Russia has registered 8,952 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours (8,572 yesterday), bringing the total count to 396,575, the national coronavirus response center said on Saturday

A further 3,599 people who have tested positive for COVID-19 have been discharged in Moscow over the past 24 hours after undergoing treatment, taking the overall number of people who have recovered from the disease in the Russian capital to 78,324, Moscow Deputy Mayor Anastasia Rakova said on Saturday

The increase in new cases in Russia has slowed down 12 times compared to the beginning of April, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said on Friday

Two children died after a bomb exploded on a motorcycle in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Friday, Jamal Nasir, the spokesman for the local police, told Sputnik, adding that the blast also injured five civilians

Belarus does not have any outstanding debts to Russia for the imported gas, the Belarusian Energy Ministry said Friday

International rating agency Moody's affirmed on Friday the long-term rating of Russia's energy giant Gazprom at Baa2 level, with a stable outloook

Ousted Sudanese President Omar Bashir has been transferred to a single-occupancy cell in the Khartoum-based Kober prison, where he is serving a two-year sentence over corruption charges, due to the risk that he could have contracted the coronavirus, local media reported on Thursday

The EU's new recovery plan worth 750 billion euros ($826 billion) to support the bloc's economy amid the COVID-19 pandemic announced by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen means that, for the first time in European history, the bloc itself will incur debts and will also levy its own taxes

The US Embassy in Israel on Thursday called on US citizens residing or planning to travel to West Bank to be cautious due to a possible surge in violence related to the Israeli plans to annex the territories

Russian Ambassador to Germany Sergey Nechaev was summoned on Thursday to the German Foreign Office over the 2015 hacking attack on the country's parliament, the Bundestag, the ministry said

Previous infection with other types of coronaviruses might help a person have a quicker response to COVID-19 but there is still no evidence that it could protect them from getting the COVID-19, Executive Director of the World Health Organization's Health Emergencies Programme Michael J. Ryan said Wednesday

Long talks online, long walks at a reasonable distance and taking things slow before a first kiss - the coronavirus pandemic indeed changes online dating habits and courtship process in some positive ways, experts told Sputnik, adding that rediscovered modes of dating may give us a chance to select a more appropriate mate