The first round of presidential elections April 22 will pit right-wing candidate Nicolas Sarkozy against Socialist candidate Segolene Royal in a runoff round of voting scheduled for May 6. Preliminary results gave Sarkozy 31 percent of the votes, with Royal closely trailing with 26 percent. Both are now appealing for centrist and undecided voters.

Parliament voted April 19 to suspend President Traian Basescu for allegedly committing 19 abuses, from ordering wiretaps to criticizing judges. A referendum will be conducted May 19 about whether to remove Basescu from office. Supporters say that some of the politicians who voted to suspend Basescu were under investigation by him.

An airliner carrying Greek members of the European Parliament was forced to make an emergency landing in Munich April 23 after police received an anonymous bomb threat. The passenger flight, scheduled to fly from Athens to Brussels, made the emergency landing 90 minutes after takeoff. No explosives were found.

Austrian energy company OMV has developed a major gas deal with Iran, the Reuters news agency reported April 21. The firm and Iranian officials said the agreement will develop Iran’s gas fields. The U.S. government has urged its allies not to invest in Iran in hopes of forcing Iran to end its nuclear program.

A 22-year-old man competing in the annual London Marathon April 22 has died in the hospital, race organizers said April 23. The man’s identity was not released, but officials confirmed he was British. The day’s 21-degree Celsius (69.8-degree Fahrenheit) temperatures sent scores of runners to the hospital.

A French appeals court overturned the sentence April 21 of one of 61 people convicted in a massive sex abuse trial that shocked France in 2005. A total of 45 children were abused by relatives and family acquaintances in Angers, western France, prosecutors said. The appeals court upheld the sentences of the 11 others who appealed.

Officials in Moscow announced April 18 that they plan to build a tunnel to Alaska to supply the United States with Russian energy. The project, which an Economy Ministry source said would be done in cooperation with Canada and the United States, would cost $65 billion (1.3 trillion Kč) and be complete within 15 years.

An appeals court upheld the sentences April 23 of three thieves convicted of stealing paintings by artist Edvard Munch. The Scream, considered one of the world’s most recognizable paintings, and The Madonna, were stolen from Oslo’s Munch Museum in an armed daylight raid in 2004. They were recovered last fall but were both damaged.