Monaco Journal - News from Monaco, Monte-Carlo and the world

The baby-faced teenager in baggy shorts races his skateboard past the bombed burger joint and hit Peace Square just as air raid sirens rolled over the Ukrainian front.

Asian and European stocks tanked Friday, accelerating a global selloff on fears over the impact of interest rate hikes that seek to tackle sky-high inflation.

Eddie Howe says his side must be the "best Newcastle we can be" as he aims to take advantage of Manchester City's emotionally draining Champions League exit when the teams meet on Sunday.

When Igor Pavlosky decided to flee Ukraine with his youngest children after bombs began falling, his destination was clear -- Spain.

Police again fired tear gas and water cannon at students trying to storm Sri Lanka's parliament Friday as the country was brought to a halt by a trade union strike demanding the government step down.

Ukraine's top Paralympic official fears that the country's programme for disabled athletes is on the cusp of collapse after Russia's invasion and is warning of dire consequences.

Leaning back in a purple lounge chair, Greek arthouse director Yorgos Lanthimos considers what kind of movie he might take on next.

Kylian Mbappe's mother has denied a report in France that her son has agreed in principle to stay at Paris Saint-Germain for up to another three years and shun a move to Real Madrid.

Ukraine said a fresh UN-led rescue mission was under way Friday to evacuate the last civilians still trapped inside a besieged steel plant in Mariupol that has become the southern city's final holdout against Russian forces.

An anti-Kremlin Russian journalist and municipal deputy said Friday he faced a fine of up to 100,000 rubles for discrediting the army amid Moscow's military campaign in Ukraine.

Human rights groups on Friday warned Tehran will try to use an upcoming visit to Iran by a UN expert in order to avoid accountability.

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has signed a new three-year contract that will keep him at the Emirates until 2025.

US President Joe Biden will travel to political battleground state Ohio on Friday to announce the launch of a new industrial renewal plan that his administration hopes will revive the country's manufacturing sector.

Moscow-backed separatists in southeastern Ukraine said they had taken down traffic signs spelling out the name of the besieged city of Mariupol in Ukrainian and English and replaced them with Russian ones.

Israeli security forces launched a manhunt Friday for two Palestinians suspected of killing three Israelis in an attack that came as the Jewish state marked its founding.

An Indian climber has died in Nepal near the summit of the world's third-highest peak, expedition organisers said Friday, the third fatality of this year's busy Himalayan spring climbing season.

Asian and European equities tumbled Friday following a rout on Wall Street fuelled by worries over rising interest rates and surging inflation, while the pound extended losses the day after taking a beating on fears of a UK recession.

For Valeriy Stavichenko, the sight of mangled Russian war equipment perched along the pavement in downtown Kyiv triggers feelings of bliss in the heart of the 71-year-old Soviet Army veteran.

Having opened its arms to the US dollar as an "escape valve" Venezuela is now trying to re-energize its own currency, which has been crippled by devaluation in recent years.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservative party lost control of key councils in London, according to partial results from local and regional UK elections on Friday, with a potentially historic change looming in Northern Ireland.

The village of Linton-on-Ouse is usually a sleepy place, but its residents are up in arms at a UK government plan to house up to 1,500 asylum seekers, whose numbers will dwarf local residents.

A volunteer scoops up a fledgling kite lying nearly immobile on a scorching Indian sidewalk as the relentless sun beats down on its feathers -- one of countless birds struggling to endure an unbearable heatwave.

Almost 500 civilians have been evacuated from the devastated city of Mariupol and its besieged Azovstal steel plant in a UN-led rescue operation, the Ukrainian president's office said Friday.

The halt of Russian gas supplies to Bulgaria last week has left companies big and small scrambling as they fear halts in deliveries and rising prices.

The Asian Games due to take place in Hangzhou in September have been postponed indefinitely, organisers said Friday, as China battles a resurgence of Covid cases.

Viktor Zarubin was lucky to escape Mariupol six weeks ago, but with no mobile phone coverage in the devastated city, he faces another torment: no word on whether his relatives, who stayed behind, are alive.

The Asian Games due to take place in Hangzhou in September have been postponed indefinitely, organisers said Friday, as China battles a resurgence of Covid cases.

Sri Lanka's bus and train networks ground to a halt while offices and factories were empty Friday in a nationwide strike demanding the government's resignation over the island's worsening economic crisis.

NASA's Crew-3 mission returned home to Earth on Friday after six months aboard the International Space Station.

Mass testing of China's vast population could bring fresh misery to the economy, experts warned Friday, after Beijing vowed to regain control of the narrative around a zero-Covid policy that has strangled growth and fanned anger across the country.

Philippine election rivals traded allegations of dirty tricks and vote-rigging Friday, in the final stretch of an acerbic campaign that is tipped to bring the son of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos to power.

Women's Basketball season kicks off in the United States on Friday without one of its brightest stars: Brittney Griner, who was arrested in Russia just before Moscow launched its war in Ukraine.