Europe

CHISINAU, March 10 (Reuters) - A coup attempt, bomb hoaxes, internet hacks, fake conscription call-ups, mass protests: Moldova says it's had them all in the past year.

"We had an explosion of security threats starting February 24 last year," Interior Minister Ana Revenco told Reuters, describing a catalogue of crises she says has beset her nation and its pro-Western government since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

This small European country, a former Soviet republic, is a unique geopolitical cauldron.

LONDON, March 10 (Reuters) - Britain's King Charles named his younger brother Prince Edward as the new Duke of Edinburgh on Friday, handing him the title last held by their father Prince Philip, Buckingham Palace said in a statement.

Edward, 59 on Friday, becomes the latest member of the royal family to be granted a new title since Charles became king in September after the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth.

ROME, March 9 (Xinhua) -- Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced new measures against human traffickers Thursday, after holding a cabinet meeting in the seaside town of Cutro, the site of a recent shipwreck that claimed at least 72 lives.

She said the cabinet had signed off on a new migration flow management decree featuring harsher penalties for human smugglers and more effective expulsion practices.

"The fact that the entire Cabinet of Ministers traveled to hold the meeting here and now is proof of how serious we take this subject," Meloni said.

Georgia’s parliament on Friday voted to drop a controversial bill that opponents — and thousands of protesters who swarmed the capital earlier this week — warned could stifle dissent and curtail media freedoms, ushering in Russian-style repression.

PARIS (AP) — British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was meeting Friday in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron in efforts to mend relations following post-Brexit tensions, as well as improving military and business ties and toughening efforts against Channel migrant crossings.

Both leaders shook hands and briefly posed for photographers, smiling, as Sunak arrived at the presidential palace.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s capital restored most of its power supply on Friday, officials said, as the country again responded swiftly and defiantly to the latest Russian missile and drone barrage targeting critical infrastructure.

In what has become a familiar Russian tactic since last fall, the Kremlin’s forces struck Ukraine from afar amid months of a grinding battlefield stalemate on the front line in eastern areas. The apparent aim is to weaken Ukraine’s resolve and compel the Ukrainian government to negotiate peace on Moscow’s terms.

9 Mar 2023; MEMO: Russia said, on Thursday, that a landmark deal to ensure the safe export of grain from Ukraine's Black Sea ports was only being "half-implemented", raising doubts about whether it would allow an extension of the deal that is due to expire next week, Reuters reports.

HAMBURG, Germany (AP) — A shooting at a Jehovah’s Witnesses hall in the German city of Hamburg killed eight people, apparently including the perpetrator, police said Friday. An unspecified number of other people were wounded, some of them seriously.

There was still no word on a possible motive for the shooting on Thursday evening that stunned Germany’s second-biggest city. Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a former Hamburg mayor, described the shooting as “a brutal act of violence.”

MOSCOW, March 9. /TASS/: Russia sees no desire on behalf of the Kiev authorities to launch substantial negotiations on the Ukrainian conflict’s settlement, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday.

"So far, we see no desire on the part of our Ukrainian neighbors to begin serious talks," Lavrov said at a news conference following talks with his Saudi Arabian counterpart Faisal Bin Farhan Al Saud.

MOSCOW, March 9. /TASS/: Russia has no connection to the Georgian foreign agent bill that has caused protests in the country, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday.

"The Kremlin did not inspire anything and has absolutely nothing to do with this," he stressed.