Europe

GENEVA, Feb 24 (NNN-TASS) — A more contagious coronavirus strain VOC 202012/01 that was initially detected in the UK, has been reported in seven more countries over the past week, bringing the total to 101.

The 501Y.V2 strain, first detected in South Africa, has spread to 41 countries, and the P.1 strain that was first registered in Brazil and Japan has spread to 29 countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported in Geneva on Wednesday.

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary cannot yet ease its partial coronavirus lockdown as a third wave of infections has boosted new cases and only a small section of the population has received a vaccine so far, the prime minister said.

Hungary became the first European Union country on Wednesday to start inoculating people with the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine, following a similar move with Russia’s Sputnik V shot, which have not been granted regulatory approval in the EU.

KOBLENZ, Germany (Reuters) - A German court sentenced a former member of President Bashar al-Assad’s security services to 4-1/2 years in prison on Wednesday for facilitating the torture of civilians, the first such verdict for crimes against humanity in the 10-year-old Syrian civil war.

The higher regional court in the western city of Koblenz said Eyad A. had arrested at least 30 anti-government protesters at the start of the conflict in 2011 and sent them to an intelligence facility where he knew detainees were tortured.

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices edged higher on Wednesday amid continued outages in the United States and a weaker dollar, but a surprise build in U.S. inventories last week capped gains.

Brent crude futures gained 52 cents, or 0.8%, to $65.89 a barrel at 1109 GMT, after hitting a session low of $64.80.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up 37 cents, or 0.6%, at $62.04 a barrel, after trading as low as $60.97 earlier on Wednesday.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union countries must ensure travel and border restrictions imposed to prevent the spread of new coronavirus variants do not hurt trade in goods and services in the bloc’s single market, a senior official said on Wednesday.

Belgium - which has a blanket ban on all non-essential travel in and out of its territory - and Germany came under particular pressure over their latest restrictions on movement, which the EU executive said have gone too far.

MADRID (Reuters) - Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced an extra 11 billion euro ($13.4 billion) package on Wednesday to help Spain’s small and mid-sized companies and the self-employed cope with the economic crisis wrought by the coronavirus pandemic.

He gave no details. A government source said the plan, whose contents were still being discussed with the Bank of Spain and the banking sector, would include haircuts for state-backed loans and recapitalisations of SMEs.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany said it expected to receive 16 million doses of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine in the second quarter, the health ministry said.

That could represent a shortfall from the company’s commitments to deliver about twice that number of doses to Germany in that quarter, according to the leaked contract with the EU.

Reuters reported on Tuesday that delivery volumes to the European Union were expected to be at half the level AstraZeneca had contracted to supply in the second quarter.

24 Feb 2021; MEMO: Further doubts have been raised over Israel's killing of Ahmad Erekat. The 27-year-old was shot dead in June at an Israeli military checkpoint near the town of Abu Dis, east of Jerusalem. Israeli police claimed that Erekat was a "terrorist" conducting an attack.

BRUSSELS. Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) and Italian flags in Brussels flew at half-mast on Tuesday as a tribute to Luca Attanasio, the Italian ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), who was killed in an attack in the African country.

Attanasio and two others in his entourage died in the attack during a humanitarian trip in a United Nations convoy in the east of DR Congo on Monday.

BRUSSELS. Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Britain has accepted a request by the European Union (EU) for extra time to ratify the post-Brexit trade agreement, European Commissioner for Interinstitutional Relations and Foresight Maros Sefcovic said on Tuesday.

He said Britain agreed to extend the period of provisional application of the agreement until April 30 "to give the necessary time to complete our ratification procedure" in all of the bloc's 24 official languages.