- Dodgers crush Mets 9-0 in MLB playoff series opener
- South Korea military says 'fully ready' as drone tensions soar
- Cummins back, Marsh and Head out of Pakistan ODI series
- Shanghai stocks swing after stimulus briefing as most of Asia rises
- New Zealand's Latham promises 'no fear' as he takes charge for India Tests
- Kyrgios vows to 'shut up' doubters with December comeback
- Public hearings start into death of Brit by Russian nerve agent
- Ex-Stasi officer faces verdict over 1974 Berlin border killing
- Role of government, poverty research tipped for economics Nobel
- 'Stolen satire' feeds US election misinformation
- Rookie McCarty captures first PGA Tour title in Black Desert Championship
- Australia all-rounder Green ruled out of India Test series
- Seeing double in Nigeria's 'twins capital of the world'
- UK FM to attend EU foreign affairs talks for first time in 2 years
- Carter, Billups among 13 new Basketball Hall of Fame inductees
- Ravens rip Commanders as Lions lose NFL sacks leader in win
- Hezbollah drone strike kills four, wounds dozens at Israeli base
- China says launches military drills around Taiwan
- Stewart leads Liberty past Lynx to level WNBA Finals
- England return to winning ways in Nations League, Austria thrash Norway
- UN chief says attacks on UNIFIL 'may constitute a war crime'
- Ravens outlast Commanders while Bucs batter Saints in NFL
- Dozens hurt in Israel as Hezbollah claims drone strike
- England deserve 'world class' coach: Carsley
- Burkina Faso win to become first qualifiers for 2025 AFCON
- AC Milan's Pulisic among five out for USA match in Mexico
- France's Amandine Henry retires from international football
- Centre-left set to win pro-Ukraine Lithuania's vote
- India's World Cup hopes in Pakistan hands after Australia defeat
- Zelensky says NKorea sending troops to Russian army
- England beat Finland to get back on track
- King and Lewis propel West Indies to T20 triumph over Sri Lanka
- Pre-Halloween 'Terrifier' lands atop North America box office
- 'I still plan to compete and play next season,' says Djokovic
- Harris, Trump seek advantage in knife-edge election battle
- Chepngetich shatters women's marathon world record in Chicago
- Kamindu and Asalanka power Sri Lanka to 179 against West Indies
- Chepngetich shatters women's marathon world record as Korir wins in Chicago
- Spain send injured Yamal home 'to prioritise player's health'
- In milestone, SpaceX 'catches' megarocket booster after test flight
- Iraq walks fine line with pro-Iran factions to avoid war
- Race four abandoned after New Zealand breeze into 3-0 lead in America's Cup
- West Indies win toss, put Sri Lanka in to bat in first T20
- Sudan rescuers say air strike killed 23 in Khartoum market
- Netanyahu tells UN to move Lebanon peacekeepers out of 'harm's way'
- Bangladeshi Hindus defy attack worries to celebrate festival
- Kiwis three up in America's Cup as Ineos pay for time penalty
- In a first, SpaceX 'catches' megarocket booster after test flight
- Dominant England crush Scotland at Women's T20 World Cup
- Dropped: The rise and fall of Pakistan batting maestro Babar Azam
Ukrainian, Russian forces fight for 'every metre' in Severodonetsk
Ukrainian and Russian forces were fighting for "literally every metre" in Severodonetsk, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, as fighting intensified in an eastern region where the country's top commander said the land "is covered in blood".
Severodonetsk and nearby Lysychansk have been targeted for weeks as the last areas in the Lugansk region still under Ukrainian control.
Russia's massed artillery in that region gave it a tenfold advantage, said Valeriy Zaluzhny, commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian military.
But, "despite everything, we continue to hold positions", he said.
"Every metre of Ukrainian land there is covered in blood -- but not only ours, but also the occupier's."
In his nightly video address, Zelensky said the latest fighting in Severodonetsk was "very fierce", adding that Russia was deploying undertrained troops and using its young men as "cannon fodder".
