Europe

(Reuters) --- Germany's coronavirus infection rate rose at the weekend despite stricter restrictions and Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said he did not expect moves to ease curbs before the end of May.

"We need a timetable how to get back to normal life, but it must be a plan that won't have to be revoked after just a few days," Scholz told Bild am Sonntag.

YEREVAN, April 25 (Xinhua) -- Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Sunday announced his resignation to pave the way for snap parliamentary elections scheduled for June.

"In order to implement the decision on holding snap parliamentary elections on June 20, today I resign from the position of the Prime Minister of Armenia," Pashinyan said in a televised address to the nation.

"I am resigning on Citizens' Day, and this is a symbol of the fact that we are returning to the people the power that we received from the people," he said.

LONDON, April 24 (Xinhua) -- More than 12 million people in Britain are fully vaccinated by Saturday, the official figures said.

The British government said that 12,071, 810 people are fully vaccinated, having had their second dose.

The total number of people who have had a first dose is 33,508,590. More than half Britain's population has had one jab, according to the official figures.

BRUSSELS, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Security risks in the South China Sea mainly come from outside the region, a spokesperson of the Chinese Mission to the European Union (EU) said Saturday, urging the EU to stop sowing discord.

"The South China Sea should not become a tool for certain countries to contain and suppress China, still less a wrestling ground for major-power rivalry," said the spokesperson.

MADRID (AP) — A Spanish man with COVID-19 symptoms who coughed on work colleagues and told them “I’m going to give you all the coronavirus” has been charged with intentionally causing injury after allegedly infecting 22 people.

Spanish police said their investigation began after a COVID-19 outbreak at the company where the 40-year-old man worked on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca.

Days before the outbreak, the man showed COVID-19 symptoms but refused his colleagues’ suggestions to go home and self-isolate, police said in a statement.

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Albanians are voting in parliamentary elections on Sunday amid the virus pandemic and a bitter rivalry between the two largest political parties.

Some 3.6 million eligible voters, including Albanians overseas, will elect 140 lawmakers among some 1,800 candidates from 12 political parties or coalitions and those running independently. No early or postal voting is allowed. People infected with COVID-19 cannot vote.

MOSCOW, April 24. /TASS/: Rostec plans to register the vaccine against the coronavirus and influenza that is currently developing, by the end of 2021 or at the beginning of 2022, Chief Executive Officer of Russia's state corporation told Sergey Brilev’s news show on Rossiya-1 on Saturday.

"Hopefully we will be able to register [the vaccine] at early as by the end of the year or probably at the beginning of next year," he said.

MOSCOW, April 24. /TASS/: Russia confirmed 8,828 daily COVID-19 cases, bringing the total caseload to 4,753,789, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told reporters on Saturday.

The growth rate stood at 0.19% in relative terms.

The number of the so-called active cases, meaning patients receiving treatment now, has gone down to 265,421.

Russia’s COVID-19 deaths rose by 399 over the past day versus 398 on the previous day, bringing the total death toll to 107,900. The mortality rate in relative terms remained at 2.27%, according to the crisis center.

MOSCOW, April 24. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan have discussed the situation around Nagorno-Karabakh in a telephone conversation, the Kremlin’s press service said in a statement on Saturday.

"The parties continued their discussion on Nagorno-Karabakh. They noted with satisfaction that thanks to the efforts of the Russian peacekeepers the situation in the region remains stable and calm," the statement said.

The sides also shared opinions "on current issues of bilateral cooperation, including in energy."

MINSK, April 24. /TASS/: Organizers of the assassination plot against Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko allocated $10 million to achieve the goal, Lukashenko told reporters on Saturday.

The BelTA news agency reported citing Lukashenko that armed people were to attack his residence in the countryside, that $10 million were allocated for this purpose and $1 million for the sniper.