Europe

GENEVA, March 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The UN human rights chief slammed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, warning millions there were seeing their rights trampled, while the rising nuclear threat put all humanity at risk.

Speaking before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Michelle Bachelet warned that Russia’s full-scale invasion launched a week ago “is generating massive impact on the human rights of millions of people across Ukraine”.

LVIV, Ukraine, March 4 (Reuters) - A Russian air strike on a rural residential area in Kyiv region killed at least seven people on Friday, including two children, Ukraine state police said in a statement.

Police said the strike hit the village of Markhalivka, around 10 kilometres (6 miles) from the southwestern outskirts of the capital.

LAVAL-EN-BRIE, France, March 4 (Reuters) - Self-employed electrician Loic Luboue Le Quere lives in a rural village 80 km (50 miles) south of Paris and relies on his van for work. In recent months, his diesel bill has jumped, squeezing his finances.

Luboue Le Quere said it now cost him 90 euros to fill the tank and that he was shelling out more than 500 euros a month on diesel, a third more than just six months ago, as French gasoline prices hit record levels.

March 4 (Reuters) - The BBC said Friday it has temporarily suspended news operations within the Russian Federation while it assesses the implications of new legislation adopted by Russian authorities.

BBC News will continue its service in Russian from outside of Russia.

“The safety of our staff is paramount and we are not prepared to expose them to the risk of criminal prosecution simply for doing their jobs," BBC Director-General Tim Davie said in a statement. "I’d like to pay tribute to all of them, for their bravery, determination and professionalism."

BRUSSELS, March 4 (Reuters) - NATO allies rejected Ukraine's demand for no-fly zones on Friday, saying they were increasing support but that stepping in directly would lead to a broader, even more brutal European war so far limited to Russia's assault on its neighbour.

Ukraine, a former Soviet republic, wants to join the European Union and Western military alliance NATO, whose members are bound in its founding treaty to defend each other from invasion.

"We are not part of this conflict," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told a news conference.

LVIV, Ukraine, March 4 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy appealed to Russians on Friday to stage protests over Russian forces' seizure of the largest nuclear power plant in Europe.

A building at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant was set ablaze during intense fighting, Ukrainian authorities said on Friday, triggering fears of a potential nuclear disaster. The blaze was later extinguished. 

03 March 2022; MEMO: The UN Child Rights Committee said France has violated the rights of French children by leaving them in Kurdish-held camps with inhuman conditions, a UN watchdog reports.

According to the report, the UN Child Rights Committee ruled that France has the responsibility and power to protect the French children in the Syrian camps against an imminent risk to their lives by taking action to repatriate them.

BERLIN (AP) — Yan Skvyrskyi talks on the phone to his mother in Ukraine at least 12 times a day, spends sleepless nights worrying about her but fears it may be too dangerous to help her flee the war-torn country right now.

“We are all very nervous and we try to do everything we can to get our families out,” Skvyrskyi told The Associated Press. “There are these sirens from morning till night, reminding people to go to the bunkers. They live 24/7 under stress and fear.”

PRZEMYSL, Poland (AP) — It took Tatyana Pelykh and her 11-year-old son four days of travel and a wait of nearly 48 hours at the border crossing to escape their native Ukraine for Romania. There they found safety and a place to sleep, on the floor of a hotel conference room.

But Pelykh, a baker, says she still carries the terror of war inside her.

“I feel that my body is here, but my heart and my soul are in Okhtyrka and Kharkiv,” the cities in Ukraine where her parents and best friend remain hunkered down in basements and garages under Russian attack.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A fire at Europe’s biggest nuclear plant ignited by Russian shelling has been extinguished, Ukrainian authorities said Friday, and Russian forces have taken control of the site.