Europe

HELSINKI, May 4 (Xinhua)-- The Russia-Ukraine conflict has dramatically increased both uncertainty and business risks for Finnish technology companies, according to a survey released Tuesday.

The survey was conducted by the Technology Industries of Finland on the impact of the Ukraine crisis on the operation of export companies, with 580 tech firm CEOs as respondents.

Since the conflict started, the survey said up to 85 percent of companies in the manufacturing sector reported a further weakening in the availability of raw materials.

LONDON (AP) — A British parliamentary committee scrutinizing draft online safety legislation has invited Elon Musk to discuss his plans to buy Twitter and the changes he’s proposing for the social media platform.

Parliament’s digital committee asked the Tesla CEO on Wednesday to give evidence about his proposals “in more depth.”

Musk said it’s too early to give an answer.

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) — Ever since Northern Ireland was founded as a Protestant-majority state a century ago, its governments have been led by unionist politicians who defined themselves as British.

But if opinion polls are right, an election Thursday will see Sinn Fein, an Irish nationalist party that seeks union with Ireland, become the largest group in the 90-seat Northern Ireland Assembly. That would give Sinn Fein the post of first minister in the Belfast government for the first time.

ROME (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met with Pope Francis and top Vatican officials in talks Wednesday about the need for “a world free of nuclear weapons,” the Vatican said.

The meeting came as nuclear-armed Russia pressed its war in Ukraine and after North Korea launched a ballistic missile toward its eastern waters and vowed to speed up the development of its own nuclear arsenal.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The world’s biggest shipping company, Denmark’s A.P. Moeller-Maersk, said Wednesday that it had delivered its “best earnings quarter ever,” driven by higher freight rates and more contracts being signed.

The Copenhagen, Denmark-based company said its revenue for the first three months of the year came in at $19.3 billion, up from $12.4 billion for the same period last year. Profits before taxes came in at $7.3 billion, up from $3.1 billion a year ago.

LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces pounded targets across Ukraine, taking aim at supply lines for foreign weapons in the west and intensifying an offensive in the east, as the European Union moved Wednesday to further punish Moscow for the war with a proposed ban on oil imports.

The Russian military said Wednesday it used sea- and air-launched precision guided missiles to destroy electric power facilities at five railway stations across Ukraine, while artillery and aircraft also struck troop strongholds and fuel and ammunition depots.

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union’s top official on Wednesday called on the 27-nation bloc to ban oil imports from Russia in a sixth package of sanctions targeting Moscow for its war in Ukraine.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also proposed that Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, and two other major banks be disconnected from the SWIFT international banking payment system.

ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian officials and the United Nations held out hope for more evacuations from the bombed-out steel mill in Mariupol as scores of civilians reached relative safety after enduring weeks of Russian shelling against the city’s last pocket of resistance.

While the evacuees savored hot food, clean clothing and other comforts that were denied to them while underground, Russian forces on Tuesday began storming the plant, where some Ukrainian fighters were still holed up.

Brussels, May 3 (AFP/APP): The European Union warned member states Monday to prepare for a possible complete breakdown in gas supplies from Russia, insisting it would not cede to Moscow’s demand that imports be paid for in rubles.

The European Commission will on Tuesday propose to member states a new package of sanctions to punish President Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin for its invasion of Ukraine, including an embargo on Russian oil, officials said.

MOSCOW, May 3. /TASS/: Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky does not need any peaceful settlement, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev asserted.

"Zelensky does not need any peace treaty. For him, peace is the end," he said on his Telegram channel.