Europe

OSLO (Reuters) - The millionaire husband of a Norwegian woman thought to have been abducted and held for cryptocurrency ransom in 2018 was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of killing her, police said.

Anne-Elisabeth Hagen, then 68, vanished from her home in October 2018, in a case that has fascinated the Nordic nation since police first went public with the news in January 2019.

Kidnappings and murders are rare in Norway, which prides itself on low crime rates.

ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte defended himself on Tuesday from widespread criticism of his highly cautious plans for a slow-placed end to Europe’s longest coronavirus lockdown.

The government has said strict curbs put in place seven weeks ago to curb the disease would be eased from May 4, when parks, factories and construction sites reopen.

However shops must remain shuttered until May 18, while restaurants, bars and hairdressers will stay closed until June 1 and students won’t be back at school before September.

GENEVA, April 27 (Xinhua) -- The World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday that the current COVID-19 pandemic is far from over and the accurate number of cases might be under-reported in some countries due to lack of testing capacity.

"The pandemic is far from over. WHO continues to be concerned about the increasing trends in Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America and some Asian countries," Tedros said at a virtual press conference from Geneva.

BERLIN, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Germany reported 1,018 cases of COVID-19 on Monday, bringing the country's case tally to 155,193, according to data from disease control agency Robert Koch Institute.

A total of 5,750 deaths have been recorded, up 110 over the past 24 hours; around 114,500 people have recovered, up 2,500 from the previous day, statistics showed.

The southern state of Bavaria remains the hardest-hit area, followed by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the state of Baden-Wurttemberg. 

MOSCOW (AP) — A patient who had routine surgery at a hospital in St. Petersburg suddenly developed a fever after an operation. Doctors insisted on testing him for coronavirus and results showed that he had it.

And so did the Russian doctors, nurses and other patients who had unwittingly come in contact with him.

MOSCOW, April 27. /TASS/: Gazprom notes a significant decline in revenues because of plummeted gas supplies, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Russian gas holding Vitaly Markelov said on Monday.

"I understand that we are in a rather challenging situation now in terms of regional budgeting but I would like to say this year is fairly challenging for the company also. We will have a significant drop in respect of the revenue portion because the volume of gas supplies goes down," Markelov said.

MOSCOW, April 27. /TASS/: Russia plans to continue aiding the Libyan peaceful regulation process, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated on Monday during a video lecture for students of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO University) on Monday.

MOSCOW, April 27. /TASS/: Russia has confirmed 6,198 new coronavirus cases over the past day, bringing the total number in the country to 87,147 in all regions, the anti-coronavirus crisis center reported on Monday.

Russia overtook China for the number of confirmed coronavirus cases, where 84,500 cases have been recorded to date.

MOSCOW, April 27. /TASS/: Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov urged to wait until the OPEC+ deal enters into force before talking about the continued decline in oil production, he told reporters on Monday.

"At the moment, we have to wait until May 1 - the time when the [OPEC+] deal will enter into force, evaluate the first results of this deal," Peskov said, answering a question about whether Russia and Saudi Arabia are discussing continued decline in oil production.

MOSCOW, April 27. /TASS/: The Black Sea Fleet’s Project 636.3 diesel-electric submarine Rostov-on-Don has embarked on its deployment in distant waters and will soon join the Russian Navy’s permanent Mediterranean task force, a source in the domestic defense industry told TASS on Monday.

"The Rostov-on-Don has set off for its long-distance deployment to the Mediterranean Sea. The submarine is expected to transit the Black Sea straits this evening," the source said.