A bipartisan group of more than 130 U.S. Congress members have signed a joint letter calling on the European Union to designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization. 

In the letter addressed to EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, the lawmakers said Iran is “a leading state sponsor of terror” and that for decades the IRGC “has freely and openly carried out plots targeting citizens in countries across the EU.” 

“We understand the legal complexities involved in designating the IRGC as a terrorist organization pursuant to EU law Common Position 931, and fully appreciate the need for this decision to be adjudicated by either a judicial or ‘equivalent competent authority,” the lawmakers said. “But given the growing threat Iran poses to EU member states and their citizens, we urge you to treat this issue with the utmost urgency.” 

The letter also cites a study by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point stating Iran “instigated at least 33 plots to surveil, abduct, or assassinate citizens in Europe” during the past five years. 

Borrell has said designating the IRGC as a terrorist group must first involve condemnation by a court in at least one EU member state. 

The United States declared the IRGC a terrorist group in 2019. 

Some information for this report came from Reuters. 
…

U.S. President Joe Biden travels to both sides of the Irish border this week, taking part in commemorations to mark the 25th anniversary of Northern Ireland’s Good Friday peace accord as well as making a pilgrimage to the towns of his Irish ancestors.

Biden’s visit comes as the durability of the peace accord is being tested by political disagreements and occasional attacks carried out by dissidents. The latest violence came just Monday when masked youths pelted police vehicles with petrol bombs during a march in Londonderry.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is set to greet Biden when he arrives Tuesday night in Belfast. The next day Biden will hold a bilateral meeting with Sunak before giving an address at Belfast’s Ulster University.

The Good Friday agreement — which the United States helped to broker on April 10, 1998 — largely ended decades of sectarian violence that had plagued Northern Ireland since the late 1960s and that had also brought intermittent attacks to mainland Britain. While there is still some sporadic violence in Northern Ireland, the accord allowed a generation of children to grow up in relative peace.

Despite the successes of the accord, it has been under increasing strain since Britain’s exit from the European Union and disagreements over post-Brexit trade rules. The Northern Ireland Assembly has been in limbo for more than a year after the main unionist party pulled out of the government to protest the new trade rules.

Sporadic violence by groups opposed to peace has also increased. Last month, Britain’s intelligence agency raised the threat level in Northern Ireland from “domestic terrorism” to “severe.”

When asked if it was wise for Biden to travel to Northern Ireland at this time, U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Monday, “We don’t ever talk about security requirements protecting the president, but the president is more than comfortable making this trip.”

During Biden’s visit to Northern Ireland, the White House said the president would mark the progress since the Good Friday peace accord and underscore the region’s economic potential.

On Wednesday, Biden will then travel south to Ireland to spend three days in his ancestral homeland.

He will visit the town of Ballina, in county Mayo, where one of his great-great grandfathers lived before leaving for the United States in the mid-1800s. Biden’s relatives remain in the area and Joe Blewitt, the president’s third cousin, told Agence France Presse that Biden’s visit is “a very proud day for our family and for Ireland.”

The 43-year-old plumber, who first met Biden when he came to town as vice president in 2016, was among Biden’s relatives invited to the White House for St. Patrick’s Day last month.

While in Ireland, Biden also plans to visit the Cooley Peninsula in County Louth, where another of his great-great-grandfathers lived before emigrating during years of famine in the middle of the 19th century.

“One in 10 Americans claim Irish ancestry and Irish Americans are proudly represented in every facet of American life,” Kirby told reporters Monday. He described Biden as “very much looking forward” to the trip.

In addition to honoring his ancestors in Ireland, Biden will meet with Irish President Michael Higgins, address a joint session of the Irish Parliament and attend a dinner at Dublin Castle.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
…

Russian forces pressed attacks on front-line cities in eastern Ukraine on Monday, while Ukrainian officials played down a report that Kyiv is amending some plans for a counteroffensive due to a leak of classified U.S. documents.

The Russians were pounding Ukrainian positions around besieged Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk region and other cities and towns with air strikes and artillery barrages, Kyiv said.

“The enemy switched to so-called scorched earth tactics from Syria. It is destroying buildings and positions with air strikes and artillery fire,” Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, said of Bakhmut.

The small and now largely ruined city on the edge of a chunk of Russian-controlled territory in Donetsk has for months been the biggest battleground of the war.

The head of the Moscow-controlled part of Donetsk, Denis Pushilin, said Russian forces now held 75% of the city.

Moscow’s military was also targeting the city of Avdiivka.

“The Russians have turned Avdiivka into a total ruin,” said Pavlo Kyrylenko, Donetsk’s regional governor, describing an airstrike on Monday that destroyed a multistory building.

“In total, around 1,800 people remain in Avdiivka, all of whom risk their lives every day.”

In Chasiv Yar, the first major town to Bakhmut’s west, few buildings are left intact, and locals lining up to collect food and other aid do not even flinch at the sound of artillery.

“It used to be scarier but now we have got used to it,” said 50-year-old humanitarian volunteer Maksym. “You don’t even pay attention,” he added, his words nearly drowned out by the sound of explosions.

As the battles ground on, U.S. media outlet CNN reported that Ukraine was forced to amend some military plans ahead of its long-anticipated counteroffensive because of the leak of dozens of secret documents.

U.S. officials are trying to trace the source of the leak, reviewing how they share secrets internally and dealing with the diplomatic fallout.

The documents detail topics including information on the Ukraine conflict, in which Washington has supplied Kyiv with huge amounts of weapons and led international condemnation of Moscow’s invasion.

Asked about the report, Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak said Kyiv’s strategic plans remained unchanged but that specific tactics were always subject to change.

The secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, Oleksiy Danilov, told Reuters: “The opinion of people who have nothing to do with this do not interest us. … The circle of people who possess information is extremely restricted.”

