UKRAINE: Three Russian missiles slammed into the centre of the northern city of Chernigov today, hitting an eight-storey block of flats and killing at least 17 people, authorities said.

At least 61 people, including three children, were wounded in the morning attack, Ukrainian emergency services said.

The latest Russian atrocity comes as the war stretches into its third year and approaches what could be a critical juncture.

ECUADOR: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro ordered the closure of his country’s embassy on Tuesday in protest against the authorities’ April 5 raid on the Mexican embassy in Quito.

Mr Maduro and other leaders have backed Mexico’s request for the UN to suspend Ecuador over the raid, in which convicted former vice-president Jorge Glas was seized hours after being granted asylum. 

SYRIA: Amnesty International warned today of widespread abuses, including torture, in prisons holding thousands of suspected Isis members and their relatives in the country’s north-east.

The centres and camps holding about 56,000 people, the majority of them children and teens, are run by local authorities affiliated with the US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

“People held in this system are facing large-scale violations of their rights, some of which amount to war crimes,” Amnesty’s senior crisis adviser Nicolette Waldman said.

PAKISTAN: Lightning and heavy rains led to 14 deaths, officials said today, bringing the toll from four days of extreme weather to at least 63 across the country.

The heaviest downpour in decades flooded villages on the country’s south-western coast but most of the deaths were reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, in Pakistan’s north-west, bordering Afghanistan.

Collapsing buildings killed 32 people, including 15 children and five women, a spokesman for the Disaster Management Authority said.