Every morning, Valentyn Dudkin picks up his trombone -- an instrument he hadn't touched in 30 years -- to play Ukraine's national anthem in the courtyard of his apartment building in Kyiv.. "I haven't played the trombone for over 30 years," Dudkin, a graduate of the Donetsk Conservatory in eastern Ukraine, tells AFP. "The start of the full-scale war made me pick up the trombone again."
China launched military drills around Taiwan on Saturday, in what it called a "stern warning" to the self-ruled island's government following a meeting between its president and the US House speaker.. The drills come after Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen angered Beijing by meeting with US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California.
Moscow has formally charged US journalist Evan Gershkovich with espionage, Russian news agencies reported Friday, accusations rejected both by the reporter and his employer.. The Wall Street Journal, one of the leading US newspapers, said it heard of the charges through the media reports and rejected them.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday threatened to abandon a landmark grain deal with Ukraine if obstacles to Moscow's exports remained. . "If there is no further progress in removing barriers to the export of Russian fertilisers and grain, we will think about whether this deal is necessary," Lavrov told a news conference in the Turkish capital Ankara, alongside his counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu.
South Africa said Friday it had learnt with "shock and dismay" that the United Arab Emirates had turned down its request to extradite two brothers accused of orchestrating industrial-scale corruption.. "We learnt with shock and dismay that the extradition hearing had been concluded in the Dubai Court on the 13 February 2023 and our extradition request was unsuccessful," Lamola said in a statement.
Catholic zealots were nailed to wooden crosses while others whipped their backs bloody and raw in gruesome displays of religious devotion on Good Friday in the Philippines.. Ruben Enaje, who has been nailed to the cross more than 30 times in the past, said he would be back again next year if his body stayed healthy.
China sent warships and aircraft near Taiwan for a second day on Friday, Taipei said, after President Tsai Ing-wen angered Beijing by meeting with US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.. - 'Quite common' - McCarthy, who is second in line for the US presidency, had originally planned to go to Taiwan himself but opted instead to meet Tsai in California.
French President Emmanuel Macron meets students and dines with Xi Jinping in the southern city of Guangzhou Friday, wrapping up a three-day state visit to China that has been dominated by discussions of how Beijing could mediate the Ukraine conflict.. Macron Friday heads to the southern city of Guangzhou, where he will meet with local students at the city's Sun Yat-sen University.
Israel launched air strikes before dawn on Friday in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, saying it was targeting Hamas in retaliation for several dozen rockets fired at Israel from both territories. . France condemned what it called "indiscriminate rocket fire targeting Israeli territory from Gaza and southern Lebanon".
If you've ever fancied yourself as a disco legend -- and, let's be honest, who hasn't?. "I mean, this is the disco era," said auction house chief executive Martin Nolan.
