Europe

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Weekend shelling by Russian forces killed at least seven civilians, Ukrainian officials reported Sunday as Pope Francis and Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby used their traditional Easter messages to highlight the war in Ukraine and other conflicts around the world.

PARIS, April 9 (Reuters) - Four people have died and a number of others have been injured in an avalanche in the French Alps, interior minister Gerald Darmanin said on Sunday.

The avalanche occurred in the middle of the day on the Armancette glacier, he wrote on Twitter.

Those caught up in the avalanche were hiking in the mountains, according to local media.

President Emmanuel Macron wrote on Twitter that rescue services were continuing to search for further casualties and that his thoughts were with the victims and their families.

FRANKFURT, April 9 (Reuters) - Police and fire officials in the German city of Hamburg warned locals of possible toxins in the air after fires broke out early on Sunday at multiple storage facilities.

Some 140 people were evacuated, and it is not yet possible to say exactly how dangerous the situation is, a police spokesperson said.

A spokesperson with the fire department said they had reduced the threat level somewhat, even though the fire was still burning at midday, but that people should remain indoors with windows closed.

MARSEILLE, France (AP) — Up to 10 people may be buried under the debris of a building that collapsed following an explosion in France’s port city of Marseille, but a fire deep within the rubble hindered rescue efforts Sunday, the French interior minister said.

Officials determined that at least four people lived in the building, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said. It was not known if anyone was killed in the collapse or explosion, or what triggered the blast, he said.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis opened a celebration of Mass on Easter Sunday joined by dozens of prelates and tens of thousands of pilgrims and tourists in St. Peter’s Square, where spring flowers made the vast space bright. made bright by spring flowers.

Orange-red tulips, yellow sprays of forsythia and daffodils, and other colorful seasonal blooms were transported in trucks from the Netherlands on Saturday and set up in planters to decorate the Vatican square, which quickly filled up Sunday with Rome residents and Holy Week visitors to the city.

08 Apr 2023; MEMO: Hundreds of demonstrators staged a protest Friday outside the Israeli Embassy in London against attacks on Al-Aqsa Mosque in the occupied East Jerusalem, reports Anadolu Agency.

Jewish Anti-Zionist Network and Jewish Voice for Labors were among the participants.

Decrying recent Israeli attacks on Palestine, the crowd chanted slogans in solidarity with Palestinians, including, "Free Palestine."

MOSCOW, April 8. /TASS/: Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev believes that no-one in the world needs Ukraine, therefore it will cease to exist, he said in his post on social media Saturday.

The post, titled "Why Ukraine will cease to exist? Because nobody needs it," is divided into six parts, in which Medvedev explains why the Ukrainian state is not needed to Europe, the US, Africa, Latin America, Asia, Russia and, finally, Ukrainian people themselves.

BERLIN, April 8. /TASS/: Several thousand people participated in a mass rally against weapon deliveries to the Kiev regime and for peace talks for the swiftest settlement of the Ukrainian conflict in Berlin on Saturday.

The rally was held within the framework of Easter peace marches that take place annually in various German cities. Such rallies express protest against NATO activities, wars and the use of weapons, a TASS correspondent reports.

MOSCOW, April 8. /TASS/: By speaking against deployment of nuclear weapons beyond national territory, French President Emmanuel Macron effectively criticized the US policy, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview, partially uploaded to journalist Pavel Zarubin’s Telegram channel.

"It has been a long time since we’ve heard such fierce criticism towards the United States of American from the President of France," the spokesman noted ironically, commenting on Macron’s remarks.

MOSCOW, April 8. /TASS/: Western countries could not bring themselves to condemn the terror attack on war reporter Vladlen Tatarsky [real name: Maxim Fomin], Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on her Telegram channel on Saturday.

"Over six days that elapsed since the moment of the blast in that St. Petersburg cafe, not a single Western ‘champion’ of freedom of the media and the safety of journalists managed to utter even a word condemning this cruelty, horrendous by any human standards, nor expressed simple compassion for its victims," she noted.