Some national security experts and U.S. officials have said they suspect the leaker could be American but have not ruled out pro-Russian actors.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the leak but said: “There is in fact a tendency to always blame everything on Russia. It is, in general, a disease.”

A Ukrainian counteroffensive has long been expected after months of attritional warfare in the east.

A Russian winter offensive failed to make much progress, and its troops have been bogged down in a series of battles where advances have been incremental and come at a huge cost.

The Ukrainian defenders have also taken heavy casualties.

Syrskyi said Moscow was sending in special forces and airborne units to help their attack on Bakhmut as members of Russia’s private mercenary Wagner group, who have spearheaded the Bakhmut assault, were exhausted.

Reuters could not verify the battlefield accounts.

Ukraine’s general staff said Russian forces had made unsuccessful advances on areas west of Bakhmut and that at least 10 towns and villages had come under Russian shelling, including Bakhmut and Chasiv Yar.

Donetsk is one of four provinces in eastern and southern Ukraine that Russia declared annexed last year and is seeking to fully occupy in what appears to be a shift in its war aims after failing to overrun the country after its February 2022 invasion.

Control of Bakhmut could allow Russia to directly target Ukrainian defensive lines in Chasiv Yar and open the way for its forces to advance on two bigger cities in the Donetsk region — Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.

While Ukraine has said it wants to inflict as many casualties as possible on the Russian forces as it prepares its own counteroffensive, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week said troops could be withdrawn if they risked being encircled.

In addition to shelling Avdiivka, Russian forces targeted the towns of Maryinka and Kranohorivka to its southwest as well as Vuhledar, a hilltop town further south subject to Russian attacks for several weeks, Ukraine’s general staff said.

Elsewhere, Russia’s defense ministry said its forces destroyed a depot with 70,000 tons of fuel near Zaporizhzhia, and Ukraine reported widespread Russian shelling in northern regions. Officials in the south said Russian aircraft had used guided bombs against towns in the Kherson region.

In a rare coordination between the warring parties, Russia and Ukraine carried out another prisoner swap, with 106 Russian captives freed in exchange for 100 Ukrainians.
…

Russian opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza said on Monday he stood by all of his political statements, including against the Ukraine offensive, that led him to face 25 years in jail.

“I subscribe to every word that I have said, that I am incriminated for today,” Kara-Murza said, citing his fight against the Ukraine offensive and President Vladimir Putin.

“Not only do I not repent for any of it — I am proud of it,” he said in his last words to the court, which were published on journalist Alexei Venediktov’s Telegram channel.

Kara-Murza, 41, is accused of several charges including treason, spreading false information about the Russian army.

“I only blame myself for one thing,” Kara-Murza said. “I failed to convince enough of my compatriots and politicians in democratic countries of the danger that the current Kremlin regime poses for Russia and for the world.”

The Western-educated journalist was a close associate of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was shot dead near the Kremlin in 2015.

“I’m proud of the fact that Boris Nemtsov brought me into politics. And I hope he’s not ashamed of me,” Kara-Murza said.

His high-profile trial is the latest in a string of cases against opposition voices in Russia in a crackdown that has intensified since Putin sent troops to Ukraine last year.

Prosecutors have called for 25 years against him.

The verdict is expected next Monday, but the politician said, “I know my sentence  … such is the price for non-silence in Russia now.”

Kara-Murza says he was poisoned twice — in 2015 and 2017 — because of his political activities, but he continued to spend long periods of time in Russia.

His condition has worsened in prison, his lawyer Vadim Prokhorov has said.

“I also know that the day will come when the darkness over our country will dissipate,” Kara-Murza also said.

“When the war will be called a war … when the ones who instigated and started this war will be the ones branded as criminals, and not people who tried to stop it.” 
…

Latest developments:

Two killed In Zaporizhzhia after a Russian airstrike hit a residential building in the southeastern Ukrainian city.
In his Easter Sunday message, Pope Francis invoked prayers for both the Ukrainian and Russian people. He also praised nations that help refugees.
Ukrainian photographer turns battle-ravaged bodies into works of art.

 

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Monday his country needs security guarantees from Russia, according to state broadcaster BelTA.

The comments came as Lukashenko hosted Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

According to BelTA, Lukashenko cited his talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week, saying the two leaders discussed the need for Russia to protect Belarus “as its own territory” if there were “aggression” toward Belarus.

Putin drew criticism last month when he announced Russia would deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.

Russian forces also used Belarus as a staging area to launch the full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than one year ago, after the two allies insisted they were holding only military drills with no plan for an attack on Ukraine.

Two Ukraine provinces — Kharkiv in the northeast and Zaporizhzhia in the southeast — were hit by Russian missiles, rockets and artillery fire over the weekend, the Ukrainian military reported Sunday.

Oleksandr Prokudin, Kherson region governor, said Russian warplanes struck two communities late Sunday, but he said there were no immediate reports of casualties, according to The Associated Press.

Kharkiv Governor Oleh Syniehubov said the shelling in Kupiansk, a town formerly held by Russian forces before Ukraine took control last September, killed two men Sunday.

Later Sunday, Syniehubov said on Telegram the city remained under attack, and Russian forces were targeting residential areas with rocket launchers, the AP reported.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denounced the Russian airstrikes that coincided with the observance of Orthodox Palm Sunday. The majority of Ukraine’s 41 million people are Orthodox Christians who celebrate Easter on April 16.

“This is how the terrorist state marks Palm Sunday,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address. “This is how Russia places itself in even greater isolation from the world.”

Some material in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
…

Greek lawmakers are set to vote on urgent legislation introduced by the government in Athens to ban neo-Nazi parties from competing in upcoming national elections in May. The move comes after an imprisoned neo-Nazi set up – from behind bars – a political party that is gaining popular support ahead of the polls.  

