Europe

LONDON, March 9 (Reuters) - A global food crisis sparked by Russia's invasion of Ukraine escalated on Wednesday as Indonesia tightened curbs on palm oil exports, adding to a growing list of key producing countries seeking to keep vital food supplies within their borders.

The conflict in Ukraine is threatening global grain production, the supply of edible oils and fertiliser exports, sending basic commodity prices rocketing and mirroring the crisis in energy markets.

LVIV, Ukraine, March 9 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday the international community would be responsible for a mass "humanitarian catastrophe" if it did not agree a no-fly zone to protect his country.

In a daily televised address, he said the threat level in Ukraine was at a maximum nearly two weeks into Russia's invasion but Ukrainians had shown they would never give in.

BERLIN (AP) — Austria’s government said Wednesday it is suspending the country’s coronavirus vaccination mandate for most adults, arguing that there’s no need to implement it at present only a week before its enforcement was due to begin.

The mandate for people age 18 and over became law in early February, 2½ months after the plan was first announced amid a surge of cases that sent the country into a since-lifted lockdown. By the time the legislation was in place, though, much of the sense of urgency had disappeared.

LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — Air raid sirens blared over Ukraine’s capital on Wednesday and officials said they bolstered defenses in key cities threatened by Russian forces, as authorities renewed efforts to evacuate civilians from besieged urban areas.

08 March 2022; MEMO: Former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair has admitted that he "may have been wrong" in his decision to invade Afghanistan and Iraq around two decades ago.

Speaking to the Anglican Church's Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, on BBC Radio 4 yesterday, Blair said that "People often say over Iraq or Afghanistan that I took the wrong decision but you've got to do what you think is right."

BRUSSELS (AP) — Even though Russia has lost influence and friends since the collapse of the Soviet empire in 1989, the nuclear superpower still holds sway over several of its neighbors in Europe and keeps others in an uneasy neutrality.

The Russian invasion of neighboring Ukraine and the humanitarian tragedy it provoked over the past two weeks have raised a Western outcry of heartfelt support and spawned calls for a fundamental rethink of how the geopolitical map of Europe should be redrawn in the future.

LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian forces were bolstering defenses in key cities Wednesday as Russia’s advance faltered amid fierce resistance in some areas, the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said, while the strategic port city of Mariupol remained encircled as a humanitarian crisis grew.

Across the country, thousands of people are thought to have been killed, both civilians and soldiers, in nearly two weeks of fighting. Russian forces have seen their advances stopped in certain areas — including around Kyiv — by fiercer resistance than expected from the Ukrainians.

MOSCOW, March 8. /TASS/: Russia’s COVID-19 case tally rose by 66,576 over the past day to 17,081,394, a new low since January 24, the anti-coronavirus crisis center reported on Tuesday.

In relative terms, it reached 0.39%. As many as 3,847 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in Russia over the past day, 1.13% more than in the previous day. The number of hospitalized patients declined in 46 regions, while in 39 other regions the figure increased. A day earlier, 3,804 people were rushed to hospitals.

MOSCOW, March 8. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin said conscripts and reservists aren’t taking part in Russia’s military operation in Ukraine and won’t do so.

"I would like to emphasize that conscripts aren’t and won’t be taking part in hostilities, and there will be no additional call-up of reservists from the reserve," he said in a video address to women on the occasion of the International Women’s Day celebrated on March 8, which was posted on the Kremlin website. "Missions are carried out only by professional troops."

MOSCOW, March 8. /TASS/: Ukraine has a possible solution to the issue of recognizing the territories of Crimea and the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR), Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky told ABC on Tuesday.