Europe

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia’s top diplomat warned Ukraine against provoking World War III and said the threat of a nuclear conflict “should not be underestimated” as his country unleashed attacks against rail and fuel installations far from the front lines of Moscow’s new eastern offensive.

Meanwhile, the British Defense Ministry said Tuesday that Russian forces had taken the Ukrainian city of Kreminna in the Luhansk region after days of street-to-street fighting.

Lviv, Apr 26 (AP) The British Defense Ministry says Russian forces have taken the Ukrainian city of Kreminna.

Street-to-street fighting had been going on for days in the city in Ukraine's Luhansk region, with civilian evacuations there made impossible by the war.

26 April 2022; MEMO: Amnesty International has called on French President Emmanuel Macron to make the protection of human rights a priority for his second term in office after he beat his far-right rival Marine Le Pen on Sunday.

MOSCOW, April 25. /TASS/: About 400 Russian diplomats have been expelled from 28 Western countries since the start of the special military operation in Ukraine, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yevgeny Ivanov said on Monday at a meeting of the Russian Federation Council's Interim Commission for the Protection of State Sovereignty and Prevention of Interference in the country's Internal Affairs.

MOSCOW, April 25. /TASS/: Russia’s COVID-19 case tally rose by 7,651 over the past day to 18,144,788, the anti-coronavirus crisis center reported on Monday.

In absolute terms, the growth rate was the lowest since May 6, 2021. In relative terms, the growth rate reached 0.04%.

MOSCOW, April 25. /TASS/: Russia’s Central Bank has changed the procedure for calculating official exchange rates of the dollar, euro and yuan against the ruble to ensure business continuity of economic agents on Russian territory. Now the exchange rate will be calculated as of 3:30 pm Moscow time, the regulator reported on Monday.

MOSCOW, April 25. /TASS/: The sixth package of sanctions against Russia may include some form of an oil embargo, though it is necessary to make sure the damage on the European Union’s member states is minimized, Executive Vice President of the European Commission (EC) Valdis Dombrovskis said in an interview with The Times published on Monday.

GENEVA, April 25 (Reuters) - The United States, as well as the Taliban authorities, is contributing to the suffering of women in Afghanistan through asset freezes, U.N. independent experts said on Monday.

The United Nations and foreign governments, including Washington, have condemned moves by the Taliban to backtrack on women's rights commitments such as on girls' education in the months following their takeover in Aug. 2021. 

AMSTERDAM, April 25 (Reuters) - The International Criminal Court (ICC) will take part in the joint team investigating allegations of war crimes in Ukraine following the Russian invasion, the European Union's agency for criminal justice cooperation said on Monday.

ICC prosecutor Karim Khan and the Prosecutors General from Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine signed an agreement for the international war crimes tribunal's first-ever participation in an investigative team, Eurojust said.

April 25 (Reuters) - Ukraine denied on Monday reaching an agreement with Russia on evacuating civilians from a steel plant in the southern city of Mariupol, and pushed for the United Nations to be the "initiator and guarantor" of any such deal.

Russia had said earlier on Monday that it would open a humanitarian corridor for civilians to leave the huge Azovstal steel plant where they are holed up with Ukrainian fighters and are under Russian attack.