Pallade Veneta - News from Venice, Veneto, Venetia and Italy, as well as from around the world

As a street battle with invading Russian forces raged overhead, Kyiv resident Yulia Snitko spent the night cowering in the basement of her apartment block praying for her unborn baby.

The Czech Republic's triple Olympic champion Ester Ledecka won the women's downhill race at Crans-Montana on Saturday for the third World Cup victory of her career.

Svetlana Z. knew it was time to flee when she noticed that planes were no longer taking off or landing at the airport near their house in the north-eastern Ukrainian town of Kharkiv.

Afghanistan's main universities reopened Saturday six months after the Taliban returned to power, but only a trickle of women returned to now-segregated classes.

Ukrainian forces repulsed a Russian attack on Kyiv but "sabotage groups" infiltrated the capital, officials said Saturday as a defiant President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed Ukraine would never give in.

Torrential downpours lashed eastern Australia on Saturday, raising deadly floodwaters to decades-long highs, swamping homes and sweeping away cars.

Poland will not play their 2022 World Cup play-off with Russia in Moscow on March 24 due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine the president of the Polish football federation said on Saturday.

Several Chinese public banks are limiting financing to purchase raw materials from Russia for fear of Western sanctions following the invasion of Ukraine, Bloomberg news agency reported on Saturday.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine could mean less bread on the table in Egypt, Lebanon, Yemen and elsewhere in the Arab world where millions already struggle to survive.

Choosing sides in Ukraine's crisis would have once been easy for Gulf states long protected by the US, but growing ties with Moscow are forcing them to strike a balance.

Hundreds of people were stranded Saturday at a key border crossing between Pakistan and Afghanistan, days after fighting between security forces left at least three dead.

A cry goes up the from crowd, a sea of craning necks and suddenly hundreds of cellphones go up in the air clicking photos.

Ukrainian soldiers repulsed a Russian attack in the capital, the military said Saturday after a defiant President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed his pro-Western country would not be bowed by Moscow.

"Unethical," "scary" and "maddening" -- human rights groups have reacted with fury to a Texas order that a state agency should investigate cases of transgender children receiving gender-affirming medical care as child abuse.

Rafael Nadal beat Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 6-3 on Friday to reach the final of the ATP Mexico Open and insure the Russian will not celebrate his rise to number one with the Acapulco trophy.

Torrential downpours lashed eastern Australia on Saturday, raising deadly floodwaters to decades-long highs, swamping homes and sweeping away cars, including one carrying a team of rescuers.

John Landy, the second man to break the four-minute mile after arch-rival Roger Bannister, has died aged 91, with World Athletics President Sebastian Coe on Saturday saying the sport owed him "a huge debt".

Rafael Nadal beat Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 6-3 on Friday to reach the final of the ATP Mexico Open and insure the Russian will not celebrate his rise to number one with the Acapulco trophy.

More than 100 nations convening in Nairobi next week are expected to take the first steps toward establishing a historic global treaty to tackle the plastic crisis afflicting the planet.

Ukrainian soldiers repulsed a Russian attack in the capital, the military said early Saturday, only hours after President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Moscow would attempt to take Kyiv before dawn.

One of Sri Lanka's biggest fuel suppliers put up its prices by as much as 12 percent on Saturday, as the cash-strapped island's energy crisis worsened.

Facebook on Friday restricted Russian state media's ability to earn money on the social media platform as Moscow's invasion of neighboring Ukraine reached the streets of Kyiv.

Rescue teams in Indonesia were searching Saturday for six people still missing after a strong earthquake rocked Sumatra island a day earlier, killing at least eight people and injuring dozens, an official said.

Ukrainian soldiers repulsed a Russian attack in the capital, the military said early Saturday, only hours after President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Moscow would attempt to take Kyiv before dawn.

Jurgen Klopp wants Liverpool to take a step towards immortality when they target the first trophy in their historic quadruple bid in Sunday's League Cup final against Chelsea.

The Six Nations championship has a "lot to gain" from having Italy involved, their former fly-half Ian McKinley told AFP, despite Sunday's match with Ireland in Dublin likely to be another "difficult weekend".

China's President Xi Jinping emphasised the importance of cooperation between Beijing and Pyongyang in an unspecified "new situation", North Korea's state media reported Saturday.

Robert Pattinson had never been interested in playing a superhero -- until Ben Affleck quit his role as Batman, leaving the famous cape unexpectedly up for grabs.

Tents, makeshift shelters and dilapidated campervans line the streets of Skid Row as Mike Murase and his team tally the exploding population of homeless people in Los Angeles.

Yurisniel Cabrera, 35, is a fourth-generation tobacco farmer, eking out a meager living from the leaves used to make Cuba's fabled cigars.

Ukrainian historian Yuriy Korchemniy has never fired an assault rifle in his life.

Athletics trailblazer John Landy, the second man to break the four-minute mile after arch-rival Roger Bannister, has died aged 91, sporting officials said Saturday.