Armenian News - NEWS.am presents a daily digest of top news as of 09.03.2020:

·       Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan has discussed the future actions for the development of the Armenian-EU relations with President of the European Council Charles Michel in Brussels.

Due to the coronavirus, the meeting began without a handshake.

Pashinyan has also met in Brussels with European People's Party (EPP) President Donald Tusk. However, the meeting with Tusk began with the shaking of hands and humor. Pashinyan asked if they should shake hands. Tusk said there was no problem, then added with humor that sometimes politicians were more dangerous than the virus.

·       The protest has been held in Armenia’s Gyumri against the violence on women. It was held at the courtyard of the house of the 43-year-old woman who was found dead recently in Gyumri.

“We must voice and defend women's rights. Between January and March 2020, we have 5 cases of murdering women in Armenia,” a marcher told reporters.

The mother and her minor daughter were severely beaten on March 5, 2008, in Gyumri. Woman dies, and little girl taken to Yerevan hospital with serious bodily injuries.

·       The Court of General Jurisdiction of Yerevan ruled to arrest businessman Samvel Mayrapetyan, the Special Investigation Service reported.

Mayrapetyan, who is charged with assisting in taking a bribe, had been declared wanted, and a decision was to turn the amount that was paid as a personal guarantee into state income.

According to the SIS, Samvel Mayrapetyan, a defendant in a criminal case, did not appear before the body conducting the proceedings at the call of this body. And the SIS filed a petition with the court to have Mayrapetyan arrested as a precautionary measure.

·       Azerbaijani armed forces fired at Voskepar village of Tavush province at around 5 am Sunday.

Head of the village administration Serob Makhsudyan said that two machine-gun bursts were fired in the direction of Voskepar.

One of the bullets hit the wall of a residential building.

According to earlier reports, the Azerbaijani armed forces fired at the village of Voskepar on March 1.

·       Oil prices plunged after the OPEC deal collapsed.

A meeting of OPEC oil ministers and non-OPEC countries, including Russia, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan, was held in Vienna on March 6 amid the coronavirus outbreak. However, the participants could not agree on the terms of the deal to reduce oil production. Thus the agreement will be invalid starting from April 1.

Moscow proposed to extend the deal under current conditions (a decrease in oil production by 1.7 million barrels per day) for the second quarter of 2020, while Riyadh advocated a reduction of another 1.5 million barrels per day until the end of the year.

Amid OPEC deal’s collapse, Saudi Arabia reportedly said it could raise production much higher if needed, even going to a record 12 million barrels a day. While Saudi Aramco also decided to lower crude oil prices.

According to Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak, the increase in oil production in the country depends on the plans of domestic companies. Exiting the deal may allow Russia to increase production by 0.3 million barrels per day, he noted.

Meanwhile, the Russian ruble tumbled Monday amid a crash in oil prices.

·       The American dollar’s (USD) exchange rate against the Armenian dram (AMD) comprised AMD 480.48/$1 in Armenia on Monday; this is up by AMD 0.66 from the previous business day in the country.

·       Coronavirus has already killed 3,883 people worldwide, the number of infected reaches 111,525, whereas 62,676 people have recovered from this disease.

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said at least 16 million people have been quarantined in Lombardy and other 14 Italian provinces. The Italian authorities confirmed 5,883 coronavirus cases as of Saturday afternoon.

Meanwhile, more than seven thousand people have contracted coronavirus in Iran, with 237 confirmed deaths. And 2,394 people out of 7,161 infected have survived the deadly disease.