The European Union has decided to hold off temporarily on imposing sanctions on more Russians and Ukrainian separatists and await the outcome of possible peace talks later this week.

Senior diplomats from the major players trying to find an end to the crisis in Ukraine are gathering in Paris.

Divers began the recovery of dozens of migrants’ bodies yesterday from a boat that sank last week off the coast of Sicily in one of the worst such disasters to hit people fleeing violence, poverty and oppression in Africa.