Briefly

RUSSIA

Putin declares May 8-10 ceasefire with Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday declared a three-day ceasefire in the conflict with Ukraine next month to mark the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet Union and its allies in World War II. The Kremlin said that Putin has ordered the full cessation of hostilities on "humanitarian grounds" for the Victory Day on May 9. The 72-hour ceasefire would run from the start of May 8 to the end of May 10, it said, and Russia called on Ukraine to join it as well. In the event of violations by the Ukrainian side, Russia's armed forces would give an "adequate and effective response", the Kremlin said.

IBERIAN PENINSULA

Spain and Portugal hit by major power outage

Spanish power grid operator Red Electrica said it was working with energy companies to restore power after large parts of Spain and Portugal were hit by a power outage on Monday. E-Redes, a Spanish electricity grid monitoring company, said in a statement it was working on reestablishing connection in phases. Spanish radio stations said part of the Madrid underground was being evacuated. There were traffic jams at Madrid city center as traffic lights stopped working, Cadena Ser radio station reported. The Portuguese police said traffic lights were affected across the country, the metro was closed in Lisbon and Porto, and trains were not running.

Agencies via Xinhua