Europe

MOSCOW, February 18. /TASS/. A six-year boy who had spent the whole night in Moscow’s Elk Island National Park eventually turned up alive and unharmed, a law enforcement source informed TASS.

ABU DHABI, February 18. /TASS/. The construction of a plant in Venezuela to manufacture Kalashnikov assault rifles will be completed by the end of this year, CEO of Russia’s Rostec hi-tech corporation Sergei Chemezov said at the IDEX-2019 defense show in Abu Dhabi on Monday.

"We have fulfilled all our obligations and only the construction of the production facility for Kalashnikov assault rifles has not yet been completed. This work will be fulfilled by the end of the year," the chief executive said.

ABU-DHABI, February 18. /TASS/. Russia will supply to China a replacement for the S-400 air defense system missiles instead of those damaged during a storm in the English Channel a year ago, Rostec corporation chief Sergei Chemezov told the media at the IDEX-2019 exhibition in Abu Dhabi on Monday.

"The contract had been signed a long time ago. The shipment would’ve been carried by now, but regrettably the ship that was carrying the missiles was hit by a storm. We were forced to eliminate all those missiles to make new ones instead," Chemezov said.

MOSCOW, February 18. /TASS/. The United States is behind the European Union's decision to impose new sanctions on Russia over the incident in the Kerch Strait, chairman of the Russian State Duma's International Affairs Committee Leonid Slutsky said on Monday.

MOSCOW, February 19. /TASS/. Russia’s Roscosmos and US company Space Adventures have signed a new contract on the flight of two space tourists to the International Space Station until late 2021 onboard one spacecraft, the state corporation told TASS on Tuesday.

"The Roscosmos state corporation and US company Space Adventures have signed a contract on carrying out short-term space flights to the ISS by two non-professional astronauts onboard one spacecraft. The flight to the station will take place until the end of 2021," Roscosmos said.

MOSCOW, February 19. /TASS/. Various restrictions, including economic sanctions, introduced by other countries cost Russia $6.3bln by late 2018, according to the estimates of the Economic Development Ministry presented on Tuesday.

These restrictions include anti-dumping duties, licensing, quotas, technical barriers, sanitary and phytosanitary measures and also economic sanctions.

The Hague, Feb 18 (PTI) India on Monday urged the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to annul Kulbhushan Jadhav's death sentence by a Pakistani military court and order his immediate release, saying the verdict based on a "farcical case" hopelessly fails to satisfy even the minimum standards of due process

Jadhav, a retired Indian Navy officer, was sentenced to death by the military court on charges of "espionage and terrorism" after a closed trial in April 2017. His sentencing evoked a sharp reaction in India

SKOPJE, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- Police forces in North Macedonia dismantled an organized group involved in illegal weapons trade, the country's ministry of internal affairs said in a press release on Monday.

The police action was organized in cooperation with the country's public prosecution office.

After investigations, a court ordered the arrest of all nine members of the group, who are from the North Macedonian cities of Skopje, Tetovo and Kumanovo.

MOSCOW, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Kremlin on Monday condemned the blocking of Russian government-backed RT video channels by Facebook as "unprecedented and undisguised pressure on the Russian media."

"Unfortunately, many large companies that provide services in the field of social networks and in other, let's say, digital formats, are also used by the authorities of unfriendly countries as a tool to exert pressure on Russian media," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti news agency.

LONDON (AP) — Hundreds of passengers throughout Europe have been stranded by the abrupt collapse of the British regional airline Flybmi.

British Midland Regional Limited, which operates as Flybmi, said it’s filing for administration — a British version of bankruptcy — because of higher fuel costs and uncertainty caused by Britain’s upcoming departure from the European Union.