Almost a decade after former KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko lay dying in a London hospital bed, a British judge has concluded who poisoned him: two Russian men, acting at the behest of Russia's security services, probably with approval from President Vladimir Putin. That finding prompted sharp exchanges Thursday between London and Moscow, and a diplomatic dilemma for both countries.

France hopes that international sanctions imposed on Russia for its intervention in Ukraine will be lifted "this summer," French Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday. The Minsk peace deal is a package of measures agreed by the leaders of France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia in the Belarusian capital. The accords, finalised in early 2015, effectively brought hostilities in Ukraine to an end after more than 9,000 people were killed in a civil war that broke out the previous April.

Art experts are examining a painting held in a private collection in St Petersburg they believe might be a second version of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa. And leading Mona Lisa scholars say the similarities in colours, which are being examined using infra-red technology, hold the key to determining if the Russian painting is in fact another da Vinci.