Greek Justice Minister Makis Voridis submitted the legislation to parliament, billing it as unprecedented and part of the government’s drive to protect democracy in the birthplace of democracy.

With this bill, he said, it is the first time in history that Greek members of parliament are asking the entire bench of the Supreme Court to weigh the credentials of a party and its members to compete in elections.

The move comes just weeks after Greek lawmakers voted to ban Ilias Kasidiaris, a leading member of the now defunct Golden Dawn party, from competing in the May 21 polls.

Kasidiaris is among 60 neo-Nazi members and politicians serving stiff sentences for targeting migrants, homosexuals, and left-wing political activists at the height of Golden Dawn’s activities from 2012 to 2019.

His imprisonment has not stopped him from being vocal. From prison, he has set up a political party called The Greeks – and a YouTube channel with over 120,000 followers.

Despite efforts by lawmakers and the ruling conservative party to ban him from running in the May polls, Kasidiaris has in recent days stepped down, naming instead a former Supreme Court prosecutor with a clean criminal record to lead the party in the upcoming elections.

With disaffection growing among Greeks for the country’s ruling conservatives and mainstream political parties, polls show Kasidiaris’ party has substantial voter support – about 3 percent – enough to win entry to the Greek parliament.

For ruling conservatives facing plummeting polls, Kasidiari’s party poses a serious threat to their re-election.

But Monday’s bid by the government to introduce stiffer legislation has sparked a heated national debate. The main leftist Syriza party has said it will abstain from Tuesday’s final vote and legal experts highlight fears of a brewing backlash they say will only galvanize the support of Kasidiari’s far-right party.

According to Costas Botopoulos, a professor of constitutional law in Athens, safeguarding democracy means safeguarding the spirit of the constitution. Here, the letter of the law is clear, he said. It does not forbid parties to compete on grounds of the ideology they uphold, but rather the members that make them up and whether they have criminal records.

The Greek party has vowed to contest any attempt to silence it.
…

Two bodies were found in the rubble of a building that collapsed in Marseille following a major explosion, French authorities said early Monday, as rescue workers scrambled to find at least six people still unaccounted for.

The discovery of the bodies came about 24 hours after the blast brought down the four-story building in the Mediterranean port city.

Emergency workers had continued rescue operations through Sunday night into the early hours of Monday with the help of a crane and lights, but a persistent fire underneath the rubble hampered their work, making it difficult for firefighters to deploy sniffer dogs.

“Given the particular difficulties of intervention, the extraction (of the bodies from the site) will take time,” the fire department said in a brief statement announcing the bodies had been found.

“The judicial authority will then proceed to identify” the victims, it added.

Earlier on Sunday, before the discovery of the bodies, local prosecutor Dominique Laurens told reporters that eight people “were not responding to phone calls”.

Five people from neighboring buildings sustained minor injuries in the blast and collapse, which occurred around 12:40 am on Sunday (2240 GMT Saturday).

“Tonight, the pain and sorrow are great,” said Marseille mayor Benoit Payan in a statement.

“All services of the city, as well as the state, are still at this very moment fully committed to continue the search,” he added.

The cause of the explosion is still to be determined, but investigators are looking at the possibility it was the result of a gas leak.

More than 100 firefighters were battling the blaze in the ruins of the building, which was believed to have one apartment on each floor.

Multiple witnesses described the explosion to AFP.

“I was sleeping and there was this huge blast that really shook the room. I was shocked awake as if I had been dreaming,” said Saveria Mosnier, who lives on a street near the site in the La Plaine neighborhood.

“We very quickly smelled a strong gas odor that hung around, we could still smell it this morning,” she added.

Deputy mayor Yannick Ohanessian told journalists at the scene that “several witnesses have reached us this morning to say there was a suspicious smell of gas”.

Evacuation

Two buildings next to the destroyed property were severely damaged, with one collapsing later in the day without injuring any rescuers.

Almost 200 residents have been evacuated and 50 have requested to be urgently rehoused.

An aid center for people looking for missing family members or loved ones has been opened in a neighboring district.

“A lot of families in the neighborhood are afraid,” said Arnaud Dupleix, the president of a parents’ association at the nearby Tivoli elementary school, which sprang into action to coordinate aid for those evacuated.

Housing Minister Olivier Klein is due to visit Marseille Monday, after Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin on Sunday.

In 2018, eight people were killed in Marseille when two dilapidated buildings in the working-class district of Noailles caved in.

That disaster cast a harsh light on the city’s housing standards, with aid groups saying 40,000 people were living in shoddy structures.

But authorities on Sunday appeared to rule out structural issues in the latest collapse.

“There was no danger notice for this building, and it is not in a neighborhood identified as having substandard housing,” said Christophe Mirmand, prefect of the Bouches-du-Rhone region.
…

An avalanche on Sunday near Mont Blanc in southeastern France swept four people to their deaths and left two more missing, the officials said.  

Among the dead were two mountain guides caught by the snow tumbling down the Armancette glacier, the prefecture for the Haute-Savoie department said.   

Investigators had been called to help with the search for the two people still unaccounted for in the Alps.   

One person also suffered slight injuries in the avalanche while eight others also swept up were unharmed, the prefecture said.   

The avalanche covered an area of 1,000 meters by 500 meters.   

No avalanche warning had been issued for the region by weather authority Meteo France, but a combination of warmth and wind may have been behind the disaster, the prefecture added.   

“We’re thinking of (the victims) as well as of their families,” President Emmanuel Macron wrote on Twitter.   

“Our emergency services have been mobilized to find those still trapped in the snow.”   

Emergency responders had deployed a helicopter as well as mountain rescue dogs to the scene, although the prefecture warned a further avalanche could not be ruled out.   

