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       Ukrainian soldier Volodymyr Kerbut died in Soledar and was laid to rest in Bucha, his life and death linked to two of the bloodiest scenes since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began.

       He was 46 years old and served 25 years as a policeman before voluntarily enlisting when the war began.

       Weeks later the streets of Bucha were littered with civilian corpses.

       In nearby Soledar, a handful of Volodymyr's comrades were holding out as best they could against an onslaught by the Russian army and Wagner mercenaries.

       Moscow says the city has fallen, Ukraine denies the claim.

       The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, promises to do everything possible to prevent Soledar and the neighbouring Bakhmut from falling into the hands of an enemy that seems ready to take the cities at any price.

       Bakhmut is another city that has been at the heart of a grinding fight between Russian and Ukrainian forces in the past few months.

       At a health centre in the city, Dr Elena Molchanova ushers patients into a narrow office warmed by a wood-burning stove, where she hands out medication and fills in death certificates.

       Sometimes her visitors, the last remaining residents in the town shelled daily and cut from essential services, are just seeking shelter from the biting cold.

       The 40-year-old doctor is one of just five left in Bakhmut who are now a lifeline to the some 8,000 people local officials say are still in the city that used to be home to 70,000.

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       Premier League footballer Benjamin Mendy was found not guilty of raping four women following a six-month trial, but prosecutors have sought a retrial over two other allegations.

       The Manchester City star, sitting in the dock at Chester Crown Court, covered his face with both hands, gently rocking back and forth, as the jury foreman, delivering the verdicts in a hushed courtroom and repeated "not guilty" to six counts of rape and one count of sexual assault, relating to four young women.

       The unanimous verdicts were delivered on Wednesday by the seven men and four women on the jury, one juror having been discharged earlier for medical reasons.

       But after 14 days of deliberations, jurors could not reach verdicts on the French man's alleged attempted rape of a woman in 2018 and the rape of another woman in October 2020.

       Judge Everett discharged the jury on Friday, ending the trial.

       Louis Saha Matturie, his co-accused and alleged "fixer" was found not guilty by the jury of three counts of rape relating to two teenagers.

       The jurors also failed to reach verdicts on three counts of rape and three counts of sexual assault against him by five other women.

       Both had been on trial since August 10, accused of multiple sexual offences by 13 women.

       Prosecutor Matthew Conway said the prosecution will seek a retrial on the counts the jury could not reach verdicts on.

       French World Cup winner Benjamin Mendy stands trial in UK for sex offences Man City defender Benjamin Mendy charged with seventh count of rape Footballer Benjamin Mendy goes on trial in the UK on rape charges

       He said, "the prosecution has made a decision. We have made a decision today, which is to proceed on these counts in two separate trials and we seek today provisional case management."

       The allegations and trial had been "absolute hell" for Mendy, the court heard, and his life in football "is over" as he would "never escape" the accusations.

       Mendy had been accused of being a "predator" who turned the pursuit of women for sex into a game, his trial heard, drinking champagne in VIP areas of Manchester nightclubs before inviting young women into "toxic and dangerous" situations at "after-parties" at his Cheshire mansion in northwest England.

       But jurors were also told by defence lawyers that while the trial, involving money, sex and celebrity, had "all the makings of a good drama", it came with a significant "plot twist" - the accused were innocent.

       Lockdown-busting parties were held both at Mendy's home and an apartment he rented on Chapel Street near Manchester city centre, the court heard.

       He was first arrested in November 2020 after the alleged triple rape of a 24-year-old woman at his home the previous month.

       Mendy previously pleaded not guilty to all charges.

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       An original Tintin drawing that has captivated millions of readers over several generations around the world is to go up for sale.

       'Tintin in America' is one of the best-known episodes of the saga of the Belgian comic book hero.

       Drawn in black and white by Hergé in 1942, it's due to go up for auction on February 10 in Paris and could fetch more than €3 million euros.

       The director of the auction house, Vinciane de Traux, said the drawing reveals a certain amount of experimentation by the artist.

       "You can look at this here and imagine that the Indians were probably originally drawn larger, only to be erased and replaced by teepees, and then placed in the foreground," she explained, "or perhaps it was a test on the perspective and size of different people and different objects in the composition."

       Tintin fans may well be hoping that the buyer will not keep it for years in a drawer.

       In 2021, the original cover illustration of "Blue Lotus", drawn in 1936, was sold for €3.2 million.