MACRON DEFEATS LE PEN AND VOWS TO UNITE DIVIDED FRANCE

Emmanuel Macron has won five more years as French president after a convincing victory over rival Marine Le Pen, who nevertheless secured the far right's highest share of the vote yet.

He won by 58.55% to 41.45%, a greater margin than expected.

The outcome was expected to be confirmed by official results overnight with the final figures due on Monday.

The centrist leader told jubilant supporters at the foot of the Eiffel Tower that now the election was over he would be a "president for all".

Despite her loss, Ms Le Pen said her vote share still marked a victory.

The ideas her National Rally represented, she told her supporters, had reached new heights. But far-right rival Eric Zemmour pointed out that she had failed just like her father who preceded her: "It's the eighth time the Le Pen name has been hit by defeat."

The 44-year-old president faces a litany of challenges in his second term, starting with parliamentary elections in June, where keeping a majority will be critical to ensuring he can realise his ambitions to reform France.

"An answer must be found to the anger and disagreements that led many of our compatriots to vote for the extreme right," Mr Macron said in his victory speech on Sunday night. "It will be my responsibility and that of those around me."

He also pledged a "renewed method" to govern France, adding that this "new era" would not be one of "continuity with the last term which is now ending".

Mr Macron's victory was welcomed by relieved European leaders, who feared a far-right candidate offering a series of anti-EU policies. "Together we will move France and Europe forward," said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Ukraine's Volodymr Zelensky, who had called on French voters to back Mr Macron, congratulated his "true friend" and said he looked forward to a strong and united Europe.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson also welcomed his victory.

RUSSIAN FORCES CONTINUED HEAVY SHELLING OF UKRAINIAN CITIES ON EVE OF ORTHODOX EASTER CELEBRATIONS

Russian forces continued heavy shelling of Ukrainian cities on the eve of Orthodox Easter celebrations, Liudmyla Denisova, the Ukrainian parliament's human rights ombudsman, said Sunday.

Among the strikes Denisova reported were the shelling of the city of Kharkiv, which injured three policemen and one woman, and the shelling of a house in the village of Slatine in Kharkiv region, which killed two men.

Denisova said Russian strikes killed four civilians in the Donetsk region, and a further eight people in the Luhansk region. Three people working in a garden in Zaporizhzhia were killed by Russian artillery on Saturday, she said.

In Kherson region, where Ukrainian officials have warned of Russian preparations to stage a sham independence referendum, Denisova said the situation was "tense."

Russian forces "are shelling the settlements of the region and in the direction of neighboring regions," she said, adding: "Kherson region is on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe."

The British Ministry of Defence says Russia is “planning a staged referendum in the southern city of Kherson aimed at justifying its occupation”.

Russian forces seized the strategically important city in southern Ukraine in early March.

“The city is key to Russia’s objective of establishing a land bridge to Crimea and dominating southern Ukraine,” the defence ministry wrote on Twitter.

An adviser to President Zelensky's administration said Sunday that Russia was "trying to depopulate the east of Ukraine," amid heavy fighting there.

Ukraine officials claimed on Saturday that Russia was forcibly deporting some Mariupol citizens to Primorsky Krai in Russia's Far East region, some 8,000 kilometers (4,970 miles) from Ukraine. In early April, Ukraine's deputy prime minister Iryna Vereschuk estimated that some 45,000 Ukrainian citizens had been forcibly deported to Russia since the war began.

Meanwhile, The US has confirmed that Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin travelled to Kyiv to meet Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday.

It seems the Americans wanted to keep the arrival of two of their top officials a secret until after it was over.

No reporters were invited and the trip wasn’t even confirmed until the pair were safely back in neighbouring Poland.

Unfortunately for them, the Ukrainian president had other ideas – telling a room full of journalists about the visit a full 24 hours in advance.

But that doesn’t seem to have damaged relations too much, with the American delegation pledging another round of direct and indirect military aid.

The trip was also used as an opportunity to announce that the US embassy in Kyiv would begin to reopen this week – with a new ambassador taking up a post that has been vacant for two years.

Kyiv and Hamburg now ‘strategic partners’:

Ukraine’s Kyiv and Germany’s Hamburg have become strategic partner cities through a pact stipulating support in times of crisis.

Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko and his Hamburg counterpart Peter Tschentscher signed the agreement on Sunday.

It lays down “effective cooperation between our cities” including “the provision of assistance by Hamburg for the restoration of Kyiv,” Klitschko wrote on Telegram. He added Hamburg will increase its humanitarian assistance efforts.

Tschentscher said Kyiv “is of particular importance in the fight against Russian aggression, as well as in the fight for peace and freedom in Europe,” Interfax reported.

PAK, IMF TO EXTEND BAILOUT PACKAGE, INCREASE LOAN SIZE

Islamabad : Cash-strapped Pakistan and the IMF have agreed to extend the stalled bailout package by up to one year and increase the loan size to $8 billion, giving a breathing space to the new government led by PM Shehbaz Sharif, a media report said on Sunday.

The deal was reached after the crucial talks between Pakistan’s newly-appointed finance minister Miftah Ismail and IMF deputy managing director Antoinette Sayeh in Washington, Express Tribune reported, citing sources.

Subject to the final modalities, theIMF has agreed that the programme will be extended by another nine months to one year as against the original end-period of September 2022, while the size of the loan would be increased from the existing $6 billion to $8 billion, the paper said, citing sources.

The release of the fund would be a welcome antidote for the country’s sagging economy that is staring at plummeting forex reserves ($10. 8 billion) and a current account deficit crisis. To give a final shape to the extended program, an IMF mission would visit Pakistan likely from May 10, the sources said.

