Europe

PARIS, April 16 (Reuters) - Climate change activists forced the closure of a main square in central Paris on Saturday to protest against the environmental programmes put forward by France's remaining presidential candidates.

The Extinction Rebellion (XR) had said on its website that it planned to block a major Parisian location to disrupt the electoral cycle and its "business as usual" attitude.

April 16 (Reuters) - The head of the Russian navy, Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov, has met with crew members from the sunken missile cruiser Moskva and said they would continue to serve in the navy, the defence ministry said on Saturday.

Russia said on Thursday the Moskva sank after an ammunition explosion. Ukraine said it hit the vessel, the flagship of Russia's Black Sea fleet, with a missile.

FUENTES DE ANDALUCIA, Spain, April 16 (Reuters) - A peaceful white-walled village in southern Spain has changed its name to Ukraine in solidarity with those caught up in the conflict more than 4,000 km (2,500 miles) away.

On a sign at a roundabout at the village's entrance, Ukraine has replaced Fuentes de Andalucia and the country's blue and yellow flag has been painted alongside.

Streets have been renamed City of Kyiv, Odesa and Mariupol in the village of more than 7,100 inhabitants east of Seville.

MARSEILLE, France, April 16 (Reuters) - President Emmanuel Macron promised on Saturday to make France the "first great nation" to stop using oil, coal and gas as energy sources, in a pitch to young and green voters he fears could abstain in next week's election runoff.

In a rally in the Mediterranean city of Marseille, which voted massively for left-wing firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon in the first round of voting, Macron sought to widen what opinion polls show as a small lead over his far-right rival Marine Le Pen.

PARIS, April 16 (Reuters) - Thousands of anti-far right protesters marched across France on Saturday as opponents of presidential candidate Marine Le Pen seek to form a united front to prevent her from winning an election runoff against incumbent Emmanuel Macron on April 24.

Macron, a pro-European Union centrist, won the presidency in 2017 after easily beating Le Pen when voters rallied behind him in the runoff to keep her far-right party out of power.

This year, the first round of voting last Sunday set up the same battle, but Macron is facing a much tougher challenge.

MOSCOW, April 15 (Xinhua) -- Russia expelled 18 European Union (EU) diplomats on Friday in a retaliatory move, the country's foreign ministry said in a statement.

The ministry had summoned head of the EU Delegation to Russia Markus Ederer in a protest over the EU's decision to declare 19 Russian diplomats "personae non gratae" earlier this month, the statement said.

MOSCOW, April 16 (Xinhua) -- The Russian Foreign Ministry announced on Saturday that 13 top officials of Britain, including Prime Minister Boris Johnson, have been barred from entering Russia.

"This step was taken as a response to London's unbridled information and political campaign aimed at isolating Russia internationally, creating conditions for containing our country and strangling the domestic economy," the ministry said in a statement.

15 April 2022; MEMO: Ukraine yesterday accused Russia of blocking four Egypt-bound ships loaded with wheat and corn from leaving Ukrainian ports.

"The Riva Wind ship is ready to bring 27,000 metric tons of corn to Egypt – enough to feed well over a million people for a month," the Ukrainian embassy in Egypt said on Facebook.

The embassy had pointed out that Moscow had mined the "Black Sea floor, preventing the ship from sailing to Egypt from Ukraine's Pivdennyi port."

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Indignant over what it called Ukrainian strikes in Russian territory and following the stunning loss of its Black Sea flagship, Moscow threatened renewed missile attacks on Kyiv, where authorities said the bodies of more than 900 civilians were found outside the capital. Most had been shot dead, police said, and likely “simply executed.”

MOSCOW, April 15. /TASS/: Moscow views eliminating nationalist battalions in Ukraine as a top priority task, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.

"The main task is to liberate [Ukraine] from these nationalist battalions after all. The operation continues and the tasks that have been set are well known. They must and will be accomplished. There must be no doubts about that," the Russian presidential spokesman said.