Europe

MINSK, March 7. /TASS/: Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Friday he plans to go to Moscow on May 9 to attend celebrations of the 75th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory in the Great Patriotic War (the Eastern Front during WWII where Russia fought against Nazi Germany).

"I am often asked: ‘Do you plan to attend the parade in Moscow? Of course. If no one comes from Belarus, who else would come? Obviously, no one will come from Ukraine," BelTA quoted him as saying.

MOSCOW, March 27. /TASS/: Over 1,500 Russian motor rifle troops from the 201st military base took part in force-on-force tactical drills that ended in Tajikistan, the press office of Russia’s Central Military District reported on Friday.

"The motorized infantry personnel practiced the assignments of conducting an offensive, holding defense and switching to a counter-attack, and also reconnaissance and strike operations in interaction with aviation and rocket artillery," the press office said in a statement.

MOSCOW, March 27. /TASS/: Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport has received two messages saying that bombs had been planted on board two planes en route from St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg to Moscow, an aviation source informed TASS on Friday.

"Sheremetyevo has received two E-mail messages saying that bombs had been planted on board Moscow-bound planes from St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg," the source said.

The plane from St. Petersburg has already landed safely, while the one en route from Yekaterinburg is in midair.

MOSCOW, March 27. /TASS/: Russia has fully suspended regular and charter international flights since Friday and airlines will only perform flights to bring Russians back home, according to a decision announced by the board of the government’s coordination council.

The move comes amid the novel coronavirus pandemic declared by the World Health Organization and its rapid spread in 170 countries in the world, including Russia.

MOSCOW, March 27. /TASS/: The Russian Energy Ministry considers $45-55 per barrel to be a fair market priced for oil at the moment, optimal for demand growth, but would not allow shale projects to grow, Deputy Energy Minister Pavel Sorokin said on Friday.

Moscow, Mar 27 (AFP/PTI) The Russian government has ordered all cafes and restaurants to close for a week from Saturday to stem the spread of the coronavirus infection.

Russian regions are to "halt the activities of public food service organisations," except for delivery services, a government decree said on Friday.

London; 27 March 2020 (UMM): UK PM Boris Johnson has tested positive for COVID-19. He is self-isolating in Downing Street.

In a video on his Twitter account, Mr Johnson wrote: "I'm working from home and self-isolating and that's entirely the right thing to do.

"But, be in no doubt that I can continue thanks to the wizardry of modern technology to communicate with all my top team to lead the national fightback against coronavirus.

LONDON (Reuters) - The British government is not crashing the economy with its multi-billion pound schemes to help businesses and workers as both companies and citizens needed support to survive the coronavirus crisis, its business minister said on Friday.

“I don’t think we are crashing the economy,” British Business Minister Alok Sharma told Sky News. “I hope the downturn, if I can put it like that, and the impact on the economy will be short term.”

MALMO/COPENHAGEN, March 27 (NNN-Agencies) — Only an 8-kilometre bridge separates neighbours Sweden and Denmark, but while the streets of the Danish capital Copenhagen lie deserted, life in Swedish city Malmo rumbles on as the countries adopt starkly different approaches in fighting the coronavirus outbreak.

LONDON (Reuters) - Banks should halt 2020 dividend payments to preserve capital and keep lending to businesses and households until the impact of the coronavirus epidemic is clearer, the European Banking Federation (EBF) said.

The EBF said the European banking sector remained “fully committed” to helping businesses and households cope with the fallout from the health crisis and it would prioritize solvency in order to be able to fund the economy.