Europe

LONDON (AP) — U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Sunday outlined a “conditional plan” for reopening British society in the coming months, including the possible return to school for some young children at the start of June, as well as some easing of the coronavirus lockdown in England.

In a televised address to the nation, Johnson said this is “not the time, simply, to end the lockdown this week,” but that it was appropriate to make some changes, including encouraging people with jobs that cannot be done from home to return to work.

11 May 2020; MEMO: The German army plans to operate a fleet of Israeli-made Heron TP drones in Afghanistan and Mali from 2021, the German Press Agency (DPA) reported.

The German government said the new model will join its fleet of drones in Afghanistan in 2021 and in Mali in 2024.

11 May 2020; MEMO: The EU’s Foreign Affairs Commission could impose sanctions on Israel if the latter implements its annexation plan in the occupied Palestinian West Bank, Israel Hayom revealed on Sunday. According to the Israeli newspaper, an informed source said that EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell is pushing for sanctions.

ROME, May 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Silvia Romano, an Italian aid worker kidnapped 18 months ago in East Africa, landed in Rome on Sunday, a day after being freed.

Gunmen seized Romano, who was working for an Italian charity called Africa Milele, in southeastern Kenya in November 2018. No group claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.

She was found in Somalia, around 30km outside the capital, Mogadishu, and was released thanks to efforts by the external intelligence agency, Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said.

VALLETTA, May 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Malta’s ambassador to Finland has resigned after a Facebook post in which he compared German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Adolf Hitler, The Times of Malta reported.

“75 years ago we stopped hitler. Who will stop Angela merkel? She has fulfilled hitlers dream! To control Europe,” envoy Michael Zammit Tabona wrote in the post which has since been deleted.

The Maltese foreign ministry told him to remove the message and the diplomat, who served as ambassador to Finland since 2014, had resigned, the newspaper said Sunday.

ROME, May 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A mild earthquake shook Rome early Monday but there were no immediate reports of damage, emergency services said.

Firefighters said they had received numerous inquiries from people after the tremor struck shortly after 5 am, estimated at 3.3 magnitude by the National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology.

Rome is not directly situated in a zone of strong seismic activity, but stronger earthquakes in the neighbouring Abruzzi region have often been felt in the Italian capital.

MADRID, May 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Five players from Spain’s top two leagues have tested positive for coronavirus, La Liga confirmed.

Players in Spain’s top-flight and Segunda division were allowed to carry out individual work at training grounds last week.

The move was the beginning of a staggered training programme, with the aim to restart competitive games in the middle of June.

La Liga insist identifying infected players through positive tests are part of that plan.

MOSCOW, May 11. /TASS/: Russian air forces have recently tested a new hypersonic aircraft missile, a source in the military-industrial complex told TASS. The missile is being created for a modified version of the Tu-22M3M aircraft, the source added.

"Recently, a new hypersonic missile was tested on the Tu-22M3. The missile will be part of the armament range of the upgraded Tu-22M3M along with a number of other latest aviation weapons," the source said.

MOSCOW, May 10. /TASS/: The number of coronavirus patients in Russia has exceeded 200,000, with another 75,000 confirmed cases in the past week. However, the growth rates of the number of infected continue going down averaging 6.5% per day in the past seven days.

On Sunday, the federal anti-coronavirus crisis center reported 11,012 new cases. All in all, the number of coronavirus cases increased by 75,001 in the country to 209,688 in the period from May 4 to 10.

MOSCOW, May 10. / TASS /: The growth rate of cases of coronavirus infection in recent days suggests that Russia has reached a plateau, the spokesperson for the World Health Organization (WHO) in Russia Melita Vujnovic said in a telephone interview with Bloomberg on Sunday.

"Cases of infection continue to be appear, but their growth has stabilized," Vujnovic said. "We hope that what we have been seeing for the last few days is a plateau."