The operation was suspended in the evening but will resume at 7:00 am (0500 GMT) Monday.   

“I think it’s the most deadly avalanche this season,” Contamines-Montjoie mayor Francois Barbier told AFP.   

Two brothers died in an avalanche on the same glacier in 2014, both experienced climbers in their 20s. 
…

A British performance of “The Bodyguard” musical ended in unrequited love for some audience members who couldn’t refrain from singing along to the anthemic finale. 

The show at the Palace Theatre in Manchester screeched to a halt Friday when two unruly patrons were ejected for joining the lead in singing “I Will Always Love You,” the soaring, emotional ballad made famous by Whitney Houston. 

It was not supposed to be a singalong. Ushers carried signs saying, “Please refrain from singing” and announcements were made in advance that patrons would have a chance to join along at the end but not to sing during the show, said Tash Kenyon, an audience member. 

During the closing number, somebody shouted, “Does this mean we can start singing now?” Kenyon said. A tone-deaf voice projected from the balcony and competed with the vocals of Melody Thornton, a former member of The Pussycat Dolls. 

Laughter then turned to anger and confusion, Karl Bradley told the Manchester Evening News. 

“The stage then just went black again and that’s when it really started to kick off on the higher tier, you could really hear screams and audible gasps,” Bradley said. “Everyone starting standing up and looking over. There was chants of ‘out, out, out’ to get them gone.” 

When the lights came up, the unwanted backup singers were being hauled out of their seats by theater security and audience members began cheering. 

But the music and show were over. 

A spokesperson for the theater said the show was canceled because disruptive fans who refused to stay seated had spoiled the performance. 

Thornton posted a video on Instagram thanking respectful fans and apologizing for those who weren’t. 

Greater Manchester Police said it spoke with the two people who were removed by security and would review evidence before taking any action. 
…

Jon Rahm turned the longest day into his sweetest victory, starting Sunday with a four-shot deficit in the morning chill and finishing in fading sunlight as the fourth Spaniard to become a Masters champion. 

Rahm closed with a 3-under 69 to pull away from mistake-prone Brooks Koepka. He won by four shots over Koepka and 52-year-old Phil Mickelson, who turned in a tournament-best 65. He is the oldest runner-up in Masters history. 

It was Mickelson who declared Rahm would be among golf’s biggest stars even before the Spaniard turned pro in 2016. Rahm now has a green jacket to go along with his U.S. Open title he won in 2021 at Torrey Pines. 

Rahm made up two shots on Koepka over the final 12 holes of the rain-delayed third round and started the final round two shots behind. He seized on Koepka’s collapse and then surged so far ahead that Mickelson’s amazing closing round — the best final round ever at Augusta National for the three-time Masters champion — was never going to be enough. 

Nothing was more satisfying than an uphill climb to the 18th green to claim the green jacket on a day when Spanish stars aligned. Sunday is the birthdate of his idol, the late Seve Ballesteros, and this is the 40-year anniversary of Ballesteros winning his second Masters title. 

Rahm embraced his wife and two children, and as he walked toward the scoring room, there was two-time Masters champion José María Olazábal in his green jacket for the strongest hug of all. 

Rahm won for the fourth time this year — just as Scottie Scheffler did a year ago when he won the Masters — and reclaimed the No. 1 world ranking from Scheffler. 

This Masters had a little bit of everything — hot and humid at the start, a cold front with wind that toppled three trees on Friday, putting surfaces saturated from rain on Saturday and a marathon finish Sunday as Rahm and Koepka went 30 holes. 

Koepka helped to pave the way with one miscue after another, losing the lead for the first time since Thursday afternoon when he chipped 20 feet past the hole from behind the par-3 sixth and made his second bogey. There would be more to come. 

Worse yet, Koepka went 22 consecutive holes Sunday without a birdie — from the par-5 eighth hole in the morning of the third round until the par-5 13th in final round. By then, he was three shots behind and Rahm all but sealed it with his next shot. 

He hit a low cut around a tree from right of the 14th fairway and it caught a slope just right on the 14th green and fed down to 3 feet for a birdie. When Koepka three-putted for bogey, it was a matter of finishing. 

Rahm hooked his tee shot into the trees on the final hole and didn’t reach the fairway. No matter. He played up the fairway, hit wedge to 3 feet and tapped in for the victory. 

The leaderboard was littered with major champions and a tinge of Saudi-funded LIV Golf. Mickelson and Koepka both are part of the rival circuit. Former Masters champion Patrick Reed, another player who defected to LIV, closed with a 68 and tied for fourth with Jordan Spieth (66) and Russell Henley. 
…

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar pledged Sunday to intensify efforts with his British counterpart Rishi Sunak to restore power-sharing government in Northern Ireland and hopes to break the deadlock there in the next few months.

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) has said it will not drop a yearlong boycott of the devolved assembly in protest at post-Brexit trade rules without further changes to a deal struck by the United Kingdom and the European Union in February to ease the trade barriers.

London has said it will not renegotiate any part of its new agreement.

“We put a huge amount of effort in the last few months into getting an agreement on revisions and reforms to the protocol,” Varadkar told national broadcaster RTE, referring to the checks on goods between Northern Ireland and the rest of the U.K. that has angered many pro-British unionists.

“The next piece now is deep engagement with the British government and also with the five parties in Northern Ireland to try and get the institutions up and running again, and certainly over the next few weeks I’ll be intensifying my contacts with Prime Minister Sunak.”

Varadkar said he would work toward restoring the mandatory power-sharing government “in the next few months,” noting that May’s local council elections and the annual marching season in July – which often sparks sectarian tensions – could make an agreement more difficult in the short term.

