Europe

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Vladimir Putin is considering running for a new term as Russia’s president if voters approve constitutional changes that would enable him to do so, Russian news agencies quoted him as saying in an interview on Sunday.

Russia will hold a nationwide vote from June 25 to July 1 on proposed changes to the constitution, including an amendment that would allow Putin to seek two more six-year terms as president when his current mandate ends in 2024.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The drastic reduction in pollution during coronavirus lockdowns around the world should lead to greater concern for the environment as restrictions are lifted, Pope Francis said on Sunday.

At his Sunday address in St. Peter’s Square, Francis said the pandemic made many people reflect on their relationship with the environment. The square reopened to the public a month ago and Italy’s last travel restrictions were lifted on June 3.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will outline its plans to ease the coronavirus lockdown this week, health minister Matt Hancock said on Sunday, potentially relaxing the two-metre rule on social distancing, allowing many businesses to reopen in early July.

Many employers, especially in the hospitality and leisure sectors, have said the rule that people must remain two metres apart will prevent them from being able to operate as lockdown measures are lifted.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Lufthansa’s (LHAG.DE) biggest shareholder, billionaire Heinz Hermann Thiele, will meet Germany’s economics minister for talks on Monday about a 9 billion euro ($10.1 billion) bailout for the airline, a source close to the matter told Reuters.

Thiele objects to the terms of the bailout deal, which would give the German state a 20% direct stake in the company as well as two seats on its supervisory board, and has built up a stake of 15.5% in Lufthansa.

KYIV (Reuters) - A gas explosion at a multi-storey apartment block in the Ukrainian capital city of Kyiv has killed at least one person, rescuers said on Sunday.

Several people could be trapped under wreckage after four floors of the nine-storey building have been destroyed, the State Emergency Services said in a statement.

It said 21 residents had been evacuated from the building, but it was not immediately clear how many people had been inside.

READING, England (Reuters) - A stabbing rampage in the southern English town of Reading, in which three people were killed and three others were seriously wounded, is being treated as terrorism, police said on Sunday.

A 25-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of murder after the stabbings on Saturday evening in a park in Reading, which is about 40 miles (65 km) west of London.

A security source told Reuters that the man, who remains in police custody, is a Libyan.

GENEVA, June 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The coronavirus pandemic is accelerating, with Thursday’s 150,000 new cases the highest in a single day, and nearly half of them in the Americas, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.

“The world is in a new and dangerous phase,” Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual briefing from WHO headquarters in Geneva. “The virus is still spreading fast, it is still deadly, and most people are still susceptible.”

BELGRADE, June 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Serbians go to polls on Sunday to elect a new parliament in Europe’s first national election since coronavirus lockdowns took effect some three months ago, with the ruling conservatives seen winning a comfortable majority.

Polling stations will be equipped with face masks and hand sanitisers for the use of the country’s 5.5 million voters, many of whom are expected to skip voting – partly due to fears of becoming infected.

ATHENS, June 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Greece announced another extension of the coronavirus lockdown on its teeming migrant camps, hours after some 2,000 people protested in central Athens to mark World Refugee Day and denounce the government’s treatment of migrants.

The migration ministry said confinement for residents of reception and identification centres across the country would be extended to July 5. It was due to have ended on Monday.

Greece was quick to introduce strict confinement measures on migrant camps on March 21 and imposed a more general lockdown on March 23.

MADRID, June 20 (Xinhua) -- Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told the country in a televised speech on Saturday on the eve of lifting its State of Alarm that "Now it's time for recovery."

Spain will enter on Sunday what Sanchez calls the "new normality", with visitor arrivals from the European Union countries and Schengen regions no longer required to undergo two-week quarantine, while travel between Spain's 17 Autonomous Communities is resumed.