Europe

WARSAW, March 16 (Reuters) - Poland has broken up a Russian espionage network operating in the country and detained nine people it says were preparing acts of sabotage and monitoring rail routes to Ukraine, the interior minister said on Thursday.

An ally of Ukraine and hub for deliveries of weapons to Kyiv's armed forces, Poland says it has regularly found itself the target of Russian efforts to destabilise the country.

MOSCOW, March 16 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin urged Russia's billionaires on Thursday to put patriotism before profit, telling them to invest at home to shore up the economy in the face of Western sanctions.

Addressing Russia's business elite in person for the first time since the day he sent his troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24 last year, Putin told them their role was not just to make money but to support society.

"A responsible entrepreneur is a real citizen of Russia, of his country, a citizen who understands and acts in its interests," Putin said.

ROME, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Banking giant Credit Suisse lost nearly a fourth of its value Wednesday, amid the growing fallout from the collapse of two regional banks in the United States.

Wednesday marked the second time in three trading sessions since the collapse of California's Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), and the subsequent failure of Signature Bank from New York, that European financial stocks were severely battered.

Nevertheless, the dramatic impact on Credit Suisse in trading Wednesday was largely unexpected, since the institution is so large.

MOSCOW, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday said the theory that Ukrainian activists were involved in the Nord Stream pipelines blast last year is "complete nonsense," alleging the United States is behind what he called a "terrorist attack."

MOSCOW (AP) — A former mayor of Russia’s fourth-largest city was detained on Thursday on charges that could land him behind bars, part of authorities’ efforts to muzzle dissent.

Yevgeny Roizman, a sharp critic of the Kremlin, is one of the most visible and charismatic opposition figures in Russia. He enjoyed broad popularity while serving as mayor of Yekaterinburg, a city of 1.5 million people in the Ural Mountains.

BERLIN (AP) — Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Thursday that Germany will have to do a better job at clamping down on “irregular migration” and deporting those who don’t legally reside in the country.

Scholz said that Germany, however, would continue to provide protection for Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s war.

ROME (AP) — Italy’s highest court has ordered a retrial for two American citizens who were convicted in the slaying of an Italian police officer during a sting operation gone bad.

The Court of Cassation late Wednesday threw out the guilty verdicts against Finnegan Lee Elder, now 23, and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, 22, both convicted in the stabbing death of the 35-year-old caribiniere during a plainclothes operation in July 2019 while the Americans, teens at the time, were on vacation in Rome.

PARIS (AP) — France’s showdown over a bill raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 heads toward a climax Thursday, either via a parliamentary vote or through a special presidential move to force it through the legislature.

The Senate adopted the bill Thursday morning in a 193-114 vote, a tally that was largely expected since the conservative majority of the upper house of parliament favors a higher retirement age. The bill now moves to the lower house, the National Assembly, where its fate is uncertain.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The Pentagon on Thursday released footage of what it said was a Russian aircraft pouring fuel on a U.S. Air Force surveillance drone and clipping the drone’s propeller in international airspace over the Black Sea.

The 42-second video shows a Russian Su-27 approaching the back of the MQ-9 drone and beginning to release fuel as it passes, the Pentagon said. Dumping the fuel appeared to be aimed at blinding its optical instruments and driving it out of the area.

PARIS (AP) — Thousands of people angered over President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to raise the retirement age joined a national strike on Wednesday as a committee of lawmakers advanced the proposal.

It remains to be seen whether Macron can command a parliamentary majority for his plan to raise the age from 62 to 64 so that workers can pay more money into the system. If not, he could risk imposing the unpopular changes unilaterally.