Europe

CROTONE, Italy, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Rescuers recovered three more bodies on Monday, a day after a wooden sailboat carrying migrants to Europe smashed onto rocks in inclement weather off southern Italy, bringing the death toll to 62, including at least 14 children.

Many of the victims washed ashore close to where the vessel sank near Steccato di Cutro, a seaside resort on the eastern coast of Calabria, while some of the bodies were recovered from still-stormy seas.

GENEVA, Feb 27 (Reuters) - The U.N. rights chief condemned Russia's "senseless" invasion of Ukraine on Monday at the start of a Human Rights Council session at which countries want to strengthen scrutiny of Moscow's alleged war crimes and raise China's treatment of Muslim Uyghurs.

Volker Turk, the U.N. High Commissioner, in one of his first speeches to the 47-member council, warned that human rights gains were being reined back and even reversed, citing Russia's invasion of Ukraine as an example of oppression.

Feb 27 (Reuters) - Russia's former president and an ally of President Vladimir Putin said in remarks published on Monday that the West's continued supply of arms to Kyiv risked a global nuclear catastrophe, reiterating his threat of nuclear war over Ukraine.

Dmitry Medvedev's apocalyptic rhetoric has been seen as an attempt to deter the U.S-led NATO military alliance and Kyiv's Western allies from getting even more involved in the year-old war that has dealt Moscow setbacks on the battlefield.

Feb 27 (Reuters) - Belarusian anti-government activists have claimed responsibility for what they said was a drone attack on a Russian A-50 surveillance aircraft at an airfield near the Belarus capital of Minsk on Sunday.

"Those were drones. The participants of the operation are Belarusian," Aliaksandr Azarov, leader of Belarusian anti-government organization BYPOL, was quoted as saying on the organisation's Telegram messaging app and on the Poland-based Belsat news channel.

"They are now safe, outside the country."

BRUSSELS, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- Several thousand demonstrators called for a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, and a peaceful solution to the Ukraine crisis here on Sunday.

The demonstrators called for negotiations to achieve a peaceful solution to the Ukraine crisis. "This is the only way forward," Thierry Bodson, president of the General Labour Federation of Belgium (FGTB), told Xinhua.

"Let's stop the fire ... Let the politicians settle the diplomatic affairs, the people want peace, bread," demonstrator Yvyes Eckman said.

SOFIA, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- One migrant died and 32 were injured when a van crashed in Bulgaria on Sunday before dawn, the country's prosecutor's office said in a statement.

According to the statement, the vehicle that carried 45 men from Afghanistan, hit a roadside guardrail on the Trakia motorway about 180 km east of Sofia.

The driver, also a foreign national, had escaped, the statement said.

As many as 18 migrants were found dead in a truck near Sofia on Feb. 17.

LONDON (AP) — The U.K. and the European Union were poised Monday to end years of wrangling and seal a deal to resolve their thorny post-Brexit trade dispute over Northern Ireland.

Striking an agreement at a meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen would be a victory for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak — but not the end of his troubles. Selling the deal to his own Conservative Party and its Northern Ireland allies may be a tougher struggle.

GENEVA (AP) — U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres on Monday stressed the importance of legal challenges against “climate-wrecking corporations” like fossil-fuel producers, ratcheting up his call for the fight against climate change—- this time before the U.N.’s top human rights body.

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron will unveil on Monday his country’s changing economic and military strategy in Africa in the coming years, as France’s influence substantially declines on the continent.

Macron is expected to call for a more balanced partnership with African nations, in a speech at the Elysee presidential palace before he begins an ambitious Africa trip on Wednesday to Gabon, Angola, the Republic of Congo and Congo.

Monday’s speech comes at a time when France’s influence on the continent is facing more challenges than it has in decades.

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Andrew Tate, the divisive social media influencer and former professional kickboxer who is detained in Romania on suspicion of organized crime and human trafficking, arrived Monday at an appeals court in the capital Bucharest to challenge a decision last week to extend for a third time his detention by 30 days.