Europe

PARIS, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said on Sunday she would run for president in 2022 on a Socialist ticket, though polls indicate she has little chance of mounting a serious challenge unless she can unite the fragmented left.

Hidalgo, who became the first woman to run the French capital in 2014 and is among the few senior left-wing politicians to emerge from President Emmanuel Macron's 2017 redrawing of the political landscape relatively unscathed, is polling at about 8% voter support in April's first round.

OSLO, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Norwegians went to the polls on Sunday for the first of two days of voting in a parliamentary election dominated by the widening gap between rich and poor, climate change and how the oil-producing nation should adapt to the energy transition.

Opinion polls show the opposition Labour party on course to replace the Conservative-led coalition of Prime Minister Erna Solberg, though Labour would need support from at least two more parties to secure a parliamentary majority.

BERLIN, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Germany's Social Democrats (SPD) have opened up a bigger lead over Armin Laschet's conservative bloc, a poll showed on Sunday ahead of a primetime television debate between the three main candidates to succeed Angela Merkel as Chancellor.

Two weeks before a national election that has proved to be unexpectedly turbulent, the INSA poll for Bild am Sonntag put the centre-left SPD on 26%, up a point from a week ago and their highest rating since June 2017.

Laschet's conservative bloc was unchanged at 20% and the Greens were down 1 point at 15%.

LONDON, Sept 12 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will set out on Tuesday his plans to manage the COVID-19 pandemic in the winter months, announcing a decision to scrap the introduction of vaccine passports and steps to end some emergency powers.

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Pope Francis arrived in Hungary early Sunday at the start of his first big international outing since undergoing intestinal surgery in July. He will celebrate a Mass and meet with Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose right-wing, anti-immigrant policies clash with Francis’ call for countries to welcome refugees.

SOCHI, September 10. /TASS/: Western countries have practically declared a war on the Russian mass media, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told journalists on Friday.

"The war has practically been declared," he said, commenting on a question about the West’s "undeclared war" against Russian journalists.

MOSCOW, September 11. /TASS/: A household gas explosion in a two-story residential building in the Russian town of Yelets, Lipetsk region, killed two people, a source in the emergency services told TASS on Saturday.

"The body of a child has been recovered from the rubble. The incident killed two people," the source said. According to earlier reports, the blast left six people injured, five of them were taken to the hospital.

"According to preliminary reports, a gas leak caused an explosion that destroyed half of the building," the source added.

MOSCOW, September 11. /ТАСС/: Russia and Central Asian countries are threatened with a new wave of a migration crisis against the background of the situation in Afghanistan, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said in an op-ed for the Gazeta.Ru news website, published on Saturday.

MOSCOW, September 11. /TASS/: Russia has registered 18,891 new confirmed COVID-19 infections over the past 24 hours. The total number of infections has reached 7,121,516 cases, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told journalists on Saturday.

According to the crisis center, the relative increase of new infections is at the level of 0.27%.

MOSCOW, September 11. /TASS/: A record in construction and new housing supply may be set in Russia in 2021, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a meeting with Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin on Saturday.

"In general, we may have a countrywide record," the president said commenting on the mayor’s report that Moscow may set a record this year in housing construction in its entire history. The president also noted that "the country’s economy on the whole has been restored."