The DUP, at odds with opinion polls that suggest most Northern Irish voters support the revised Brexit deal, has said its concerns over the continued role of EU law and Northern Ireland’s place in the U.K.’s internal market must be addressed.

The latest suspension of the assembly is casting a shadow over Monday’s 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. U.S. President Joe Biden will visit Northern Ireland on Tuesday to mark the peace accord that ended three decades of bloodshed.

Power-sharing has collapsed several times for different reasons since its introduction as part of the peace deal, each time being restored after long political talks. The most recent lasted from 2017 to 2020.
…

In an Easter message highlighting hope, Pope Francis on Sunday invoked prayers for both the Ukrainian and Russian people, praised nations which welcome refugees and called on Israelis and Palestinians wracked by the latest surge in deadly violence to forge a “climate of trust.”

Francis, along with dozens of prelates and tens of thousands of faithful, celebrated Easter Mass in a flower-adorned St. Peter’s Square, affirming the Christian belief that Jesus rose from the dead days after his crucifixion.

The 86-year-old pontiff topped the celebration with a traditional speech about troubled places in the world. Encouraging “trust among individuals, peoples and nations,” Francis said Easter’s joy “illumines the darkness and gloom in which, all too often, our world finds itself enveloped.”

The pope’s Easter message is known by its Latin name, “Urbi et Orbi,” which means “to the city and the world.”

Since Russia invaded neighboring Ukraine in February 2022, Francis has repeatedly called for the fighting to end and sought prayers for the “martyred” Ukrainian people.

Ukrainian diplomats have complained that he hasn’t come down hard enough in his statements on Russia and particularly Russian President Vladimir Putin as the Vatican tries to avoid alienating Moscow.

“Help the beloved Ukrainian people on their journey towards peace, and shed the light of Easter upon the people of Russia,” Francis implored God in his Easter speech, which he delivered while sitting in a chair on the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica facing the square. “Comfort the wounded and all those who have lost loved ones because of the war, and grant that prisoners may return safe and sound to their families.”

He urged the international community to work to end the war in Ukraine and “all conflict and bloodshed in the world, beginning with Syria, which still awaits peace.”

Francis also prayed for those who lost loved ones in an earthquake that struck Syria and Turkey two months ago, claiming tens of thousands of lives.

With a renewal in deadly violence affecting both Israelis and Palestinians in recent days, Francis called for a “resumption of dialogue, in a climate of trust and reciprocal respect, between Israelis and Palestinians, so that peace may reign in the Holy City and in the entire region,” a reference to Jerusalem.

But Francis also noted progress on some fronts.

“Let us rejoice at the concrete signs of hope that reach us from so many countries, beginning with those that offer assistance and welcome to all fleeing war and poverty,” he said, without naming any particular nations.

How to care for asylum-seekers, migrants and refugees, and whether to allow them entrance, is a raging political and social debate in much of Europe, as well in the United States and elsewhere.

Francis also prayed that national leaders “ensure that no man or woman may encounter discrimination” and that there would be “full respect for human rights and democracy.”

With migrants risking their lives in smugglers’ unseaworthy boats in hopes of reaching Europe, the pope said that Tunisia’s people, particularly the young, struggle with social and economic hardship.

In the last two weeks, dozens have died or were left missing after attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea from Tunisia.

The pope included Lebanon and two African countries he visited this year – South Sudan and Congo – among the nations in need of ending divisions and building reconciliation.

Speaking about Haiti, he appealed to “political actors and the international community to seek a definitive solution to the many problems that afflict that sorely tried people.”

The bloody conflicts cited by Francis contrasted with a riot of bright colors lent by orange-red tulips, yellow sprays of forsythia and daffodils, hyacinths and other colorful seasonal flowers that decorated St. Peter’s Square. The blooms were trucked in trucks from the Netherlands.

By the end of the pope’s appearance, some 100,00 people had flocked to the square in time for the pontiff’s speech, according to the Vatican’s crowd count.

A canopy on the edge of steps on the square sheltered the pontiff, who was back in the public eye for the Mass 12 hours after a 2.25-hour long Easter vigil ceremony in St. Peter’s Basilica the night before.

Francis was hospitalized March 29-April 1 for treatment of bronchitis. Still recovering, he skipped the traditional Good Friday procession at Rome’s Colosseum due to unseasonably cold nighttime temperatures.

Near the end of the more than two-hour-long Easter Sunday appearance, Francis seemed to run out of steam. His voice grew hoarse and he interrupted his speech at one point to cough.

He nonetheless made several laps through the square in the popemobile after the Mass, waving and smiling at cheering well-wishers.
…

The residents of the German city of Hamburg have been warned that toxins from  a warehouse fire in the city of Rothenburgsort, a few kilometers southeast of Hamburg are headed their way.

Reuters reports that despite not knowing just how toxic the fumes may be, authorities have decided to evacuate 140 Hamburg residents, while other Hamburg residents have been instructed to stay home with their doors and window closed.  

The fire erupted early Sunday and continued to burn Sunday afternoon, despite scores of firefighters battling the blaze.

The warehouse contents were not immediately clear.

Some information in this report came from Reuters.
…

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.

Some 45,000 people had gathered by the start of the mid-morning Mass, according to Vatican security services.

At the beginning of the Easter ceremony inspired by the core Christian belief that Jesus rose from the dead after his crucifixion, Francis sprinkled holy water and sounded somewhat tired as he recited ritual words in Latin.

A canopy on the edge of steps on the square sheltered the pontiff, who was back in the public eye 12 hours after a 2.25-hour long Easter vigil ceremony in St. Peter’s Basilica the night before.

Still recovering from bronchitis, Francis, 86, skipped the traditional Good Friday procession at Rome’s Colosseum due to unseasonably cold nighttime temperatures.

