Europe

VALLETTA, Malta (AP) — Less than a week after a deadly migrant shipwreck off Italy, five European Union countries on the Mediterranean Sea pushed back Saturday against their northern neighbors for not accepting asylum-seekers under a voluntary relocation initiative.

The ministers responsible for migration policy in Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta and Spain met in Malta’s capital, Valletta, ahead of an EU ministerial meeting in Brussels next week on migration. The countries started working together as the MED 5 in 2021 to confront the challenges of illegal migration.

LONDON (AP) — Britain has reasserted its sovereignty over the Falkland Islands after Argentina pulled out of a cooperation agreement and demanded new talks over the South Atlantic territory that sparked a 1982 war between the two countries.

The pronouncement came after Argentine Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero said on Twitter that he informed British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly about his country’s decision when the pair met on the margins of the Group of 20 summit in India last week.

KHROMOVE, Ukraine (AP) — Pressure mounted Saturday on Ukrainian troops and civilians hunkering down in Bakhmut, as Kyiv’s forces tried to help residents flee amid what Western analysts say may be preparations for a Ukrainian withdrawal from the eastern city that Russian forces have spent months trying to capture.

A woman was killed and two men were badly wounded by shelling while trying to cross a makeshift bridge out of Bakhmut on Saturday, according to Ukrainian troops who were assisting them.

LONDON (AP) — Two senior clergymen in Jerusalem have consecrated the holy oil that will be used to anoint King Charles III during his coronation, as the Anglican Church seeks to underscore the monarchy’s long history and the royal family’s links to the Middle East.

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Estonia, which is providing Ukraine with more weapons than any other country relative to its economic might, is holding a general election Sunday that will determine whether it can sustain that high level of support.

Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, 45, has emerged in the past year of war as one of Europe’s most outspoken supporters of Ukraine. She’s seeking a second term, with her standing enhanced by her international appeals to impose sanctions on Moscow.

KRYVYI RIH, Ukraine (AP) — The pops of welding torches and the piecing whine of angle grinders fill the spacious production floor at a steel plant in Kryvyi Rih, the city in central Ukraine that is President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ’s hometown.

Instead of doing their usual jobs producing and repairing mining equipment, some workers are busy building metal bunkers for front-line troops. Ukrainian mining and metals company Metinvest launched the project, and the plant workers say they are happy contributing to the resistance to Russia’s invasion.

3 Mar 2023; MEMO: The European Union's Envoy to the Palestinians called on Friday for accountability, and for perpetrators to be brought to justice after a rampage by Israeli settlers this week in the Occupied West Bank in which one Palestinian was killed and dozens of houses, shops and cars were torched, Reuters reports.

MOSCOW, March 3. /TASS/: More than 400 people have been prosecuted as defendants for crimes committed in Ukraine since 2014, the head of Russia’s Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin said at the IC board’s meeting on Friday.

MOSCOW, March 3. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed measures of counter-terrorism protection for facilities, managed by Russian law enforcement agencies, with the permanent members of the Russian Security Council.

"We have one issue to discuss today, but a very important one - measures of counter-terrorism protection for facilities, managed by law enforcement agencies," the head of state said, opening the meeting before receiving a report from the Minister of the Interior Vladimir Kolokoltsev.

PARIS, March 3. /TASS/: The UK’s King Charles III will arrive in France on March 26 for his first state visit since ascending the throne, Reuters reported on Friday, citing sources in the Elysee Palace.

According to its information, Charles III's first state visit will last four days and will end on March 29. The news agency theorized that the visit was due to the sides’ willingness to hit the reset button on the relationship, which was "strained" after a series of disputes.