- Incoming French government under pressure on multiple fronts
- Hezbollah rockets strike near Israel's Haifa as UN warns of 'catastrophe'
- Haddad Maia roars back to beat Kasatkina in Korea Open final
- All-rounder Ashwin powers India to 280-run Test win over Bangladesh
- Failed Springbok 'gamble' sets up rugby championship decider
- Lebanon strikes send Israelis to shelters as UN warns of 'catastrophe'
- Far-right AfD eyes new win in east German state vote
- Tony Popovic set to become new Socceroos coach - reports
- All-round Ashwin powers India to big Test win over Bangladesh
- NZ chase 275 to win first Sri Lanka Test after Patel bags six
- Ashwin bags six wickets as India hammer Bangladesh in first Test
- Nascent French government under pressure on multiple fronts
- Angry French cognac makers see red over Chinese tariffs threat
- Protect the prosciutto: Italy battles swine fever
- UN holds 'Summit of the Future' to tackle global crises
- Marxist leader set to become Sri Lanka's next president
- From blades to pull-up bars: UK charity tackles knife crime
- Swiss vote on pensions and environment protections
- No pain, no gain: Chinese pro wrestlers fight for recognition
- UAE leader seeks to deepen 'strategic' ties in US visit during Mideast crisis
- Hezbollah takes heavy hits but still fighting Israel
- Floods, landslides hit central Japan months after major quake
- All Blacks coach Robertson demands better finishing
- Argentina edge South Africa to keep title hopes alive
- Biden says China 'testing us,' in hot mic remarks to Quad allies
- Dubois destroys Joshua to retain IBF world heavyweight crown
- Guardiola says critics want Man City wiped 'from face of the Earth'
- Biden says 'Quad' is 'here to stay' despite challenges
- Dubois knocks out Joshua to retain IBF world heavyweight crown
- Vinicius helps 'faster' Madrid overturn stubborn Espanyol
- Zelensky to press US on long-range missile strikes inside Russia
- PSG drop first points in draw at Reims
- Vinicius, Mbappe on target as Madrid crush plucky Espanyol
- Jeeno leads Ko by two at LPGA Queen City Championship
- Bottega Veneta goes for 'E.T.' chic as Madonna pops into D&G
- Messi, Miami frustrated by New York late leveler
- Musk's X platform takes first step toward lifting Brazil ban
- 'Business as usual' for Australia match-winner Carey amid boos
- Israeli jets pound Lebanon after deadly Beirut strike
- Ten Hag bemoans Man Utd's lack of killer instinct in Palace stalemate
- France's Macron appoints new government in shift to right
- Cheika proud of Leicester grit after winning start as boss
- Profligate Man Utd pay price in 0-0 draw at Palace
- Kane, Olise run riot as Bayern thump Bremen
- Diaz fires Liverpool top of Premier League, Man Utd held at Palace
- LIV champion Rahm out of LIV Team semis with severe flu
- Slot surprised by tearful Nunez's moment of magic
- Title rivals Norris, Verstappen on 'cool' front row for Singapore GP
- Biden talks China with 'Quad' leaders in hometown summit
- Juve and Napoli play out goalless draw in early Serie A title tussle
Ukraine denounces new 'Wall' in Europe as theatre hit
Ukraine's leader on Thursday said Russia was building a new Cold War wall across Europe "between freedom and bondage", after his government accused invading forces of bombing a theatre sheltering many civilians and marked with the word "children".
Kyiv emerged from a 35-hour curfew to new destruction, as Russian troops try to encircle the Ukrainian capital as part of their slow-moving offensive.
A distraught man crouched over a body draped in a bloodstained cloth beneath a Kyiv apartment block damaged by a downed rocket, AFP journalists saw, in the latest in a series of early morning attacks.
President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the German parliament a day after a speech to the US Congress, when he secured $1 billion in new US military aid, including Stinger anti-aircraft missiles used against Soviet forces in Afghanistan.
Zelensky reached back to that Cold War era as he drew on a 1987 speech in Berlin by US president Ronald Reagan: "Dear Mr Scholz, tear down this Wall," he implored German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
"It's not a Berlin Wall -- it is a Wall in central Europe between freedom and bondage and this Wall is growing bigger with every bomb."