Sunday was breezy, but the temperature quickly rose a day after rain and strong wind gusts lashed Rome.

At the end of the Mass, Francis was set to deliver a speech that pontiffs give on Christmas and Easter. Known by its Latin name, “Urbi et Orbi,” which means to the city and to the world, the message is a frequently an occasion to decry wars and injustices around the globe, including religious persecution.

Francis has generally rebounded following a three-day stay last week at a Rome hospital where he was administered antibiotics intravenously for bronchitis. He was discharged on April 1. Except for forgoing the Colosseum Way of the Cross torch-lit procession, he has stuck to a heavy schedule of Holy Week public appearances.
…

A residential building in Marseille collapsed Sunday.  Emergency workers are looking for victims.  At least six people were injured.

Officials say an explosion was heard, but it is not immediately clear if an explosion caused the building to collapse or if the collapse resulted in an explosion.

A fire, however, erupted on the site after the building fell.

“We’re trying to drown the fire while preserving the lives of eventual victims under the rubble,” Lionel Mathieu, commander of the Marseille fire brigade, said.  

Two buildings near the downed structure have also partially collapsed.

Some material in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. 
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The British Defense Ministry said Sunday that having Russian Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev deliver the main report at the recent full session of Russia’s Security Council was an attempt to normalize the situation in the illegally annexed areas of Ukraine.

“In reality,” the ministry said in the intelligence update posted on Twitter, “much of the area remains an active combat zone, subject to partisan attacks, and with extremely limited access to basic services for many citizens.”

Russia’s Security Council met last week for the first time since October 2022.

Following the return of 31 children to Ukraine, the head of the Presidential Office of Ukraine, Andriy Yermak, emphasized in a phone call Saturday with Amal Clooney, a prominent human rights lawyer, the importance of returning all the deported children to Ukraine.

Yermak and Clooney, co-founder of the Clooney Foundation for Justice, discussed protecting the rights of Ukrainian children and holding Russia accountable for crimes committed against them, according to the official website of the president of Ukraine.

Clooney, who specializes in international criminal law and human rights issues, has addressed the U.N. Security Council calling for justice as evidence of the crimes and atrocities allegedly committed by the Russian military began emerging weeks after the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

On behalf of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Yermak thanked Clooney.

“People in Ukraine know about your support and appreciate it a lot. Many people heard your speech and everything you said about the war and Ukrainians. This is extremely important indeed,” Yermak said, according to the president’s website.

Clooney reiterated her support for Ukraine and Ukrainians, adding that she and her foundation colleagues remain committed to their work to promote accountability and deliver justice for victims of international crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine.

Kyiv says thousands taken

Kyiv estimates nearly 19,500 children have been taken to Russia in what Ukraine condemns as illegal deportations since Moscow invaded in February of last year. Moscow claims the children were transported away for their own safety.

Earlier Saturday, the head of a humanitarian group said 31 children were reunited with their families in Ukraine after what he described as was one of the group’s most difficult operations to return children from Russia, where they had been taken during the war.

So far, the Save Ukraine humanitarian organization says it has undertaken five missions to return Ukrainian children to their families. The group has helped with the transportation and planning needed to help parents bring their children back.

Mykola Kuleba, the head of Save Ukraine and Ukraine’s former commissioner for children’s rights, told reporters no one in Russia was trying to find the children’s parents.

Missile downed over Crimea

A missile fired from Ukrainian-held territory was shot down over the Black Sea town of Feodosia in Russian-controlled Crimea, the Moscow-installed head of Crimea’s administration said Saturday.

“A missile launched from Ukraine was shot down over Feodosia,” Sergei Aksyonov said on Telegram, without providing any detail on the kind of projectile in question.

Feodosia, located in the southeastern part of Crimea, is almost 300 kilometers from the nearest Ukrainian-held area. Kyiv did not comment Saturday, and it is not publicly known to possess missiles with that range. U.S.-supplied HIMARS rockets used by Ukraine have a range of 80 kilometers.

Reuters said it could not immediately verify the reports and that it was unclear how Ukraine could have attempted such a strike.

Kramatorsk memorial

Ukrainians placed flowers at a small memorial Saturday to the 61 people killed a year ago when a Russian missile struck the transportation hub as about 4,000 people gathered there to board evacuation trains. Experts said the Tochka-U missile was armed with cluster munitions. More than 160 people were injured.

“What is there to say? My close friend and her daughter and their dog died. What more can be said?” 67-year-old Tetiana Syshchenko told Agence France-Presse, tearing up.

She said she narrowly avoided being killed in the blast.

Residents arrived a few at a time to approach the small plaque topped with flowers and children’s toys at the station.

Russia denied responsibility for the attack.

Tatiana Vorozhko of VOA’s Ukraine Service contributed to this report. Some material in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Ben Ferencz, the last living prosecutor from the Nuremberg trials, who tried Nazis for genocidal war crimes and was among the first outside witnesses to document the atrocities of Nazi labor and concentration camps, has died. He turned 103 in March.

Ferencz died Friday evening in Boynton Beach, Florida, according to St. John’s University law professor John Barrett, who runs a blog about the Nuremberg trials. The death also was confirmed by the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington.

“Today the world lost a leader in the quest for justice for victims of genocide and related crimes,” the museum tweeted.

Born in Transylvania in 1920, Ferencz immigrated as a very young boy with his parents to New York to escape rampant antisemitism. After graduating from Harvard Law School, Ferencz joined the U.S. Army in time to take part in the Normandy invasion during World War II. Using his legal background, he became an investigator of Nazi war crimes against U.S. soldiers as part of a new War Crimes Section of the Judge Advocate’s Office.

