Europe

LONDON (AP) — The leader of the Anglican church strongly criticized the British government’s plan to put some asylum-seekers on one-way flights to Rwanda, saying “sub-contracting out our responsibilities” to refugees cannot stand up to God’s scrutiny.

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby made the unusually direct political intervention in his Easter Sunday sermon, saying there are “serious ethical questions about sending asylum-seekers overseas.”

HELSINKI (AP) — Unrest broke out in southern Sweden late Saturday despite police moving a rally by an anti-Islam far-right group, which was planning to burn a Quran among other things, to a new location as a preventive measure.

Scuffles and unrest were reported in the southern town of Landskrona after a demonstration scheduled there by the Danish right-wing party Stram Kurs party was moved to the nearby city of Malmo, some 45 kilometers (27 miles) south.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — On what is supposed to be Christianity’s most joyful day, Pope Francis made an anguished Easter Sunday plea for peace in the “senseless” war in Ukraine and in other armed conflicts raging in the world, and cited the “troubling” risk of nuclear warfare.

“May there be peace for war-torn Ukraine, so sorely tried by the violence and destruction of this cruel and senseless war into which it was dragged,” Francis said, speaking from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Square.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces pummeled a hulking steel plant that held the last pocket of resistance Sunday in Mariupol, a southern Ukraine city that has suffered under siege for six weeks and whose capture would aid Moscow’s plans for a full-scale offensive in the country’s east.

ATHENS, April 15. /TASS/: Greece is not going to send any more military equipment to Ukraine, Greek government spokesman Ioannis Oikonomou confirmed at a briefing on Friday. The official did not specify whether Athens had previously sent Stinger man-portable air defense systems to Kiev.

MOSCOW, April 16. /TASS/: Helicopters of the Russian Guards have destroyed a group of Ukrainian nationalists and military equipment on the enemy territory, the press service of the Russian Guards told TASS.

"A few days ago, an air group of the Russian Guards performed a secret approach to the combat area and conducted an airstrike targeting nationalist units it had detected. As a result, an armed group of the adversary and three pieces of military equipment were destroyed," a spokesperson said.

The press service said that its helicopters carry out combat tasks every day.

MOSCOW, April 16. /TASS/: Russia’s COVID-19 case tally rose by 11,095 over the past day to 18,064,454, which amounted to 0.06% in terms of the growth rate, the anti-coronavirus crisis center reported on Saturday.

As many as 2,923 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in Russia over the past day, up 1.95% on the previous day. The number of hospitalized patients decreased in 39 regions, while in 44 other regions the figure hiked. A day earlier, 2,867 people were rushed to hospitals.

MOSCOW, April 16. /TASS/: Oksana Marchenko, the wife of Ukrainian politician Viktor Medvedchuk detained in Ukraine, has asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to help in the exchange of her husband, she said in video footage released on Saturday.

MOSCOW, April 16. /TASS/: The irretrievable losses of the Ukrainian army, National Guard and among the foreign mercenaries are 23,367 people, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on Saturday.

According to the major general, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s recent statements to the Western media that Ukraine has about 2,500-3,000 service members killed in the operation are a lie.

BRUSSELS, April 16 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Fourteen people charged as accomplices to militants who carried out deadly bomb and gun attacks in Paris in 2015 will go on trial in Belgium from Tuesday (Apr 19).

Proceedings will take place under high security in NATO’s former headquarters and are expected to last until May 20, with a verdict likely to take several more weeks.

They are happening in parallel with a trial in Paris of 20 suspects charged in France, which opened in September and is expected to run until the end of June.