednesday, according to the department.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — One by one, the children and adults line up for the centuries-old ritual of Holy Communion, trying to keep a proper social distance. The priest dips a spoon into the chalice of bread and wine, which the faithful believe is the body and blood of Christ, and puts it into the mouth of the first person in line.

Then, with a move that would alarm an epidemiologist, he dips the spoon back into the chalice and then into the next person’s mouth.

Again and again, through the entire congregation.

LONDON, May 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The world’s oldest man, according to the Guinness World Records, has died from cancer in Britain at the age of 112, his family confirmed on Thursday.

Bob Weighton, a former teacher and engineer from the central English county Hampshire, died “peacefully” in his sleep at home on Thursday morning, they said.

Weighton took up the title of the oldest man in the world in February after the death of the previous holder, Chitetsu Watanabe of Japan.