Europe

MOSCOW, April 9. /TASS/: Russia has received requests from Belarus for assistance in the fight against the spread of coronavirus and is considering them, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko told TASS.

"Yes, such requests from the Belarusian side have been received," he said answering a question on the issue. "We are considering them in the spirit of allied and fraternal relations between our countries."

ROME, April 9. /TASS/: EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell believes that Russia and China exploit the sanitary crisis, caused by the coronavirus, and provide aid to other countries in a bid to increase their geopolitical role in the world. He expressed this stance in an interview for la Repubblica daily that came out Thursday.

BERLIN, April 9./TASS/: The pace of growth of new coronavirus cases in Germany has slowed down somewhat, but the social distancing strategy must not be relaxed, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in Berlin on Thursday.

MOSCOW, April 9. /TASS/: The online meeting of OPEC+ ministers to discuss the oil production cuts has started, a source in OPEC told TASS on Thursday.

"They have started," the source said. The meeting is being held in private and the opening statements will be shared only after it ends, TASS reported earlier.

The meeting is not restricted in terms of the duration, the source added. It is difficult to forecast the length of the negotiations now because live meetings often last 8-10 hours.

WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland’s President Andrzej Duda said on Thursday he asked Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki to exempt all Polish firms from social security payments for three months.

Duda also said during a televised speech that he wanted the exemption to cover all firms that were established and started operations before March 1.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Putin has no plans as of Thursday to discuss oil markets with U.S. President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia’s leadership, a Kremlin spokesman told Reuters.

“There are no such plans for today,” the Kremlin spokesman said when asked about such a possibility.

LONDON (Reuters) - Home rental firm Airbnb blocked British bookings on its platform for the vast majority of customers on Thursday, allowing only key workers to stay in properties for as long as emergency government coronavirus restrictions are in place.

The move, first reported by Reuters, comes after hosts using the site had been criticised for advertising “isolation retreats”, with tourism minister Nigel Huddleston saying that property owners were being “incredibly irresponsible”.

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was getting better on Thursday in intensive care where he is battling COVID-19 as his government extended its bank overdraft facility and reviewed the most stringent shutdown in peacetime history.

Johnson, 55, was admitted to St Thomas’ hospital on Sunday evening with a persistent high temperature and cough and was rushed to intensive care on Monday. He has received oxygen support but not been put on a ventilator.

BERLIN, April 9 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Germany plans to take in up to 50 unaccompanied minors staying at overcrowded refugee camps in Greece, while Luxembourg has agreed to accept 12, government officials said.

Interior Minister Horst Seehofer will propose to the Cabinet a plan to bring the children to Germany and recommend that “the transfer should begin in the next week, if possible,” a statement from his ministry said.

ATHENS, April 9 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Hundreds of Greek healthcare workers demonstrated against working conditions and manpower and equipment shortages in public hospitals fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

The Tuesday demonstrations coincided with World Health Day, according to the federation of hospital personnel.

“You only saw us when we covered our faces,” proclaimed a poster printed by hospital trade unions, bearing a picture of doctors wearing anti-coronavirus masks.