Europe

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices hovered near 13-month highs on Tuesday, supported by a cold snap that shut wells in the biggest U.S. producing state Texas, although gains were capped by a wage deal in Norway that averted supply disruptions in Europe.

The global rollout of coronavirus vaccinations, fuelling expectations of a recovery in the global economy and oil demand, has also kept prices buoyant.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany plans to offer all citizens rapid coronavirus tests free of charge from March 1, its health minister said on Tuesday.

Jens Spahn said rapid antigen tests were now sufficiently available on the market to enable local test centres and pharmacies to offer the tests for free.

Earlier, German media group RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND) reported that Spahn planned to expand the national testing strategy to enable free tests. The federal government plans to bear the costs, RND said.

ST PETERSBURG/MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian court on Tuesday rejected an appeal by Yuri Dmitriev, a historian who exposed Stalin-era crimes, ordering him to be kept in jail to serve out a 13-year sentence that his supporters say was based on fabricated charges.

Dmitriev, 65, was found guilty in July of sexually abusing his adopted daughter, a charge he denied. His lawyer said they would now take their appeal against the sentence to Russia’s Supreme Court.

ZAGREB, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- The construction of the Peljesac Bridge, the biggest infrastructure project in Croatia, will be completed in June 2022, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic announced on Monday after visiting the site.

"This project is of strategic importance to Croatia. Our main goal is to ensure the integrity of the country's territory," said Plenkovic, adding "We are glad that it will be finished a year and a half from now."

GENEVA, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Monday agreed by consensus to appoint Nigeria's Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as the organization's seventh director-general.

After taking office on March 1, Okonjo-Iweala will become the first woman and the first African to serve as the chief of the 26-year-old global trade body, which has been leaderless for almost six months after Roberto Azevedo stepped down on Aug. 31, 2020.

GENEVA, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- The World Health Organization (WHO) said Monday that the international expert team on the COVID-19 origin-tracing mission in Wuhan was "independent" and had no affiliation.

"So many times I hear that this is a WHO study or investigation. It's not," WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual press conference from Geneva, stressing that it's an independent study which is composed of independent individuals from ten institutions.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The former head of the Central African Republic’s soccer federation and an alleged rebel commander known as Rambo are going on trial Tuesday at the International Criminal Court, charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity.

PARIS (AP) — France’s lower house of parliament is voting Tuesday on a bill that would strengthen government oversight of mosques and religious schools and crack down on polygamy and forced marriage, among other measures aimed at rooting out Islamic radicalism.

MOSCOW, February 15. /TASS/: Law enforcement officers did not detain anyone during rallies held on Sunday in support of Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny because no laws were violated, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Monday.

"We traditionally highly appreciate efficiency of law enforcement officers," the spokesman said when asked how the Kremlin views actions of the police at the Sunday rallies. "As for any measures, they are taken to deal with those who violate laws. Everything was calm yesterday," Peskov stressed.

ST. PETERSBURG, February 15. /TASS/: Brussels’ enabling crude violations of rights of Russian-speaking people and attacks on the Russian language and culture shows that the European Union is drifting away from everything linked to Russia, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Monday following talks with his Finnish counterpart Pekka Haavisto.