Reuters World News Summary

Russian forces have turned their focus toward Ukraine's east and south after failing to capture the capital in a nine-week assault that has turned cities to rubble, killed thousands and forced 5 million Ukrainians to flee abroad. U.S. urges restoration of essential services in Ethiopia's Tigray The United States wants the opposing sides involved in conflict in Ethiopia to advance a negotiated ceasefire and for essential services to be restored in the Tigray region, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Ukraine's Zelenskiy sees big risk that Russia talks will end -Interfax Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday said there was a big risk that peace talks with Moscow would end and blamed public anger over what he said were atrocities by Russian troops, Interfax Ukraine reported. "People (Ukrainians) want to kill them. When that kind of attitude exists, it's hard to talk about things," Interfax quoted him as telling Polish journalists.

Ukraine seeks urgent WHO meeting on impact of invasion on health

Ukraine, backed by dozens of other countries, has written to the World Health Organization's regional chief calling for an urgent meeting on the impact of Russia's invasion on health and healthcare, a letter obtained by Reuters on Friday showed. The letter, sent this week by Ukraine's diplomatic mission in Geneva, Switzerland, where the WHO is headquartered, is signed by some 38 other members of the agency's European region, including France, Germany and Britain.

Man shot dead near West Bank settlement, Israeli medics say

A man was fatally shot at the entrance to a settlement in the occupied West Bank late on Friday, Israeli medics said, in what the Israeli military described as an attack by "terrorists." The assailants fired at a guard inside the booth at the entrance to Ariel and fled the scene, the Israeli military said in a tweet, adding that roads in the area were shut down while soldiers search for the suspects.

Blast kills more than 50 at Kabul mosque, its leader says

A powerful explosion killed more than 50 worshippers after Friday prayers at a Kabul mosque, its leader said, the latest in a series of attacks on civilian targets in Afghanistan during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The blast hit the Khalifa Sahib Mosque in the west of the capital in the early afternoon, said Besmullah Habib, deputy spokesman for the interior ministry, who said the official confirmed death toll was 10.

Ukraine warns talks with Russia may collapse as battles rage in east

Ukraine warned on Friday that peace talks with Moscow were in danger of collapse and said Russia was pounding areas in the east as U.S. lawmakers vowed to swiftly approve a massive new weapons package for Kyiv. Russian forces have turned their focus toward Ukraine's east and south after failing to capture the capital in a nine-week assault that has turned cities to rubble, killed thousands and forced 5 million Ukrainians to flee abroad.

U.S. urges restoration of essential services in Ethiopia's Tigray

The United States wants the opposing sides involved in conflict in Ethiopia to advance a negotiated ceasefire and for essential services to be restored in the Tigray region, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday. "We now urge the parties... to seize the opportunity to advance a negotiated ceasefire, including the necessary security arrangements, and call for the restoration of essential services in Tigray on an urgent basis," he said in a statement.

Canada's capital braces for biker convoy, fearing repeat of trucker protest

Canada's capital is bracing for hundreds of motorcyclists to parade through town this weekend in a protest broadly against government overreach, less than three months after police arrested dozens of protesters who blocked the downtown core near parliament for several weeks. Organizers of the convoy, which they call "Rolling Thunder Ottawa," say it is in support of "freedom" and military veterans, but local media say several of the participants were in Ottawa during the previous protest, which was against a vaccine mandate for cross-border truckers.

Maxwell loses bid to toss sex trafficking conviction, as sentencing looms

British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell on Friday lost a bid to overturn her December 2021 conviction on sex trafficking charges, paving the way for her to be sentenced to decades in prison. Maxwell, 60, who was convicted of helping recruit and sexually abuse girls for deceased financier Jeffrey Epstein to abuse, is scheduled to be sentenced in June.

Islamic State 'Beatle' sentenced to life for murdering U.S. hostages

A U.S. judge on Friday imposed a lifetime prison sentence on a member of an Islamic State militant group nicknamed "The Beatles" that beheaded American hostages, at a hearing where one victim's mother told the defendant, "I will not hate you." U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis in Alexandria, Virginia, held an emotionally charged sentencing hearing for London-born Alexanda Kotey, 38, who pleaded guilty to murdering U.S. journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and aid workers Kayla Mueller and Peter Kassig.

'It was a massacre': Mariupol residents recall battle for Ukrainian city

Residents of Mariupol recounted the horrors of the battle for their now devastated city this week as they sifted through the rubble for belongings, cooked meals by the roadside or just stared at the charred shells of buildings all around them. "It was terrible... like films that show the last days of the planet – the same thing happened here," said Viktoria Nikolayeva, 54, who like many residents stayed with her family in a basement as Russian and Ukrainian forces battled overhead.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)