Europe

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — France’s new foreign minister arrived in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on Saturday to meet with his counterpart in a sign of support for Ukraine as Russia’s full-scale invasion nears its second anniversary.

Stéphane Séjourné noted that Ukraine was his first destination abroad since his appointment in a government reshuffle this week.

“Ukraine is and will remain France’s priority,” he said. “The defense of the fundamental principles of international law is being played out in Ukraine.”

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Accused of committing genocide against Palestinians, Israel insisted at the United Nations’ highest court Friday that its war in Gaza was a legitimate defense of its people and that it was Hamas militants who were guilty of genocide.

BERLIN (AP) — The German government has approved the export of air-defense missiles to Saudi Arabia, underlining a softening of its hard line of recent years toward arms exports to the kingdom.

Government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit on Wednesday confirmed a report by news magazine Der Spiegel that Germany’s Security Council, made up of Chancellor Olaf Scholz and several other ministers, approved the export of 150 air-to-air missiles for the Iris-T air defense system at the end of 2023.

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Wednesday he will introduce measures to overturn the convictions of more than 900 post office branch managers who were wrongly accused of theft or fraud because of a faulty computer system.

Sunak said the scandal, which saw hundreds of postmasters falsely convicted of stealing money because Post Office computers wrongly showed that funds were missing from their shops, was “one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our nation’s history.”

VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy began a visit Wednesday to the Baltic countries, arriving in Lithuania as his country seeks to bolster its air defenses amid Russia’s intensified missile and drone onslaughts in the 22-month-old war.

The focus of his two-day trip to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, Zelenskyy said on his official Telegram channel, will be security concerns, Ukraine’s hopes to join the European Union and NATO, and building partnerships in drone production and electronic warfare capacities.

MOSCOW, January 9. /TASS/: World Health Organization representative Melita Vujnovic, who wraps up her mission to Russia, believes that the world will become better in 2024, and diplomacy will prevail.

"I hope that the world will become better in 2024. I am an irredeemable optimist. And I hope that diplomacy will once again be able to speak louder than something else," she told TASS.

She added that not everything depends on Russia in this business, but admitted that the high standards of the Russian diplomacy make her optimistic.

MOSCOW, January 9. /TASS/: Three civilians have been injured as a result of a Ukrainian drone attack on fuel and energy sector facilities in Orel, governor of the Orel Region Andrey Klychkov said.

"During an attack of enemy unmanned aerial vehicles on fuel and energy sector facilities in the Orel Region, three people were hurt. They are receiving necessary assistance," he wrote on his Telegram channel.

Two of these three refused to be taken to hospital.

MOSCOW, January 9. /TASS/: Russia maintains strategic initiative in Ukraine and will focus on all-round provisioning of its forces, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said at a conference call with top military brass. He stressed Russia would keep its nuclear triad at a high combat readiness level, develop drone production, introduce new weapons and increase the capabilities of the satellite grouping.

HELSINKI, January 9. /TASS/: Helsinki will not reopen checkpoints on the border with Russia after January 14, Finnish Interior Minister Mari Rantanen told MTV3.

When asked if Finland’s eastern border would remain closed, Rantanen said: "This is the way it should be." The minister argued that there was no change in the migrant situation on the border with Russia, so "there is a risk that Russia will continue such activities if the border is opened."

GENEVA, Jan 9 (Reuters) - U.N. experts in international law on Tuesday condemned the killing of Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri and other fighters in drone strikes on Lebanon, saying this amounted to the crimes of extrajudicial killings and murder.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied that it assassinated Arouri but his demise came a month after Israel's domestic security agency Shin Bet vowed to hunt down Hamas in Lebanon, Turkey and Qatar even if took years, following Hamas's cross-border rampage from Gaza into Israel on Oct. 7.