Europe

LONDON (AP) — The U.K.’s MI5 intelligence service on Tuesday raised the terrorism threat level in Northern Ireland’ to “severe” amid an increase in activity by dissident Irish republican militants.

Severe is the second-highest rung on a five-point scale and means an attack is considered highly likely. The threat had stood one notch lower at “substantial” for the past year.

OKHTYRKA, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s president visited the Sumy region in northern Ukraine on Tuesday, continuing his tour over recent days of areas of the country that have felt the brunt of Russia’s full-scale invasion and as the stage increasingly looks set for a Ukrainian counteroffensive.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with officials and local people in two cities in the region, which borders Russia. It was partially occupied by Russian forces after the war started more than a year ago. The Russians withdrew from the region by early April.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — “Attention. Air raid alert,” the voice says with a Jedi knight’s gravitas. “Proceed to the nearest shelter.”

It’s a surreal moment in an already surreal war: the grave but calming baritone of actor Mark Hamill, Luke Skywalker of “Star Wars,” urging people to take cover whenever Russia unleashes another aerial bombardment on Ukraine.

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — A man wielding a large knife killed two women and injured several other people at an Ismaili Muslim center in Lisbon, and Portuguese authorities said they were investigating Tuesday’s stabbing attack as a possible terror act.

The women were Portuguese staff members at the center, Ismaili community leader Narzim Ahmad told Portuguese TV channel SIC. Local Afghan community representatives and Portuguese authorities described the man as a refugee from Afghanistan who was receiving help from the Ismaili Community.

PARIS (AP) — Protests and strikes against unpopular pension reforms gripped France again Tuesday, with many thousands marching and the Eiffel Tower closed and police ramping up security amid government warnings that radical demonstrators intended “to destroy, to injure and to kill.”

Concerns that violence could mar the large demonstrations prompted what Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin described as an unprecedented deployment of 13,000 officers, nearly half of them concentrated in the French capital.

27 Mar 2023; MEMO: Qatar's Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani has submitted a fresh bid to buy English Premier League football club Manchester United, according to reports on Saturday.

27 Mar 2023; MEMO: Scotland's Health Secretary has been elected as the Chair of the Scottish National Party (SNP) following 14 days of voting by the party members, Anadolu News Agency reports.

Humza Yousaf became the first Muslim to lead a major UK party and is set to be confirmed as the first ethnic minority leader of a devolved government in the UK.

MOSCOW, March 27. /TASS/: The West is trying as best it can to "whitewash" and paper over the topic of the Nord Stream explosions, but Moscow will continue to oppose such attempts, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.

"Western countries are making every effort to ‘whitewash’ <…> this topic, to paper it over, so that it disappears from the agenda. But, of course, Russia will continue to do everything possible to prevent this from happening," he said.

Peskov also mentioned the possibility of demanding compensation for Nord Stream.

WARSAW, March 27. /TASS/: Polish authorities have no intention to hand over all its MiG-29 jet fighters to Ukraine at once, Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Pawel Jablonski said on RMF radio, adding that the Polish Defense Ministry does not disclose further details of the handover process.

"I believe we will not give away everything. Definitely not in one batch," he said.

According to Jablonski, the handover process is classified.

MOSCOW, March 27. /TASS/: Russia will develop economic cooperation with sovereign nations, Secretary of the Security Council Nikolay Patrushev said in an interview with the Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper.

"Russia is not going to close its economy from the world. It will remain open and will be integrated with economies of sovereign nations taking care of their prosperity, including owing to cooperation with us," the official said.