In an overnight video message, Zelensky also urged Russians to lay down their arms, three weeks into an invasion that has seen the West impose swingeing sanctions against President Vladimir Putin's regime.
"If your war, the war against the Ukrainian people, continues, Russia's mothers will lose more children than in the Afghan and Chechen wars combined," he said, referencing the thousands lost in those conflict.
- Putin lashes 'traitors' -
US President Joe Biden called Putin a "war criminal", triggering fury in the Kremlin, as the Russian leader also lashed out at "traitors" at home who he said were undermining the war effort.
Russia's defence ministry denied it had targeted the Drama Theatre in the besieged port city of Mariupol, where local officials say more than 2,000 people have died so far in indiscriminate Chechnya-style shelling.
The ministry said the building had been mined and blown up by members of Ukraine's far-right Azov Battalion, a claim dismissed in the West as Russian disinformation.
Zelensky said the "number of dead is not yet known" but said the attack showed that "Russia has become a terrorist state".
Ukrainian officials said more than 1,000 civilians had been taking shelter in the theatre. Human Rights Watch said it was at least 500.
Satellite images of the theatre on March 14 shared by private satellite company Maxar showed the words "children" clearly etched out in the ground in Russian on either side of the building.
Officials posted a photo of the building, whose middle part was completely destroyed, with thick white smoke rising from the rubble after they said a bomb was dropped from an airplane.
"The only word to describe what has happened today is genocide, genocide of our nation, our Ukrainian people," Mariupol mayor Vadim Boychenko said.
-'War crimes' -
In his video address to the US Congress, Zelensky had invoked Pearl Harbor, the 9/11 attacks and Martin Luther King Jr as he showed lawmakers a video of the devastating effect of Russian attacks.
He wore the same military green T-shirt in addressing the Bundestag, and issued a strong rebuke of Germany's years-long reluctance to sever its energy and business ties with Russia.
"We turned to you," he said. "We told you that Nord Stream (gas pipelines) was a kind of preparation for the war.
"And the answer we got was purely economic -- it is economy, economy, economy but that was the mortar for the new Wall."
But NATO members have resisted Zelensky's pleas for direct involvement through a no-fly zone over Ukraine, warning it could lead to World War III against nuclear-armed Russia.
They have stepped up military aid instead, with Biden announcing the United States would also help Ukraine acquire longer-range anti-aircraft weapons.
Britain's diplomatic mission to the UN tweeted that Russia was committing "war crimes and targeting civilians" in Ukraine, after the UK requested an emergency UN Security Council meeting.
"Russia's illegal war on Ukraine is a threat to us all," it said, saying the request was made with the US, France, Albania, Norway and Ireland.
But Putin, at a televised government meeting Wednesday, insisted the invasion was "developing successfully," adding "we will not allow Ukraine to serve as a springboard for aggressive actions against Russia."
He also condemned the Western sanctions as "economic blitzkrieg", after Russia was frozen out of much of the Western financial system.
The Kremlin also rejected an order by the top UN court to halt its Ukraine invasion.
However, the Russian finance ministry said Thursday it had carried out interest payments worth $117.2 million on two foreign bonds, avoiding default for now on Russia's foreign debts.
- From rackets to rifles -
As the civilian toll in Ukraine climbed, the World Health Organization said that healthcare facilities and personnel were being attacked at an unprecedented rate.
WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan told reporters "this crisis is reaching a point where the health system in Ukraine is teetering on the brink".
The UN health agency has verified 43 attacks on health facilities, ambulances and health personnel in Ukraine since the Russian invasion began on February 24.
More than three million Ukrainians have fled across the border, mostly women and children, with 103 children killed in the war, authorities have said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said a "compromise" outcome would centre on Ukraine becoming a neutral state comparable to Sweden and Austria.
Retired tennis player Sergiy Stakhovsky, who knocked Roger Federer out of Wimbledon in 2013, traded his racquet for a Kalashnikov and returned home to defend Kyiv.
"I knew I had to go there", he told AFP as he patrolled the city in khaki camouflage, toting a rifle.
burs-jit/dk/jv
Y.Bouchard--BTB