Europe

MOSCOW, April 24. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin plans a face-to-face meeting with members of the Council of Legislators of the Federal Assembly in St. Petersburg on Wednesday, April 27, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed to TASS.

"Yes, [the event] is being readied," he said when asked whether the president plans to participate in the meeting face-to-face.

The Council of Legislators will gather on April 27 in the Tauride Palace in Russia’s second-biggest city. The head of the state traditionally speaks at those events.

MOSCOW, April 24. /TASS/: The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Russia grew by 8,446 in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of infected to 18,137,137, the federal anti-coronavirus crisis center reported on Sunday.

In absolute terms the increase in new cases has become the lowest since May 26, 2021, whereas in relative terms it totaled 0.05%.

The number of coronavirus patients taken to hospital in the past 24 hours amounted to 1,352, down by 49.6% compared with the previous day. On the previous day 2,682 coronavirus patients were taken to hospital.

PARIS, April 24. /TASS/: France’s incumbent president, Emmanuel Macron, has 52.59% in the presidential election runoff with 55% of the votes counted, as follows from the early returns the Interior Ministry has uploaded to its website on Sunday.

Marine Le Pen, of the National Rally party, has 47.41%. The turnout is estimated at 73.76%.

BRUSSELS, April 24 (Reuters) - Belgian newspaper La Libre and Belgian public broadcaster RTBF carried reports on Sunday saying that according to two unidentified exit polls, Emmanuel Macron was leading the vote in the French presidential election with between 55% and 58% of the votes.

France’s official polling watchdog said last week that the country’s eight main pollsters had committed to not publishing exit polls and said anything purporting to reflect results before the last polling stations close at 8 p.m. in France (1800 GMT) could only be considered rumour at best.

LJUBLJANA, April 24 (Reuters) - The Environmentalist Freedom Movement party looked on course to win Slovenia's parliamentary election on Sunday as an exit poll by the Mediana agency showed the party leading with 35.8% of the vote, ahead of populist Prime Minister Janez Jansa's SDS party.

The SDS had secured 22.5% of the vote, the poll showed. Whichever party wins will have to secure coalition partners to form a new government. The two main left-leaning parties have ruled out serving in a coalition led by the SDS.

MADRID, April 24 (Reuters) - Spain's ombudsman said on Sunday it would investigate the government's alleged spying of Catalan separatist figures during the height of the region's bid for independence, while the government announced a separate inquiry by its CNI intelligence agency.

April 24 (Reuters) - Russian forces attempted to storm the Ukrainian-held Azovstal steel plant in the besieged southeastern city of Mariupol on Sunday, Ukrainian officials said, despite Russian President Vladimir Putin's comments last week that the complex did not need to be taken.

Ukraine's armed forces command wrote on Facebook that Russian forces were firing and performing "offensive operations" in the Azovstal area, as well as conducting air strikes on civilian infrastructure.

BELGRADE, April 24 (Xinhua) -- The decades-long eastward expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has not only caused the crisis in Ukraine but it has also evolved into a threat to peace and cooperation worldwide, a Serbian expert has told Xinhua in an interview.

MOSCOW (AP) — A new Russian intercontinental ballistic missile is capable of carrying several hypersonic weapons, a senior Russian military officer said Sunday.

Col. Gen. Sergei Karakayev, the commander of the Russian military’s Strategic Missile Forces, said in televised remarks that the new Sarmat ICBM is designed to carry several Avangard hypersonic glide vehicles.

PARIS (AP) — France voters turned out Sunday for a presidential runoff election that has wide repercussions for Europe’s future, with President Emmanuel Macron considered the front-runner but fighting a tough challenge from far-right rival Marine Le Pen.

The centrist Macron is asking voters to trust him for a second five-year term despite a presidency that was troubled by protests, the pandemic and Russia’s war on Ukraine. A Macron victory in this vote would make him the first French president in 20 years to win a second term.