Reuters World News Summary

Russian forces have been besieging Bakhmut for months in the longest battle in more than a year of war. Work to be done, PM Sunak says 25 years after N.Irish peace deal A quarter of century since the signing of a peace deal that largely ended violence in Northern Ireland, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said efforts had to be intensified to restore the power-sharing government central to the accord.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Saudi, Omani envoys hold peace talks with Houthi leaders in Sanaa

Saudi and Omani delegations held talks with Houthi officials in Yemen's capital Sanaa on Sunday, Houthi-run media said, as Riyadh seeks a permanent ceasefire to end its military involvement in the country's long-running war. The visit indicates progress in the Oman-mediated consultations between Riyadh and Sanaa, which run in parallel to U.N. peace efforts. The peace initiatives have gained momentum after arch-rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran agreed to re-establish ties in a deal brokered by China.

Four killed in avalanche in the French Alps

Four people have died and nine others have been injured in an avalanche southwest of Mont Blanc in the French Alps, interior minister Gerald Darmanin said on Sunday. The avalanche occurred in the middle of the day on the Armancette glacier, he wrote on Twitter.

U.S. searches for source of highly-classified intel leak

Highly classified military and intelligence documents that appeared online, with details ranging from Ukraine's air defenses to Israel's Mossad spy agency, have U.S. officials scrambling to identify the leak's source, with some Western security experts and U.S. officials saying they suspected it could be someone from the United States. Officials say the breadth of topics addressed in the documents, which touch on the war in Ukraine, China, the Middle East and Africa, suggest they were leaked by an American rather than an ally.

Israeli sisters killed in shooting attack laid to rest

The family of two Israeli sisters who were killed in a shooting attack in the occupied West Bank shared tearful eulogies on Sunday with a room full of weeping mourners, while their mother who was wounded remained in a coma. Maia and Rina Dee, 20 and 15, who were also British citizens, died on Friday when their car was shot at by a suspected Palestinian gunman. Israeli forces are still trying to track the assailant down.

Boat with 400 migrants adrift between Greece and Malta, support service says

A vessel with around 400 people on board is adrift between Greece and Malta and is taking on water, support service Alarm Phone said on Sunday, after a sharp rise of migrant boats crossing the Mediterranean from North Africa. Alarm Phone said on Twitter they had received a call from the boat, which departed from Tobruk, in Libya, overnight and that they had informed authorities. But authorities had not launched a rescue operation so far, they added.

After days of violence, Jerusalem prayers end peacefully

Ramadan prayers and Jewish Passover visits at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound passed without incident on Sunday, after days of tension at the flashpoint Jerusalem site which led to cross-border exchanges of fire. Small groups of Jewish visitors under heavy police guard walked through the mosque compound, known in Judaism as Temple Mount, as thousands of worshippers gathered for the Passover holiday's special "Priestly Blessing" at the Western Wall below.

Macron says Europe should not follow U.S. or Chinese policy over Taiwan

French President Emmanuel Macron said in comments published on Sunday that Europe had no interest in an acceleration of the crisis over Taiwan and should pursue a strategy independent of both Washington and Beijing. Macron has just returned from a three-day state visit to China, where he received a warm welcome from President Xi Jinping. China began drills around Taiwan on Saturday in anger at President Tsai Ing-wen's meeting with the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday.

Gold coach procession and new emoji for King Charles' coronation

King Charles and his wife Camilla will travel to and from their coronation next month in Britain's oldest and newest royal carriages in a grand procession that will be shorter than that taken by his mother 70 years ago, Buckingham Palace said on Sunday. Charles will be crowned at London's Westminster Abbey on May 6 in a ceremony full of resplendent pomp and pageantry, with traditions dating back 1,000 years.

Ukraine's Zelenskiy denounces Russian strikes on Orthodox Palm Sunday

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy denounced Russian air strikes coinciding with the observance of Orthodox Palm Sunday, including an attack that killed a father and daughter at home in the city of Zaporizhzhia. Ukraine's military reported Russian attacks and shelling throughout the front, with the heaviest fighting still focused on two cities in eastern Donetsk region -- Bakhmut and Avdiivka. Russian forces have been besieging Bakhmut for months in the longest battle in more than a year of war.

Work to be done, PM Sunak says 25 years after N.Irish peace deal

A quarter of century since the signing of a peace deal that largely ended violence in Northern Ireland, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said efforts had to be intensified to restore the power-sharing government central to the accord. Signed in Belfast on April 10, 1998, the Good Friday agreement is considered one of the most significant peace deals of the late 20th Century, seeking to end three decades of sectarian strife that killed more than 3,600 people.