TURKEY CLOSES AIRSPACE TO RUSSIAN JETS FLYING TO SYRIA

Turkey closed its airspace to Russian jets flying to Syria, a shift in policy aimed at increasing the cost of the war in Ukraine for President Vladimir Putin. Turkey barred the Russian aircraft, including any civilian flights carrying troops, from its skies for the first time since Russia intervened in Syria’s civil war in 2015 in support of President Bashar al-Assad. The move adds to pressure on Moscow to end its conflict in Ukraine, now in its third month. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Putin of his decision in a phone call, foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was cited as saying by state broadcaster TRT. He didn’t specify when the call took place.

Most Russian flights to Syria pass though Turkish airspace, though the number of troops ferried to the country isn’t publicly disclosed. The restrictions are unlikely to halt the movement of soldiers and weapons to Syria from Russia, according to a Turkish official familiar with the matter, who said Moscow will likely now divert flights across Iranian airspace. The key goal rather was to show solidarity with fellow Nato members, many of whom are sending weapons into Ukraine to help support the fight against Russia, the official said. Turkey has already limited access through the Bosporus strait for Russian naval vessels.

SRI LANKA STUDENTS MOB PM'S HOME OVER ECONOMIC CRISIS

Thousands of Sri Lankan university students mobbed Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa's home on Sunday demanding his resignation over the island nation's worsening economic crisis.

Months of lengthy blackouts, record inflation and acute food and fuel shortages have sparked increasing public discontent in Sri Lanka, which is dealing with its worst economic downturn since independence in 1948.

Sunday's protest saw student leaders scale the fence of Rajapaksa's compound in Colombo after police erected barricades on various roads around the capital to stop them from linking up with demonstrators elsewhere.

"You can block the road, but can't stop our struggle until the entire government goes home," one unidentified student leader said while standing on top of the walls.

Facing off against rows of police holding riot shields, protesters tried to pull down the barricades preventing them from entering the residence.

Some carried signs that said "Go Home Gota" -- the nickname for President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who is Mahinda's younger brother -- while others wore the Guy Fawkes mask that have become synonymous with anti-establishment movements.

Police said Mahinda Rajapaksa, the head of Sri Lanka's ruling clan, was not on the premises at the time and the crowd left peacefully.

39 DEATHS IN A DAY IN SHANGHAI, BEIJING WARNS OF GRIM SITUATION

Shanghai : Shanghai reported 39 Covid deaths Sunday, its highest daily toll despite weeks of lockdowns, while China’s capital Beijing warned of a“grim” situation with rising infections. The world’s second-largest economy has been struggling to stamp out its worst outbreak in two years with harsh lockdowns and mass testing as it sticks to a strict zero-Covid policy, taking a toll on businesses and publicmorale. The financial hub of Shanghai has been almost entirely locked down since the start of the month. The city only announced its first fatalities from the outbreak on April 18, despite reporting thousands of cases each day in recent weeks. It reported 39 more deaths on Sunday, National Health Commission data showed, bringing its total toll to 87, while the country logged nearly 22,000 new local cases. Shanghai’s previous highest daily toll since lockdown was 12, reported a day earlier. Meanwhile 22 more infections were reported in Beijing on Sunday, with the city locking down one housing compound as officials warned the situation was “grim and complex”. Health official Pang Xinghuo said preliminary observations suggested Covid had been “spreading invisibly” in the city for a week, “increasing difficulty of

prevention and control”.

The largest district in Beijing, Chaoyang, will require everyone living or working in the area to take three Covid tests this week and put more than a dozen buildings under lockdown.

Meanwhile, Shanghai authorities battling an outbreak of Covid have erected fences outside residential buildings, sparking fresh public outcry over a lockdown that has forced much of the city’s 25 million people indoors. Images of workers in white hazmat suits sealing entrances of housing blocks and closing off entire streets with green fencing — roughly two metres tall — went viral on social media, prompting complaints from residents.

10 CONFIRMED DEAD AFTER JAPAN TOUR BOAT SINKS

Ten people found so far from a Japanese tour boat missing off the country’s northern coast have been confirmed dead, the coast guard said on Sunday.

The boat went missing on Saturday with 26 people on board during a cruise off the main northern island of Hokkaido. Of the 10, seven were men and three were women, the Coast Guard said in a bulletin. Sixteen others are still missing.

There were 24 passengers, including two children, and two crew members on board.

Drift ice can be seen in area waters as late as March, and water temperatures now would be 2 to 3 degrees Celsius, said an official at a local fishery cooperative.

“Just a few minutes in that sort of water would start clouding your consciousness,” he said.

Authorities were using aircraft and patrol boats, including seven ships, three airplanes and four helicopters from the coast guard, to search for the passengers and crew of the “Kazu I” after it ran into trouble off Shiretoko peninsula, famous for its wildlife and dramatic coastline.

NIGERIA IN TRAUMA AFTER IMO REFINERY DEATHS - PRESIDENT BUHARI

Nigeria's president has said the country is in "shock and trauma" following the deaths of at least 100 people from an explosion at an illegal oil refinery.

President Muhammadu Buhari described the incident in Imo state, southern Nigeria, as a "catastrophe and a national disaster".

Many victims were burnt beyond recognition.

The police are now looking for the owner of the illegal refinery.

The damage to fishing and farming caused by the oil industry over the decades and the failure to share the oil wealth has led some to find other ways to make money.

Illegal refining is attractive as in parts of the oil-rich Niger Delta it is seen as being relatively easy to pull off, despite efforts to halt the practice.

Dozens of people were thought to have been working at the refining plants when they were caught in the huge fire.

The death toll has risen as emergency workers go through the scene. Ifeanyi Nnaji of the National Emergency Management Agency told BBC Igbo that the number killed now stood at 109.