While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, April 16
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Pro-Russian servicemen ride on armoured vehicles, on a road leading to the city of Mariupol, on April 15, 2022.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Ukraine says fighting rages in Mariupol, blasts rattle Kyiv
Ukraine said on Friday it was trying to break Russia’s siege of Mariupol as fighting raged around the city’s massive steel works and port, and the capital Kyiv was rocked by some of the most powerful explosions in two weeks.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the military situation in the south and east of the country was “still very difficult,” while praising the work of his armed forces.
“The successes of our military on the battlefield are really significant, historically significant. But they are still not enough to clean our land of the occupiers. We will beat them some more,” Zelensky said, in a late-night video address, calling again for allies to send heavier weapons and for an international embargo on Russian oil.
Russia said it struck what it described as a factory on the outskirts of Kyiv that made and repaired anti-ship missiles, in apparent retaliation for the sinking on Thursday of the Moskva, the flagship of Moscow’s Black Sea fleet.
France's Macron clashes with Le Pen over Islamic headscarf ban
President Emmanuel Macron has clashed with his rival Marine Le Pen over her plan to ban women from wearing the Islamic headscarf in public, with an eye on the votes of Muslims in the second round of elections.
Le Pen on April 24 will seek to cause the greatest upset in the history of modern French politics by defeating Macron in a run-off in presidential elections.
While polls indicate Macron is ahead they also point to a far tighter race between the centrist and the far-right leader than in their 2017 run-off.
WHO monitors hepatitis of unknown origin in UK children
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday it was monitoring cases of hepatitis of unknown origin in dozens of children in Britain, some of whom required a liver transplant.
Britain initially reported 10 cases of severe acute hepatitis in Scotland to the WHO on April 5, before reporting a total of 74 cases across the country three days later, the UN agency said.
WHO expects more cases to be reported in the coming days.
Britain's Harry, Meghan arrive in Netherlands after Queen visit
Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife Meghan arrived in The Hague on Friday for the Invictus Games, a day after a visit with his grandmother Queen Elizabeth II in Britain.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were in the Dutch city for the sporting event Harry, who served with the British army in Afghanistan, founded for disabled military veterans that starts on Saturday.
Harry, 37, and his wife, 40, were criticised by British tabloids for skipping Prince Philip’s memorial service in Westminster Abbey last month.
Zverev wins epic battle with Sinner to reach Monte Carlo semis
Alexander Zverev survived a first-set blip to break Jannik Sinner's resilience and reach the semi-finals of the Monte Carlo Masters with an epic 5-7 6-3 7-6(5) victory on Friday.
The German second seed struggled to stay focussed but eventually tamed his 20-year-old opponent in the deciding tiebreak.
Zverev, who battled for more than three hours with the ninth seed, will next meet either defending champion Stefanos Tsitsipas or Argentine Diego Schwartzman.