Europe

MOSCOW, March 13. /TASS/: A member of Russia’s delegation at negotiations with Ukraine, chairman of the State Duma’s international affairs committee Leonid Slutsky, has said that negotiations between Moscow and Kiev may develop into a common stance and documents yet to to be signed.

MOSCOW, March 13. /TASS/: Chief of Russia’s Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin has ordered to investigate the circumstance of the mass execution of civilians in the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), the Committee’s press service said on Sunday.

"The Investigative Committee chairman has ordered investigators to collect evidence and identify all those involved in it in order to bring them to responsibility under law," it said.

MOSCOW, March 13 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Russia’s space agency has sent NASA and other international partners a letter demanding an end to sanctions, saying they could threaten the International Space Station.

In a tweet Saturday, the head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, said the letter appealed to the space agencies of the United States, Canada and Europe to keep the space station operational.

He illustrated the appeal with a map showing the flight path of the ISS — and a potential fall zone that straddles much of the world but barely touches upon Russia.

LVIV, Ukraine March 13 (Reuters) - Foreign military instructors worked at the Yavoriv military facility near the Polish border that was hit by a Russian air strike on Sunday, Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov said, but it was not clear if any were present at the time.

A ministry representative told Reuters the ministry was still trying to establish if any of the instructors were at the centre at the time of the attack.

March 13 (Reuters) - Kazakhstan's anti-corruption body has detained a nephew of former president Nursultan Nazarbayev, it said on Sunday, the latest in a series of moves against his family.

Nazarbayev, 81, resigned as president in 2019 but retained sweeping powers as the head of the security council and the leader of the ruling party, and backed then-ally Kassym-Jomart Tokayev as successor.

In January, protests over a jump in fuel prices turned violent in several major Kazakh cities, and Tokayev stripped Nazarbayev of the security council role, taking it over himself.

March 13 (Reuters) - Russian and Ukrainian officials gave their most upbeat assessments yet on Sunday of progress in their talks on the war in Ukraine, suggesting there could be positive results within days.

Separately, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said Russia was showing signs of willingness to engage in substantive negotiations about ending a conflict in which thousands have died. More than 2.5 million people have fled.

Ukraine has said it is willing to negotiate, but not to surrender or accept any ultimatums.

LVIV, Ukraine, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Explosions were heard on Sunday in Ukraine's western city of Lviv at about 6 a.m. local time (0400 GMT).

Earlier in the day, air raid alerts went off in Lviv at 3:30 a.m. local time, with residents rushing to bomb shelters for security.

Ukrainian media outlets have yet to release any information about the targets of the airstrikes.

According to the UNN news agency, Kherson in southern Ukraine also reported sounds of explosions, and air alarms continued in most Ukrainian cities and oblasts.

PARIS, March 12 (Xinhua) -- France will start offering on Monday a fourth COVID-19 vaccination shot to people over 80 years old who have received their booster dose, French Prime Minister Jean Castex told daily Le Parisien in an interview published on Saturday.

The vaccination campaign will also be extended to people having an immunocompromised system who were not eligible for the vaccine until now, Le Parisien reported.

Of France's 4.1 million people over the age of 80, 3.1 million have already had the booster shot, it said.

MOSCOW, March 12 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Saturday, and urged them to influence the Kiev authorities to stop "criminal acts" of Ukrainian "nationalist battalions," according to the Kremlin.

Macron and Scholz urged an immediate ceasefire and a diplomatic solution to the conflict in Ukraine, the German government said in a statement, noting the 75-minute talk as part of the ongoing international efforts to end the conflict.

ROME (AP) — A bus carrying about 50 Ukrainian refugees overturned on a major highway in northern Italy at dawn on Sunday, killing one person, Italian firefighters said.

Italian state radio said there were several injured in the accident on the A14 autostrada near Forli’, a town in the Emilia-Romagna region in northeastern Italy. It said the rest of those aboard were safely evacuated.

The bus landed on its side on a grassy slope just beyond a highway guardrail and near a farm field. Firefighters used two cranes in an operation to set the bus upright and remove it.