Soka (Japan) (AFP) – A team of Ukrainian sumo wrestlers whose training was interrupted by Russia’s invasion are aiming for global glory after a month-long camp in the home of the ancient Japanese sport. The six-strong Ukrainian amateur sumo team will fly to the US state of Alabama on Tuesday to compete in the World Games, an Olympic-like event featuring sports that are not contested at the Summer Games.
Minsk (AFP) – Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko accuses Kyiv of “provoking” his country and says his army intercepted missiles fired at Belarus by Ukrainian forces “around three days ago”. The claim came one week after Ukraine said missiles struck a border region from Belarus, a long-term Russian ally that supported the February 24 invasion. But Lukashenko denied any involvement, which would represent an escalation of the conflict.
Madrid (AFP) – Demonstrators hold rallies in several Spanish cities to protest over the deaths of 23 African migrants who died trying to enter the Spanish enclave of Melilla in northern Morocco.
Manaus (Brazil) (AFP) – In Manaus, the largest city in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, tons of stinking trash fill the canals and streams, giving one the feeling that they’re visiting a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
Tropical storm Bonnie has made landfall in Nicaragua, near the border with Costa Rica, where populations along its Caribbean coast are taking shelter from the possible havoc that the storm could cause.
More than two dozen crew members are unaccounted for after their ship broke into two during a typhoon in the South China Sea, with rescuers scrambling to find them, officials say. An engineering vessel that was 160 nautical miles southwest of Hong Kong “suffered substantial damage and broke into two pieces” and the 30-member crew abandoned ship, according to the Hong Kong Government Flying Service.
Kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accuses Russia of engaging in state “terror” as he blames Moscow for missile strikes on a southern resort town that left at least 21 dead and dozens wounded. Missiles slammed into an apartment building and a recreation centre in the town of Sergiyvka about 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of the Black Sea port of Odessa, which has become a strategic flashpoint in the now more than four-month-old war.
Tunceli (Turkey) (AFP) – In Turkish mountains so high the silver clouds almost touch the top of their heads, homesick Afghan shepherds prepare their flocks for a good shear. Kurds in the eastern Mercan Valley have been gradually replaced by Afghans, who fled here by foot and truck across Iran from the poverty and bloodshed back home.
Tobruk (Libya) (AFP) – IMAGES Protesters light a fire inside Libya’s parliament building in the eastern city of Tobruk, while demonstrating against deteriorating living conditions and political deadlock.
Odessa Oblast (Ukraine) (AFP) – Aerial footage of a building destroyed by missile strikes that killed at least 21 people and injured dozens in Ukraine’s Odessa region.
