Europe

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — The IOC will take up to four weeks to consider postponing the Tokyo Olympics amid mounting criticism of its handling of the coronavirus crisis that now includes Canada saying it won’t send a team to the games this year and the leader of track and field, the biggest sport at the games, also calling for a delay.

MOSCOW, March 21. /TASS/: The Soyuz-2.1b launch vehicle with Fregat upper stage and 34 British OneWeb communication satellites atop was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Saturday.

The upper stage will deploy the satellites in 3.5 hours. The satellites will be placed into the proper orbit in nine stages: first, two spacecraft and then four. It is the second launch of OneWeb modules from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

PRAGUE, March 22. /TASS/: Slovakia under new Prime Minister Igor Matovic will ramp up its efforts on fulfilling its NATO obligations, but will not seek to escalate tensions with Russia, the new Defense Minister Jaroslav Nad’ said Saturday.

"Our entire government, its orientation, the program statement [of the Cabinet] and the staff of the Ministry [of Defense] will strictly [fulfill obligations] that stem from our NATO membership," he said. "That stall [in Slovak activity], which we have seen during the last four years, is definitely over."

MOSCOW, March 22. /TASS/: More than 163,000 coronavirus tests have been conducted in the laboratories of Russia’s Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing, the sanitary watchdog reported.

"As of March 21, some 163,529 laboratory tests on human material for the novel coronavirus have been carried out," the watchdog said.

Some 52,000 are currently under medical supervision over coronavirus in Russia.

MOSCOW, March 22. /TASS/: The launch of British OneWeb communications satellites on March 21 by the Soyuz 2.1b carrier rocket showed that Russia is ready for deploying multi-satellite orbital groups, Head of Roscosmos space corporation Dmitry Rogozin said on Sunday.

"By this launch we proved that our equipment is ready for a swift deployment of multi-satellite groups of complex orbital configuration," Rogozin wrote on his Twitter account.

MOSCOW, March 22. /TASS/: UK-made OneWeb satellites have been successfully launched into orbit, thanks to efforts of Russian and foreign companies, who made it possible, despite difficult epidemiologic situation in the world, Glavkosmos CEO Dmitry Loskutov said Saturday.

On March 21, the launch has been conducted within the agreement between Glavkosmos and France’s Arianespace. A Soyuz-2.1b rocket has taken 34 OneWeb satellites to orbit from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, increasing the constellation to 74 units.

MOSCOW, March 22. /TASS/: Russia’s Defense Ministry will send to Italy nearly 100 virologists and epidemiologists, and eight medical teams with equipment to provide assistance in combating the coronavirus, the ministry told reporters on Sunday.

"A group of some 100 people is ready for the flight, which consists of leading specialists of the Russian Defense Ministry in the field of virology and epidemiology, who have major international experience in fighting against the epidemic along with modern equipment for diagnosing and carrying out disinfection efforts," the ministry said.

MOSCOW, March 22. /TASS/: Russia’s special services in Bashkortostan have killed a gunman who plotted a terrorist attack, the National Anti-Terrorism Committee’s information center told TASS on Sunday.

At 17:00 on Saturday the security services attempted to stop a car with a gunman inside near Bashkortostan’s capital of Ufa. "When asked to lay down arms and surrender to the authorities he opened fire. The gunman was neutralized by return fire," the NAC said.

SARAJEVO (Reuters) - Slovenia’s only nuclear power plant, Krsko (NEK), has not been affected by a large earthquake which hit neighboring Croatia early on Sunday but authorities said it had started inspecting systems and equipment as a normal preventive action.

“The nuclear power plant continues to operate at full power,” said Igor Sirc, director of the Slovenian Nuclear Safety Administration.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia never sought a sharp oil price fall or an end to cooperation with Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), and the Gulf nations are to blame for the crisis on the global oil markets, a senior Russian official said.

In early March, Russia and OPEC failed to agree how their deal to cut oil production should work: OPEC wanted to deepen the cuts while Moscow proposed extending existing curbs. The disagreement came at a time when global demand was slumping because of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.