Hassan Noroozi, an Iranian lawmaker and spokesman for the parliamentary judicial committee, said no one had been arrested for shooting down a Ukrainian passenger plane near Tehran, contradicting official statements from the country's authorities., Al Arabia reports.

In addition, he called the downing of the civilian airliner by the military "a good performance of duties".

"The military has done its job well. The flight of the plane was very suspicious," he said.

Noroozi said the plane was …

Russia has suspended all international passenger flights, including evacuation flights for Russian citizens, since April 4, reported the Russian news agencies TASS, Interfax, Kommersant and RBC, citing sources in the Russian aviation industry. " Rosaviation (the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency) has revoked all permits for international flights. Among others, outbound flights carrying nationals from Russia will be suspended," said, one an interlocutor of TASS.

Russian air carriers have …

The World Bank is ready to allocate $135 million to Ukraine for the purchase of medical equipment, reconstruction of family medicine clinics and medical reform in the regions, said Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal on Telegram channel.

"Today, I held a meeting with the World Bank Country Director for Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine Alex Kremer. We spoke, in particular, about a joint project of the World Bank and the Ukrainian Ministry of Health, "Serving People, Improving Health," Shmyhal …

President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko believes that Ukraine should hold elections in the Donbas in order to end the conflict.

"All the leadership (of Ukraine), not only the president, who is trying to do something there (his legacy is difficult) (...) should take unpopular steps and hold these elections today in order to go take control of the border with Russia, so that it would be the Ukrainian border, these 400 km," Lukashenko said in an interview with Mir TV channel.

He believes that …

As of 4 April, 3 cases of acute respiratory disease COVID-19 caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus have been reported in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, reported the press service of the Medical department of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

"This is the second case of acute respiratory disease COVID-19, which involves a soldier from the Kyiv garrison. The soldier had been treated at home with cold symptoms since the end of March. Because of afebrile temperature, two tests (rapid test and extensive) …

The Office of the Russian President plans to hold a rehearsal of the Victory Parade with the participation of at least 9,000 servicemen. The proposed training date is May 7, MBH Media reports, citing a document published on the Kremlin’s website.

The contract for the supply of printing products states that the Russian company TISSO will have to make 8,700 invitations for the rehearsal of the parade. The contract is worth 7.7 million rubles ($100,000 USD).

Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry …

The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs believes that the rejection of the agreements reached with representatives of the militant authorities in the Donbas was not only Kyiv’s initiative.

"Unfortunately, strange things began to happen after the breakthrough. During the telephone talks, the assistants of the “Normandy" leaders, Berlin and Paris, under various pretexts avoided supporting the agreements between Kyiv and the Donbas,” said the Russian Foreign Ministry in a statement.

According to …

Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of distorting the facts about the situation around the OPEC agreement on reducing oil production.

Al-Saud said that Putin's words that the initiator of the collapse of the deal was not Russia, but Saudi Arabia, "completely devoid of truth." The day before, at a government meeting, Putin noted that in early March Russia offered to extend the OPEC deal, "but, unfortunately, the situation began to develop in …