AFP UK

Brussels (AFP) – European Council president Charles Michel says EU backs a ban on most Russian oil imports, after a compromise deal with Hungary to punish Moscow for the war in Ukraine.

Paris (AFP) – France’s Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin defends the policing of the weekend’s Champions League final, saying officers had prevented deaths that might have been caused by crowd crushes outside the stadium in Paris.

Unknown (AFP) – The killer whale stranded for weeks in France’s River Seine between Rouen and Le Havre has been found dead and will be towed away for autopsy. The Sea Shepherd association says it located the animal on the surface thanks to information given by a sailor. Prior attempts to guide it back to sea failed and revealed it was severely sick, local authorities. Killer whales, which, despite their name belong to the dolphin family, are occasionally spotted in the English Channel but such sightings are considered rare, and even rarer in a river.

Bidford-on-Avon (United Kingdom) (AFP) – The bunting is being put up, the children are making willow crowns and the Morris dancers are practising in the rural English village of Bidford-on-Avon ahead of Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations. It’s a scene being repeated in towns and villages across Britain as the nation prepares to mark 70 years since the Queen’s coronation.

Cacadu (South Africa) (AFP) – In a remote corner of South Africa, eleven people have been murdered in one year with one killed a month, with clockwork regularity. The village has earned itself the disturbing nickname of “Village of Death”. Those living here reflect on how it has impacted them and community authorities question what is behind the killings.

Madrid (AFP) – Real Madrid’s captain Marcelo leads the celebrations at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, a day after the club beat Liverpool 1-0 to win the Champions League title. Marcelo is leaving the club after 16 years of service when his contract ends on June 30.

Colombo (AFP) – Police fired tear gas to disperse thousands of students trying to storm the Sri Lankan president’s home Sunday as the government offered an olive branch to demonstrators demanding his resignation. Anti-riot squads used water cannon followed by tear gas, as furious protesters pulled down barricades across a road leading to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s official residence in Colombo. DURATION: 01:02

Recife (Brazil) (AFP) – Rescuers and volunteers search for survivors and clear debris in Jardim Monteverde, where a landslide killed 19 people. Dozens have so far died from the torrential rains that have been falling since Tuesday in the region of Recife in northeastern Brazil. 

Bogota (AFP) – Images of Colombia’s leftist presidential candidate, Gustavo Petro celebrating on stage after voters gave him a historic lead Sunday in the country’s first round of presidential elections that will culminate in a runoff in June. With more than 97 percent of votes counted, preliminary results showed 62-year-old Gustavo Petro, a former Bogota mayor, leading with 40.3 percent to 28 percent for Rodolfo Hernandez, a 77-year-old populist outsider in surprise second place.

Suva (Fiji) (AFP) – Images outside Fiji’s Grand Pacific Hotel where Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is expected to hold talks with leaders and top officials from ten Pacific Island states on Monday, part of a regional diplomatic blitz that has stirred deep Western concern.

Vienna (AFP) – Sixteen athletes from around the world send woodchips flying in an unusual competition, as they battle it out in Vienna for the Timbersports World Trophy.

Bogota (AFP) – Outgoing president Ivan Duque casts his vote as Colombians head to the polls in a first round of presidential elections with a leftist poised for victory for the first time ever, as voters clamor for “change.”