While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, March 19

The United States and China called for a diplomatic resolution to the war in Ukraine during a call between its leaders on Friday, but differed on assigning blame for the conflict and over Beijing's role in pressuring Moscow to halt its invasion.

China's President Xi Jinping told his US counterpart Joe Biden that "all sides need to jointly support Russia and Ukraine in having dialogue and negotiation that will produce results and lead to peace", according to a Chinese foreign ministry statement released after the two-hour video call.

Mr Xi added that China had put forward a six-point initiative on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine, and was ready to provide further humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and other affected countries.

Mr Biden detailed the efforts of America and its allies to prevent and then respond to "Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine", including by imposing costs on Russia, the White House said in a statement.

Russian President Vladimir Putin used a rally before a packed football stadium on Friday to justify the invasion of Ukraine, promising tens of thousands of people waving Russian flags that all the Kremlin’s aims would be achieved.

“We know what we need to do, how to do it and at what cost. And we will absolutely accomplish all of our plans,” Mr Putin told a rally at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium.

He said the soldiers fighting in what Russia calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine had illustrated the unity of Russia.

Syrian President Bashar al- Assad visited the United Arab Emirates on Friday, in his first visit to an Arab state since the Syrian war began in 2011, underlining warming ties with a US-allied country that once backed rebels who sought his ouster.

Assad met Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan who “stressed that Syria is a fundamental pillar of Arab security, and that the UAE is keen to strengthen cooperation with it”, Emirati state news agency (WAM) reported.

Assad’s only trips outside Syria during the war have been to Iran and Russia, close allies whose military support helped him turn the tide against opponents who had been backed by governments including US-allied Gulf states.

Three Russian cosmonauts blasted off to the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday, as Moscow's military intervention in Ukraine brought the Kremlin's relations with the West to their lowest point since the Soviet era.

Russian space veteran Oleg Artemyev and rookies Denis Matveyev and Sergei Korsakov set off at 1555 GMT (11.55pm Singapore time), a Nasa live feed showed, beginning a three-hour ride to the orbital lab, where they were greeted by a crew of two Russians, four Americans and one German.

In the years since Russia's 2014 annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea triggered a first wave of Western sanctions, space has proved an outlier of cooperation between Moscow and its American and European counterparts.

South Korean companies Hana Financial Group and C&P Sports have joined forces with British Property developer Nick Candy to bid two billion pounds (S$3.5 billion) for Chelsea, a statement from Candy said on Friday.

It added that the consortium also includes “significant investors from Silicon Valley and tech billionaires that own other shareholdings in sports teams in the USA.”

Premier League club Chelsea were initially put up for sale by owner Roman Abramovich following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine before sanctions were imposed on the oligarch by the British government, effectively giving it control of the club.