- Swearing, shoeys and swift legs: Singapore GP talking points
- South Korea warns of 'decisive' action against trash balloons
- Football Australia names Tony Popovic as Socceroos coach
- Japan quake, flood victim attempts fresh start with wife's memory
- Japan quake, flood victim attemps fresh start with wife's memory
- Asian markets extend gains as focus turns to US inflation
- Six dead after floods in central Japan: media
- Australian golf prodigy suffers career-threatening eye injury
- Gaza hospital a symbol of the ruin of war
- October 7: how Israel's deadliest day unfolded
- Bibles, sneakers, silver coins: Trump's merch for sale
- Met Opera opens season with tech-heavy 'Grounded'
- Colombia's Inirida flower: from 'weed' to emblem for UN meeting
- Colombia rebel group imposes control in restive coca zone
- Rams fight back to upset 49ers, Cowboys lose again
- Sri Lankan leftist leader to take office after landslide election win
- 300-kilo WWI bomb removed in Belgrade
- Zelensky in US to explain war plan to Biden, Harris, Trump
- 'Atrocious' Sudan war pushing refugees further afield: UNHCR chief
- 'Convergence' growing on global plastics treaty: UN environment chief
- MLB White Sox fall to Padres to match one-season loss mark
- All-Australian Ripper squad captures LIV Golf team crown
- Barnier promises compromise from France's embattled new govt
- Zelensky arrives in US to explain war plan to Biden
- Barca rout Villarreal but Ter Stegen hurt, Atletico draw at Rayo
- Darnold shines for Vikings, Steelers and Eagles win
- Atletico held to draw at Rayo Vallecano
- Marseille stun Lyon with 95th-minute winner after early red card
- Gabbia ends AC Milan's derby pain with late winner against Inter
- Surging Ko claims LPGA Queen City crown in spectacular style
- 'Impossible': Alcaraz shoots down Federer comparisons after Laver Cup win
- Scholz's party beats far-right AfD in east German state vote
- Verstappen says 'silly' swearing row could hasten F1 exit
- Calls for Israel and Hezbollah to step back from the abyss
- Israel and Hezbollah urged to avoid 'catastrophe'
- Colombia battles fires as drought fuels Latin American flames
- Pressure piles on new French government from day one
- Arteta proud as Arsenal salvage point from 'impossible' task
- Barca rout Villarreal in thriller but Ter Stegen hurt
- Roma stroll past Udinese as fans protest De Rossi sacking
- Horschel outduels McIlroy to win PGA Championship play-off
- Audiences summon 'Beetlejuice' to top of N. America box office for third week
- Stones salvages point for Man City against 10-man Arsenal
- Egypt fears 'all out' regional war: foreign minister to AFP
- Last-gasp Boniface gives Leverkusen victory, Stuttgart outclass Dortmund
- Scholz's party beats far-right AfD in east German state vote: projections
- Olympic champion Evenepoel retains world title in 'toughest time trial'
- Horschel's eagle beats McIlroy in PGA Championship play-off
- Mourners at commander's funeral express loyalty to Hezbollah
- Norris hails his 'mega' McLaren after dominant win at Singapore
'Revenge': Russia strikes break eery quiet in battered Mykolaiv
Several days of calm in the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv came to an abrupt end around breakfast-time Tuesday, when a Russian rocket strike ripped a gaping hole through local government building, killing seven people.
AFP journalists saw dust-covered rescue workers in hard hats pull two bodies from the debris as they searched for survivors: a man in uniform and an elderly woman, whose body they covered in a green sheet.
"Most people escaped miraculously," regional governor Vitaly Kim wrote on Facebook, confirming that regional government office had been targeted.
Initially, he said, several civilians and soldiers were unaccounted for.
Later -- during an address to Danish lawmakers -- President Volodymyr Zelensky described the true scale of the strike.
"As far as we know now seven people were killed, 22 were wounded, and people are still going through the rubble," Zelensky said in a video address to the parliament.
"I was having breakfast in my apartment," Donald, 69, a retired Canadian postal worker with Ukrainian residency told AFP. "I heard a whoosh, then a boom and my windows rattled.
"It's scary. We have been lucky here in Mykolaiv. We haven't had that many explosions in the centre of the city," he added.
The tall administrative building was left with a large section torn away, its rows of windows all blown out and its base surrounded by large chunks of concrete.
In the aftermath of the attack, you could look through the massive hole left in the building to see the cloudless spring sky on the other side.
- 'He wants revenge' -
Mykolaiv, a key southern port city, has seen fierce fighting since Moscow launched its invasion late last month. But it had been quiet in recent days until Tuesday morning's strike.
The Russian army has been falling back southeast towards Kherson, the only major Ukrainian city it claims complete control of -- and now the focus of a Ukrainian counter-offensive.
Outside a nearby residential complex, locals shaken by the blast -- some still in their pyjamas -- exchanged information about the attack and observed the damage.
Among them was Yelena Dovgykh, 65, in slippers and carrying a little dog and a plastic bag with documents under her arm.
She was making breakfast when she heard the strike, she told AFP. "I went down just as I was. I took my papers and my dog."
Another resident, Svetlana Fedorenko, cut her hand picking up broken glass from her balcony and living room kitchen. But she has known worse, she insisted.
"Putin is a bastard. That's all there is to it," said Viktor Gaivonenko, a neighbour who came to help her clean up the debris, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
He was targeting governor Kim and Zelensky because "they boost the morale of the people and our soldiers," said Fedorenko.
"He wants to get revenge for the resistance Mykolaiv is putting up that's blocking him from reaching Odessa," she added.
Governor Kim appeared to agree.
Russian forces "realised they couldn't take Mykolaiv and decided to say hello to me, to say hello to all of us," Kim wrote after the strikes, adding that his own office had been destroyed.
Mykolaiv is a key city on the road to Odessa, Ukraine's biggest port, and its capture would be a significant one for Russia's invasion of Ukraine, launched in late February.
Just a day before the attack, residents had been marking the 78th anniversary of the liberation of Mykolaiv from the Nazis by Soviet Red Army troops towards the end of World War Two.
"We drove out the Nazis in 1944," Ukraine's defence ministry said in a statement this week to mark the occasion.
"We will not give the Russian fascists a chance in 2022."
A.Gasser--BTB