When U.S. intelligence reports described soldiers encountering large groups of starving people in Nazi camps watched over by SS guards, Ferencz followed up with visits, first at the Ohrdruf labor camp in Germany and then at the notorious Buchenwald concentration camp. At those camps and later others, he found bodies “piled up like cordwood” and “helpless skeletons with diarrhea, dysentery, typhus, TB, pneumonia, and other ailments, retching in their louse ridden bunks or on the ground with only their pathetic eyes pleading for help,” Ferencz wrote in an account of his life.

“The Buchenwald concentration camp was a charnel house of indescribable horrors,” Ferencz wrote. “There is no doubt that I was indelibly traumatized by my experiences as a war crimes investigator of Nazi extermination centers. I still try not to talk or think about the details.”

At one point toward the end of the war, Ferencz was sent to Adolf Hitler’s mountain retreat in the Bavarian Alps to search for incriminating documents but came back empty-handed.

After the war, Ferencz was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army and returned to New York to begin practicing law. But that was short-lived. Because of his experience as a war crimes investigator, he was recruited to help prosecute Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg trials, which had begun under the leadership of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson. Before leaving for Germany, he married his childhood sweetheart, Gertrude.

At the age of 27, with no previous trial experience, Ferencz became chief prosecutor for a 1947 case in which 22 former commanders were charged with murdering more than 1 million Jews, Romani and other enemies of the Third Reich in Eastern Europe.  

Rather than depending on witnesses, Ferencz mostly relied on official German documents to make his case. All the defendants were convicted, and more than a dozen were sentenced to death by hanging even though Ferencz hadn’t asked for the death penalty.

“At the beginning of April 1948, when the long legal judgment was read, I felt vindicated,” he wrote. “Our pleas to protect humanity by the rule of law had been upheld.”

With the war crimes trials winding down, Ferencz went to work for a consortium of Jewish charitable groups to help Holocaust survivors regain properties, homes, businesses, art works, Torah scrolls, and other Jewish religious items that had been confiscated from them by the Nazis. He also later assisted in negotiations that would lead to compensation to the Nazi victims.

In later decades, Ferencz championed the creation of an international court that could prosecute any government’s leaders for war crimes. Those dreams were realized in 2002 with establishment of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, though its effectiveness has been limited by the failure of countries like the United States to participate.

Ferencz is survived by a son and three daughters. His wife died in 2019.
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A missile fired from Ukrainian-held territory was shot down over the Black Sea town of Feodosia in Russian-controlled Crimea, the Moscow-installed head of Crimea’s administration said Saturday.
Russia’s campaign to “severely degrade” Ukraine’s energy system this winter has probably failed, Britain’s Defense Ministry said in a post on Twitter Saturday.
Thirty-one children “kidnapped by the Russians from Kherson and Kharkiv regions” are back in Ukraine after being separated from their parents for several months.

One day after 31 children were returned to Ukraine, the head of Presidential Office of Ukraine, Andriy Yermak, emphasized in a phone call with Amal Clooney, a prominent human rights lawyer, the importance of returning all the deported children to Ukraine.

Yermak and Clooney, co-founder of the Clooney Foundation for Justice, discussed protecting the rights of Ukrainian children and holding Russia accountable for crimes committed against them, according to the official website of the president of Ukraine.

Clooney, who specializes in international criminal law and human rights issues, has addressed the United Nations Security Council calling for justice as evidence of the crimes and atrocities allegedly committed by the Russian military began emerging weeks after the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

On behalf of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Yermak thanked Clooney.

“People in Ukraine know about your support and appreciate it a lot. Many people heard your speech and everything you said about the war and Ukrainians. This is extremely important indeed,” Yermak said, according to the president’s website.

Clooney reiterated her support for Ukraine and Ukrainians, adding that she and her foundation colleagues remain committed to their work to promote accountability and deliver justice for victims of international crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine.

Kyiv says thousands taken

Kyiv estimates nearly 19,500 children have been taken to Russia in what Ukraine condemns as illegal deportations since Moscow invaded in February of last year. Moscow claims the children were transported away for their own safety.

Earlier Saturday, the head of a humanitarian group said 31 children were reunited with their families in Ukraine after what he described as was one of the group’s most difficult operations to return children from Russia, where they had been taken during the war.

So far, the Save Ukraine humanitarian organization says it has undertaken five missions to return Ukrainian children to their families. The group has helped with the transportation and planning needed to help parents bring their children back.

Mykola Kuleba, the head of Save Ukraine and Ukraine’s former commissioner for children’s rights, told reporters no one in Russia was trying to find the children’s parents.

Missile downed over Crimea

A missile fired from Ukrainian-held territory was shot down over the Black Sea town of Feodosia in Russian-controlled Crimea, the Moscow-installed head of Crimea’s administration said Saturday.

“A missile launched from Ukraine was shot down over Feodosia,” Sergei Aksyonov said on Telegram, without providing any detail on the kind of projectile in question.

Feodosia, located in the southeastern part of Crimea, is almost 300 kilometers from the nearest Ukrainian-held area. Kyiv did not comment Saturday, and it is not publicly known to possess missiles with that range. U.S.-supplied HIMARS rockets used by Ukraine have a range of 80 kilometers.

Reuters said it could not immediately verify the reports and that it was unclear how Ukraine could have attempted such a strike.

Kramatorsk memorial

Ukrainians placed flowers at a small memorial Saturday to the 61 people killed a year ago when a Russian missile struck the transportation hub as about 4,000 people gathered there to board evacuation trains. Experts said the Tochka-U missile was armed with cluster munitions. More than 160 people were injured.

“What is there to say? My close friend and her daughter and their dog died. What more can be said?” 67-year-old Tetiana Syshchenko told Agence France-Presse, tearing up.

She said she narrowly avoided being killed in the blast.

Residents arrived a few at a time to approach the small plaque topped with flowers and children’s toys at the station.

