RUSSIA
Rise in covid-19 cases 'alarming': Kremlin
The Kremlin said Friday that it was alarmed by a rise in coronavirus cases, but it was too early to judge the effectiveness of its policy of trying to contain the disease without a full lockdown.
Russia reported a record daily tally of 20,582 new cases, bringing its total to 1,733,440 — the world’s fourth-largest behind the United States, India and Brazil.
“The trend is alarming; the pandemic is developing,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call.
Asked whether Russia’s measures had been effective in containing the virus without imposing lockdowns, Peskov said: “It is probably too early to talk about this.”
In recent months, Russian authorities have said harsh restrictions are not needed and stressed the importance of hygiene. Russia has also developed vaccines, though they have not been universally recognized as effective.
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— Reuters
Share this articleShareProtester killed in Iraq as tensions flare again: Iraqi security forces opened fire during clashes with hundreds of protesters in the southern city of Basra on Friday, killing at least one demonstrator and wounding as many as 40 others as tensions flared once again, hospital officials said. The clashes erupted after some of the protesters tried to set up tents in a public square, a week after similar, previously erected protest tents in Basra and Baghdad had been removed. Dozens of young Iraqis were seen running away in panic after the shots were fired in Basra. The slain protester was identified as Omar al-Thiabi, a 29-year-old unemployed Iraqi. Last Saturday, Iraqi forces cleared tents from Baghdad's central Tahrir Square that had been the epicenter of mass anti-government protests.
Brazilian state suffers days-long blackout: A fire at an electricity substation has caused four days of blackouts in most of northern Brazil's Amapá state, disrupting the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. The outage began Tuesday, when a fire damaged a transformer, interrupting power to 13 of the state's 16 municipalities, including the capital Macapá, the state government said. Amapá, on Brazil's border with French Guyana, has 850,000 residents. Nearly 90 percent of its population was still without power Friday, according to the state's communications secretary. Most of the population was without telephone service or Internet access.
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Tunisia will accept deportees from France: Tunisia will accept all Tunisian migrants deported from France after the fatal stabbings at a church in Nice as long as all judicial appeals have been exhausted, its interior minister said Friday. French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin is visiting Tunisia and Algeria to discuss security matters including the deportation of dozens of migrants after the attack. An assailant shouting, "Allahu akbar" beheaded a woman and killed two other people in a church in Nice last month in France's second deadly knife attack in two weeks with a suspected Islamist motive.
— From news services
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