Europe

MOSCOW, Feb 12 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Russia discharged a Chinese national from hospital in the Siberian city of Chita on Wednesday after he recovered from a Covid-19 infection, local authorities said.

He was the second of Russia’s two confirmed cases of coronavirus to recover. The other victim, also a Chinese national, was said by authorities on Tuesday to have recovered and been released from quarantine in Siberia’s Tyumen region.

GENEVA, Feb 12 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The World Health Organisation said “Covid-19” would be the new official name for the deadly coronavirus that was first identified in China on Dec 31.

“We now have a name for the disease and it’s Covid-19,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters in Geneva, explaining that “co” stood for “corona”, “vi” for “virus” and “d” for “disease”.

Meanwhile, scientists from around the world are reviewing how Covid-19 is transmitted and possible vaccines at a WHO conference that kicked off on Tuesday.

KIEV, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that he feels it will be possible to hold the elections in the East of Ukraine this fall, Interfax-Ukraine reported on Tuesday.

In an exclusive interview with the news agency, the president underlined that it is possible only after the active phase of the conflict stops in the East of Ukraine, and the foreign armed forces are withdrawn from the territory of Ukraine.

BERLIN, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, head of the German ruling party Christian Democratic Union (CDU), has announced that she will not run for chancellor in the 2021 general election and will step down as the conservative party chair.

MOSCOW, February 10. /TASS/: Turkish servicemen did not take part in Monday’s joint patrol mission in Syria’s al-Hasakah governorate, which was conducted by the Russian military police unilaterally, Major General Yuri Borenkov, chief of the Russian Center for Reconciliation of the Opposing Parties in Syria, said on Monday.

MOSCOW, February 11. /TASS/: The head of Russia’s state-run space corporation Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, plans to discuss cooperation in far space research with the US side in April, the space official said on his Twitter page on Monday.

"In the run-up to the manned mission in April, we plan to hold talks with US colleagues on cooperation in far space research," Rogozin wrote.

MOSCOW, February 11. /TASS/: Microsoft, a world-renowned US-based tech giant, published its annual country rating on the so-called Digital Civility Index (DCI). According to the paper, 79% of Russian nationals faced Internet harassment in 2019.

MOSCOW, February 11. /TASS/: Russia’s Transport Ministry estimates the losses national airlines suffer because of suspension of flights to China at 1.6 billion rubles ($25.2 mln), Deputy Transport Minister Alexander Yurchik told reporters on Tuesday.

"These are calculations by the Transport Ministry together with the airlines," he said, answering the question of whether the volume of compensation could really amount to 1.6 billion rubles.

MOSCOW, February 11. /TASS/: The Syrian government army has gained full control of the strategically important Damascus-Aleppo highway, the Al-Hadath TV channel informed. According to the channel, the Syrian military has cleared the outposts of militants located between the cities of Hama and Aleppo.

The 432-km highway connects Damascus with industrial zones in northern Syria and the economic capital of Aleppo.

11 February 2020; AFP: Sinn Fein on Tuesday became Ireland's second largest parliamentary party after winning the popular vote in a weekend election -- shattering the political landscape and thrusting the one-time fringe party with historic links to paramilitaries into a likely role in the next government.