Europe

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban lashed out Friday over a European Parliament declaration that stated Hungary no longer could be considered a full democracy. Orban dismissed the resolution as “a joke.”

In the declaration that passed 433- 123 with 28 abstentions on Thursday, European Union lawmakers said Hungary had become “a hybrid regime of electoral autocracy” under Orban’s nationalist government and undermined the EU’s values to the extent of removing the country from the community of democracies.

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union’s executive branch unveiled plans Friday for new laws that it said would help protect media freedom and independence in the 27-nation bloc at a time of mounting concern about the dangers of political influence in several member countries.

Spurred into action allegations of state spying on reporters, the use of political pressure on news outlets and the placing of advertising to peddle influence, the European Commission said the EU needs a European Media Freedom Act.

ROME (AP) — Costly construction delays, a leadership vacancy linked to a volatile political climate and a lack of sponsors amid a spreading financial crisis has prompted International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach to acknowledge the “challenges” facing organizers of the 2026 Winter Games in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo.

LONDON (AP) — The flood of grief from the death of Queen Elizabeth II forced the British government to call a temporarily halt to people joining a miles-long line to file past her coffin as it lay in state Friday, hours before King Charles III and his siblings were to stand vigil in the historic Westminster Hall.

A live tracker of the queue said it was “at capacity” and entry was being “paused” for six hours as waiting times reached 14 hours and the line stretched 5 miles (8km) from Parliament to Southwark Park in south London and then around the park.

IZIUM, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian authorities were expected to begin recovering bodies Friday from a mass burial site in a forest recaptured from Russian forces, a delicate task that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said would help show the world “what the Russian occupation has led to.”

The site, containing hundreds of graves, was discovered close to Izium after a rapid counteroffensive by Ukrainian forces retook the northeastern city and much of the Kharkiv region, breaking what had largely become a stalemate in the nearly seven-month war.

15 Sep 2022; MEMO: The Ukrainian military claimed on Tuesday that it shot down an Iranian-made Shahed-136 drone allegedly used by Russia's armed forces near Kupiansk in the north-eastern region of Kharkiv which was recently recaptured by Ukraine amid Moscow's on-going military operation in the country. It is the first time that Kyiv has claimed to have downed an Iranian drone.

VIENNA, September 15. /TASS/: The report of IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi on the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant does not mention from which side the plant was shelled, this is the weakest and most problematic part of the document, Russian Permanent Representative to the International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov said on Thursday in a speech to the IAEA Board of Governors.

MOSCOW, September 15. /TASS/: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will address a session of the UN General Assembly and is also planning to hold around 20 bilateral meetings on its sidelines, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharov said on Thursday.

PARIS, Sept 15 (Reuters) - A Russian billionaire is suing French authorities in an effort to win back access to two of his yachts, arguing customs officials did not have the right to immobilise them despite him being on an EU sanctions list, his lawyer said on Thursday.

Alexey Kuzmichev, one of the main shareholders of Russia's Alfa-Bank, who was sanctioned by the EU in March for his ties to President Vladimir Putin, appealed the seizure of his ships "La Petite Ourse" and "La Petite Ourse II", held in the Cote D'Azur towns of Antibes and Cannes, respectively.

STOCKHOLM, Sept 14 (Reuters) - The head of Sweden's Moderate Party, Ulf Kristersson, said on Wednesday he would begin the work of forming a new government after Prime Minster Magdalena Andersson conceded her Social Democrats had lost the weekend's general election.

The Moderates, Sweden Democrats, Christian Democrats and Liberals appear set to get 176 seats in the 349-seat parliament to the centre-left's 173 seats, according to the latest figures from the election authority. 

A handful of votes remain to be counted, but the result is unlikely to change significantly.