By attacking Severodonetsk's last remaining bridges, the Russians were aiming to cut the key industrial city off completely from the rest of the country, said regional governor Sergiy Gaiday.
"Most likely (in the next two days), they will throw all the reserves to capture the city," Gaiday said.
He also accused Russia of shelling the Azot chemical plant in Severodonetsk, where hundreds of civilians have reportedly taken refuge.
But Leonid Pasechnik, leader of Lugansk's pro-Russian separatists, pointed the finger at the Ukrainian battalions, saying they were the ones shelling Severodonetsk from the plant.
He told reporters that pro-Russian forces were not pressing aggressively "because it is a chemical industry facility", warning of the risk of "an environmental catastrophe".
- 'War crimes' -
Amnesty International on Monday accused Russia of war crimes in Ukraine, saying that attacks on the northeastern city of Kharkiv -- many using banned cluster bombs -- had killed hundreds of civilians.
"The repeated bombardments of residential neighbourhoods in Kharkiv are indiscriminate attacks which killed and injured hundreds of civilians, and as such constitute war crimes," the rights group said in a report on Ukraine's second biggest city.
Away from the battlefield, World Trade Organization members gathered in Geneva Sunday, and at the top of the agenda was the issue of tackling global food security threatened by Russia's invasion of wheat-producing Ukraine.
Tensions ran high during a closed-door session, where several delegates took the floor to condemn Russia's war, including Kyiv's envoy who was met with a standing ovation, WTO spokesman Dan Pruzin told journalists.
Then, just before Russian Minister of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov spoke, around three dozen delegates "walked out", the spokesman said.
That came a day after the head of the European Commission promised Ukraine would receive a clear signal within a week on its bid to join the European Union.
EU leaders are expected to approve the bid at an upcoming summit, although with strict conditions attached.
In Brussels, demonstrators brandishing blue and yellow Ukrainian flags circled European Commission headquarters Sunday in a show of support.
- Chortkiv strike -
The war has prompted Finland and Sweden to give up decades of military non-alignment and seek to join the NATO alliance.
But Turkey is blocking their bids and NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Sunday the issue may not be resolved by an alliance summit later this month.
The United States and Europe have sent weapons and cash to help Ukraine blunt Russia's advance, alongside punishing Moscow with unprecedented economic sanctions.
Russian forces said Sunday they had struck a site in the town of Chortkiv in western Ukraine storing US- and EU-supplied weapons.
Russia's defence ministry said the strike destroyed a "large depot of anti-tank missile systems, portable air defence systems and shells provided to the Kyiv regime by the US and European countries".
The strike -- a rare attack by Russia in the relatively calm west of Ukraine -- left 22 people injured, regional governor Volodymyr Trush said.
He added that four missiles fired Saturday evening from the Black Sea had partially destroyed a military installation in the town, about 140 kilometres (85 miles) from the border with Romania.
Concerns eased Sunday over Ukraine's largest nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia. Captured months ago by Russian forces but still operated by Ukrainians, the station had ceased transmitting vital safeguards data two weeks ago.
But plant officials working with the International Atomic Energy Agency have succeeded in restoring transmission, the IAEA said.
Rafael Grossi, director general of the UN agency, said it still wanted to send inspectors to the plant "as soon as possible".
- Sentences defended -
Alongside the physical fighting, the war is being played out through the courts.
Pro-Moscow separatist authorities in the Donetsk region this week sentenced to death two Britons and a Moroccan for fighting with the Ukrainian army.
The sentences sparked outrage in Western countries, but separatist Donetsk leader Denis Pushilin said Sunday he would not alter them.
"They came to Ukraine to kill civilians for money," he told reporters, calling the punishment "perfectly fair".
Ukrainian courts have handed three Russian soldiers long prison sentences at war crimes trials.
burs-ar/har/bbk/dva/dhc
A.Malone--AMWN