- Sri Lanka votes in first poll since economic collapse
- Feminist author warns of abortion disaster if Trump wins US election
- US city of Flint still reeling from water crisis, 10 years on
- Arsenal's mean defence faces acid test to shut out Man City again
- Late surge lifts Thailand's Jeeno to LPGA Queen City lead
- DeChambeau says PGA's Ryder Cup decision 'just the start'
- Alcaraz defeated on Laver Cup debut
- Postecoglou embraces 'struggle' to make Spurs a success
- Nice hand 'ashamed' Saint-Etienne 8-0 Ligue 1 mauling
- Boeing CEO says ending strike 'a top priority'
- Stock markets mostly fall after Fed-fueled rally
- Harris slams Trump for hypocrisy on abortion as US starts voting
- Academy to host first overseas ceremony to honor young filmmakers
- No doctor necessary: US okays nasal spray flu vaccine for self-use
- Gurbaz, birthday boy Rashid lead Afghanistan to 177-run rout of South Africa
- Former delivery man Baldwin leads star names at PGA Championship
- Trump shooting: Secret Service admits complacency
- Can an ambitious Milei make Argentina an AI giant?
- Haiti, its suffering growing, in 'race against time': UN expert
- Ibrahim Aqil, the Hezbollah elite unit commander wanted by the US
- Chinese forward Cui signs NBA contract with Brooklyn Nets
- US Fed dissenter calls for 'measured' pace of rate cuts
- Guardiola tells players to lead change over workload as Kompany demands cap on games
- Norway limits wild salmon fishing as stocks hit new lows
- Top Hezbollah commander killed in Israeli strike on Beirut
- Rotterdam fatal knife attacker suspected of 'terrorist motive'
- First early votes cast in knife-edge US presidential election
- Top-ranked Swiatek out of Beijing due to 'personal matters'
- Hard-right Reform UK looks to the future after vote success
- Embiid agrees to NBA contract extension with 76ers
- Joshua aims to complete road to redemption in Dubois bout
- World champion Bagnaia sets pace with lap record at Misano
- Biden says 'working' to get people back to homes on Israel-Lebanon border
- Pope criticises Argentina's crackdown on protesters
- Court limits screenings of videos in France mass rape case
- Gurbaz century takes Afghanistan to 311-4 in 2nd ODI
- Central banks face 'difficult balancing act': IMF chief
- McLaren's Norris sets Singapore pace as struggling Verstappen 15th
- Guardiola tells players to lead change over workload fears
- Paris Olympics sports equipment moves to new homes
- 'Happy' Kinghorn relishing life at Toulouse
- Norris sets Singapore pace as Verstappen only 15th
- 8 dead in Israeli strike, source says Hezbollah commander killed
- Germany to bid to host women's Euro 2029
- Portugal brings deadly forest fires under control
- Postecoglou defends Solanke after slow start to Spurs career
- US nuclear plant Three Mile Island to reopen to power Microsoft
- Arteta urges Arsenal to take next step in Man City showdown
- Stock markets fall after Fed-fuelled rally
- Top Hezbollah commander 'killed' in Israel strike
Ukrainians in strategic Mykolaiv staying to the end
Ukraine's strategic city of Mykolaiv is holding out against the Russian invasion, in part due to the tenacity of its residents.
They are determined to stay and defend it despite incessant bombardment.
The southern city is a key obstacle for Russian forces trying to move west from Crimea to take Odessa, Ukraine's major port on the Black Sea, and it has taken a battering in the more than three weeks since Russian troops invaded.
In the eastern Inhulskyi district of the city, an unexploded artillery rocket can be seen sticking up from the pavement, a traffic cone planted alongside it to warn motorists.
A bit further, in the city's vast cemetery, another unexploded rocket has burrowed into the ground nearly up to its fins.
Smoke from burning garbage hangs in the air.
It's there that a dozen family and friends have gathered to bury Igor Dundukov, 46. He was killed along with dozens of other soldiers last Friday, when the military barracks came under fire.
His elder brother, Sergei, weeps as he kisses Dundukov's swollen, blood-stained face.
Sergei's wife, Galina, slips a crucifix into a pocket of Dundukov's fatigues before the coffin is sealed and lowered into the ground.
Igor enlisted at the start of the invasion, Sergei says.
"We supported his commitment to defending our homeland," he adds, dismissing any idea of leaving the city despite the boom of artillery fire in the distance.
"This is our land. We live here. And where would we run to? Where would we run to? We grew up here."
Galina agrees.
"We were born here and grew up here. And we don't have anywhere else to go. No relatives abroad. No-one."
If a good part of the city's 500,000 pre-war residents have fled -- mostly towards Odessa, some 130 kilometres (80 miles) to the southwest -- those that remain are determined to hold out.
In the afternoon, an air strike guts a building. Witnesses say it was a hotel with a bank branch on the ground floor.
Several hundred metres away, Anatoly Yakunin, 79, calmly picks up debris and sweeps broken glass.
"Leave? But to do what?" he asks.
"I have four grandchildren here, one who is fighting. How could I leave them?"
- Candles, tea and backgammon -
In the Kulbakino district, which includes several blocks of residential buildings, the population has fallen from 12,000 to fewer than 1,000, according to Alexander Zadera.
The 56-year-old had to pull his octogenarian mother from her apartment after the building was struck on March 7.
"We've got used to eating with that sort of background noise," he says of the fighting at the nearby front.
"Now even my mother recognises the sounds of different types of artillery and missile fire," the former air force colonel adds wryly.
The building's residents have set themselves up in the basement for the duration.
At the back, between two matresses, a game of backgammon has been left waiting while the residents share tea in the candle-lit main room.
"We pass our evenings here praying for our soldiers, our homeland," says schoolteacher Inna Kouriy.
"Every time there is a raid or a strike, we come down here. And when things calm down we go back up, and so on," she adds.
Kouriy tries to organise remote classes for her students who have left the city or the country.
"There were quite a few of us here at the beginning but many left the city because they had children or family. But we're staying until the end," she says.
"We Ukrainians are patient people but we won't give our country up to anyone."
K.Thomson--BTB