Europe

VALLETTA, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Malta's Labour Party has won the general election with a comfortable majority, Prime Minister Robert Abela announced on Sunday.

Speaking during a telephone call with the national broadcaster, Abela said that according to calculations by party agents as vote counting got underway, his party had a significant majority over the Nationalist Party (PN).

The election held on Saturday was characterised by a record low turnout since independence, at 85.5 percent , just over 303,500 votes.

LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian rockets struck the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Saturday while President Joe Biden visited neighboring Poland, a reminder that Moscow is willing to strike anywhere in Ukraine despite its claim to be focusing its offensive on the country’s east.

The back-to-back airstrikes shook the city that has become a haven for an estimated 200,000 people who have had to flee their hometowns. Lviv had been largely spared since the invasion began, although missiles struck an aircraft repair facility near the main airport a week ago.

BERLIN (AP) — The western German state of Saarland is holding an election Sunday that offers the country’s first test at the ballot box since Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s national government took office in December.

Polls before the election for the state legislature point to a solid lead for Scholz’s center-left Social Democrats in a region led since 1999 by the center-right Christian Democratic Union party of former Chancellor Angela Merkel.

LONDON (AP) — As Caribbean nations debate their relationship with the British crown, Prince William says he will support and respect whatever decision the people make.

William, second in line to the throne, made the comments after an eight-day tour of Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas during which he and wife Kate were celebrated but also criticized as being “tone deaf” for perpetuating images of Britain’s colonial rule. Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness told the royals his country intended to become a republic, removing the British monarch as its head of state.

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — When Russia launched its war, Hungary opened its borders for the tens of thousands of refugees escaping Ukraine. Other refugees have been left with no help in a field in Serbia.

After studying in Hungary for three years, Hasib Qarizada sought asylum there after his native Afghanistan unraveled in chaos last August. But rather than receiving refuge, Hungarian authorities whisked Qarizada over the border six months ago into neighboring Serbia, kicking him out into a country he didn’t even know.

PARIS (AP) — Without Russian help, climate scientists worry how they’ll keep up their important work of documenting warming in the Arctic.

Europe’s space agency is wrestling with how its planned Mars rover might survive freezing nights on the Red Planet without its Russian heating unit.

And what of the world’s quest for carbon-free energy if 35 nations cooperating on an experimental fusion-power reactor in France can’t ship vital components from Russia?

BERLIN (AP) — Before Russia’s war in Ukraine, Europe’s most pressing energy policy goal was reducing carbon emissions that cause climate change.

Now, officials are fixated on rapidly reducing the continent’s reliance on Russian oil and natural gas — and that means friction between security and climate goals, at least in the short term.

To wean itself from Russian energy supplies as quickly as possible, Europe will need to burn more coal and build more pipelines and terminals to import fossil fuels from elsewhere.

ODESA, Ukraine (AP) — The Black Sea port of Odesa is mining its beaches and rushing to defend its cultural heritage from a feared Mariupol-style fate in the face of growing alarm that the strategic city might be next as Russia attempts to strip Ukraine of its coastline.

The multi-cultural jewel, dear to Ukrainian hearts and even Russian ones, would be a hugely strategic win for Russia. It is the country’s largest port, crucial to grain and other exports, and headquarters for the Ukrainian navy.

LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy angrily warned Moscow that it is sowing a deep hatred for Russia among his people, as constant artillery barrages and aerial bombings are reducing cities to rubble, killing civilians and driving others into shelters, leaving them to scrounge for food and water to survive.

26 March 2022; MEMO: United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet announced on Friday that Israel continues violating humanitarian law in Palestine.