Russia denied responsibility for the attack.

Classified documents leaked

The U.S. Justice Department said Friday it has begun an investigation into the leak of several classified U.S. military documents that have been posted on social media.

“We have been in communication with the Department of Defense related to this matter and have begun an investigation. We decline further comment,” a Justice Department spokesperson said Friday.

A new batch of classified documents that appear to detail U.S. national security secrets from Ukraine to the Middle East to China surfaced on social media sites Friday, The New York Times reported.

Russia or pro-Russian elements are likely behind an earlier leak of several classified U.S. military documents posted on social media that offer a skewed, month-old snapshot of the war in Ukraine, three U.S. officials told Reuters Friday.

Tatiana Vorozhko of VOA’s Ukraine Service contributed to this report. Some material in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Millions of Christians around the world are celebrating Easter Sunday, the most holy day on the Christian calendar, commemorating Jesus Christ’s resurrection from the dead.

At the Vatican, Pope Francis is set to deliver his twice-annual blessing, known by its Latin name “Urbi et Orbi” — “to the city and the world” — from St. Peter’s Basilica.

During the blessing, which will begin at noon on the basilica’s outdoor central balcony, the Roman Catholic leader will address Christians around the world.

Last year, the pope made a plea for an end to the “senseless” war in Ukraine, a conflict that at the time had been less than 2 months old. He also called for peace in other parts of the world plagued by armed conflict, including Syria and Iraq.

The pope, who is recovering from bronchitis, followed his doctor’s advice and skipped the traditional Good Friday nighttime procession at the Colosseum, which usually lasts more than two hours.

Traditions return after pandemic

In some parts of the world, Easter Week traditions are returning after a three-year hiatus because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Thousands of residents in eastern Indonesia held Mass in the Flores Island town of Larantuka for Good Friday and later attended a night parade to mourn the death of Jesus.

In the Philippines, Good Friday traditions also returned after a three-year absence. An estimated 15,000 people in villages north of Manila watched pilgrims flog themselves in displays of religious devotion.

Christians commemorate Good Friday as the day Jesus died on the cross.

Faithful travel to holy sites

In Jerusalem, Christian faithful have been making pilgrimages to holy sites, including the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the site where they believe Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead.

On Palm Sunday — a week before Easter — thousands of worshipers carrying palm fronds and olive branches marched from the top of the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem’s historic Old City, commemorating Jesus’s entry into the city.

Jerusalem is home to Christian, Jewish and Muslim holy sites. This year, Easter coincides with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the Jewish festival of Passover.

In Washington, the White House is planning its annual Easter egg roll. About 30,000 people, most of them children, are expected to participate on Monday in the festivities, which date back to 1878.

At the event, first lady Jill Biden will teach children about farming, healthy eating and exercise, according to the White House.

Christians worldwide celebrate Easter by going to church and gathering with family and friends.

The day marks the end of Holy Week, the church’s most solemn week, which begins with Palm Sunday, commemorating Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem, and includes Holy Thursday, his last supper with disciples; Good Friday, his crucifixion; and Easter Sunday, his resurrection.

Some information in this report came from the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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Silvio Berlusconi’s doctor, who is treating him for a lung infection, said Saturday that the former Italian premier is responding well to treatment in an intensive care unit at a Milan hospital, an Italian news agency reported.

Alberto Zangrillo, who also heads the ICU at San Raffaele hospital where the Italian media mogul was admitted on Wednesday, said Berlusconi “is used to responding with his best” and that despite the “grave illness in a truly difficult situation, he’s responding well to the treatments,” ANSA reported.

Zangrillo revealed earlier in the week that Berlusconi, 86, has had a chronic form of leukemia for some time.

On Saturday, Berlusconi was visited by a longtime advisor, Gianni Letta, who said, “I found him better than what I thought” and eager to rebound.

“You know how every time he sets an aim, he reaches it,” Letta told reporters outside the hospital.

In remarks to reporters, Zangrillo referred to the infection as a “complication,” given Berlusconi’s chronic leukemia. Earlier in the week, Berlusconi’s doctors said they were treating his lung infection and giving him medicine to “restore preexisting clinical conditions” given the leukemia.

Berlusconi also has a history of heart problems and, in 2020, he was hospitalized with COVID-19 and pneumonia.
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Pope Francis led the world’s Roman Catholics into Easter at a Saturday night vigil Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, decrying the “icy winds of war” and other injustices.

The 86-year-old Francis skipped an outdoor event on Friday night because of unseasonably cold temperatures in Rome. His doctors ordered prudence after he was hospitalized last week for bronchitis.

Francis appeared to be well during the Easter Vigil service, during which he baptized eight adult converts to Catholicism.

After Francis started the service in the rear of the church with the traditional lighting of a large paschal candle, he was taken in a wheelchair to the front to preside at the Mass.

Easter is the most important day in the Christian liturgical calendar because it commemorates the day the Bible says Jesus rose from the dead.

In his homily, read before about 8,000 people in Christendom’s largest church, Francis spoke of the bitterness, dismay and disillusionment many feel today.

“We may feel helpless and discouraged before the power of evil, the conflicts that tear relationships apart, the attitudes of calculation and indifference that seem to prevail in society, the cancer of corruption, the spread of injustice, the icy winds of war,” he said.

Francis has called for an end to all wars, and since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, he has repeatedly referred to Ukraine and its people as being “martyred.”

Reading his homily in a strong, confident voice, Francis said that even when people felt the wellspring of hope had dried up, it was important not to be frozen in a sense of defeat but to seek an “interior resurrection” with God’s help.

Francis concludes Holy Week celebrations on Sunday by presiding at an Easter Mass in St. Peter’s Square and then delivering his twice-annual “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) blessing and message from the central external balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica.
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