Europe

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices steadied on Monday, supported by improving economic data but held in check by sharp spikes in new coronavirus infections around the world that have forced some countries to impose partial lockdowns.

Brent crude LCOc1 fell 4 cents, or 0.1%, to $40.98 a barrel by 1031 GMT and U.S. crude CLc1 was up 7 cents, or 0.2%, at $38.56.

Crude prices found some support as profits at China’s industrial firms rose for the first time in six months in May, suggesting the country’s economic recovery is gaining traction.

LONDON (Reuters) - Julian Assange’s lawyer said on Monday he was surprised U.S. authorities issued a new and wider indictment last week against the WikiLeaks founder whom they are seeking to extradite from Britain.

Assange is wanted by U.S. authorities to stand trial for 18 offences including conspiring to hack government computers and espionage. Last year, the United States began extradition proceedings after he was dragged from London’s Ecuadorean embassy where he had been holed up for almost seven years.

GENEVA (Reuters) - At least 129 children have been killed in the Philippines’ four-year war on drugs, most by police or allied assailants, but they may only represent a fraction of the toll, activist groups said on Monday.

Minors have been directly targeted, punished as proxies, or victims of mistaken identity or “collateral damage”, they said in a report, “How could they do this to my child?”.

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday Britons were significantly fatter than people in most of the rest of Europe, admitting he had lost weight after contracting the novel coronavirus.

WARSAW, June 28 (Xinhua) -- Incumbent Polish President Andrzej Duda will meet his main rival Rafal Trzaskowski, candidate of the main opposition party Civic Platform (PO), in the run-off of Poland's presidential elections, according to an Ipsos exit poll published on Sunday night, Polish Press Agency reported.

According to Ipsos, Duda received 41.8 percent of the vote, while Trzaskowski, who's also mayor of Warsaw, gained 30.4 percent, and Szymon Holownia, an independent running as a moderate conservative, gained 13.3 percent.

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union is edging toward finalizing a list of countries whose citizens will be allowed to enter Europe again in coming days, with Americans almost certain to be excluded in the short term due to the number of U.S. coronavirus cases.

Spain’s foreign minister said that the list — which is likely to be made public Tuesday — could contain 15 countries that are not EU members and whose citizens would be allowed to visit from July 1.

MOSCOW, June 29 (NNN-TASS) – Russia confirmed 6,791 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, raising its total number of infections to 634,437, its coronavirus response centre said, in a statement Sunday.

The death toll grew by 104 to 9,073, while 399,087 people have so far recovered, including 5,735 over the last 24 hours, according to the statement.

Moscow, the country’s worst-hit region, reported 717 new cases, taking its tally of infections to 220,071.

PARIS (AP) — Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo declared victory in her reelection bid as municipal elections postponed by the coronavirus crisis have seen a strong breakthrough from the greens across the country.

Sunday’s voting also appears as a setback for French President Emmanuel Macron’s young centrist party, which was fielding municipal candidates for the first time and still lacks local roots across France.

ROME (AP) — The world surpassed two sobering coronavirus milestones Sunday -- 500,000 confirmed deaths, 10 million confirmed cases -- and hit another high mark for daily new infections as governments that attempted reopenings continued to backtrack and warn that worse news could be yet to come.

“COVID-19 has taken a very swift and very dangerous turn in Texas over just the past few weeks,” said Gov. Greg Abbott, who allowed businesses to start reopening in early May but on Friday shut down bars and limited restaurant dining amid a spike in cases.

CHISINAU, June 27. /TASS/: The governments of Russia and Moldova have resumed the talks on a 200 mln euro loan to be provided by Moscow to Chisinau, the extension of which has been blocked by Moldova’s pro-European opposition via the Constitutional Court, the republic’s President Igor Dodon informed on Saturday as he published on his Facebook page the text of a letter by Russian Deputy Finance Minister Timur Maksimov addressed to Moldovan Finance Minister Serghei Puscuta.