Europe

MOSCOW, May 8. /TASS/: Russian and Cuban Foreign Ministers, Sergey Lavrov and Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla exchanged congratulatory telegrams on the 60th anniversary of the resumption of diplomatic relations between the two countries, the Russian foreign ministry said on Friday.

MOSCOW, May 6. /TASS/: Russian billionaire Dmitry Bosov, the co-owner of Vostokugol and Sibanthracite coal companies, committed a suicide at the age of 52, RBC reported. A source familiar with Bosov confirmed the information to TASS.

According to RBC, Bosov committed the suicide on the night of May 6.

Investigators are currently ascertaining the circumstances of the billionaire’s suicide, a source in law enforcement agencies told TASS.

In 2020, Bosov ranked 86th among the richest Russians with the wealth of $1.1 bln, the Forbes magazine said earlier.

MOSCOW, May 9. /TASS/: A parade formation of 75 helicopters and aircraft flew over Moscow’s Red Square to mark the 75th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s Victory over Nazi Germany in the 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War, TASS reported from the scene.

MOSCOW, May 9. /TASS/: New coronavirus cases in Russia have grown by 10,817 over the past twenty-four hours to 198,676 in all the country’s regions, the anti-coronavirus crisis center reported on Saturday.

To date, 31,916 people have recovered from the illness while fatalities have reached 1,827, the crisis center said.

According to the data, the daily growth in coronavirus cases amounted to 5.8%, the lowest figure since the start of the pandemic.

A total of 4,399 new cases (40.7%) were identified as asymptomatic, the anti-coronavirus crisis center said.

MOSCOW, May 10./TASS/: No rise in domestic violence is reported across Russia, the press service of the Interior Ministry said on Sunday in reply to an inquiry from TASS.

"According to statistics data, no rise is seen in the household crimes," the press service said.

The ministry specifies that in the first quarter of this year, the figure of domestic abuse incidents has declined by 13%, while their share in all crimes committed across Russia is 1.4%.

MOSCOW, May 10. /TASS/: On the day of the 75th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War 36 military academies across the nation held graduation ceremonies, the Russian Defense Ministry said, adding that 12,000 newly-commissioned lieutenants would join the armed forces.

Among the new-comers to the Russian officers’ corps there are 260 women. According to the Defense Ministry, one in five former cadets graduated with honors.

MOSCOW, May 10. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has congratulated the graduates of military academies upon Victory Day. The message was published on the Kremlin’s website on Sunday.

"We will go ahead with developing and improving our armed forces. Under any circumstance we will implement the plans for reinforcing all arms and services and equipping them with advanced weapons and other hardware, including strategic ones, unparalleled high accuracy and hypersonic systems, unmanned aerial vehicles and robotized combat systems," the message runs.

10 May 2020; AFP: Poland's election day Sunday will be one for the history books as polling stations remain closed and turnout will clock in at zero due to a political crisis set off by the coronavirus pandemic.

The EU member of 38 million people has found itself in the bizarre "Twilight Zone" predicament in which the presidential ballot is formally neither postponed nor cancelled, because the government and opposition were unable to agree on a constitutional and safe solution.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - One person was killed after a fire broke out on Saturday at a Moscow hospital treating patients infected with the new coronavirus, the authorities said.

The hospital, located in northwestern Moscow, had been designated by the authorities as one of the medical facilities treating coronavirus patients in the Russian capital.

The emergency ministry told the RIA news agency that the blaze erupted in a patient’s room, without providing further details. The fire has since been put out, the authorities said.

GENEVA, May 9 (Xinhua) -- The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday that smoking does not protect people against COVID-19. On the contrary, smokers who get infected have a higher risk of severe disease and death.

Responding to a question that "some scientists have found that cigarette smokers are less likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19," epidemiologist Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, technical lead on COVID-19 response at the WHO Health Emergencies Program, said at a press conference that this statement is simply not true.