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The head of Ukraine's Byzantine-rite Catholic Church met Pope Francis on Monday and said there can be no dialogue with Russia as long as Moscow considered the neighbour it invaded a colony to be subjugated.

Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk's trip to the Vatican was his first trip outside Ukraine since the Russian invasion in February. He said he prefers to remain in Kyiv to be close to the people despite the bombings and hardships.

"The war in Ukraine is a colonial war and peace proposals by Russia are proposals of colonial pacification," he said after meeting the pope at the Vatican.

Shevchuk, who has several times urged the pope to visit Kyiv, gave Francis a piece of shrapnel from a Russian mine that destroyed the facade of a church in Irpin in March. An estimated 200-300 civilians were killed in Irpin, near Kyiv, before the town was taken back from Russian forces in late March.

"These proposals imply the negation of the existence of the Ukrainian people, their history, culture and even their Church. It is the negation of the very right of the Ukrainian state to exist with the sovereignty and territorial integrity that is recognised by the international community," Shevchuk said.

"With these premises, Russia's proposals lack a basis for dialogue," he said.

Kyiv says it will never agree to cede land taken by force, and that lawful referendums cannot be held in occupied territory where many people have been killed or driven out.

After the Kremlin announced the annexation of four Ukrainian provinces in September in the wake of referendums condemned by Ukraine and the West as a coercive sham, Kyiv said it was applying to join NATO, and would not negotiate with Russia as long as Vladimir Putin is Russia's president.

Last month, Pope Francis for the first time directly begged Putin to stop the "spiral of violence and death" in Ukraine and asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to be open to any "serious peace proposal".

Russian forces swept into Ukraine in what Moscow calls a "special military operation" to eliminate dangerous nationalists and protect Russian-speakers. Kyiv calls Moscow's military action an unprovoked imperialist land grab.

Ukraine is predominantly Christian Orthodox but about 10% of the population belongs to the Eastern, or Byzantine-rite, Catholic Church, whose followers are in communion with Rome.

The support of Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), for Moscow's invasion of Ukraine has splintered the worldwide Orthodox Church and unleashed an internal rebellion.

The war has also prompted some Orthodox believers in Ukraine to abandon their allegiance to the ROC and join the country's own branch of the Orthodox Church, which Moscow refuses to recognise. (Reuters)

Drought-stricken countries, led by Senegal and Spain, announced an alliance Monday to help each other manage water scarcity by sharing technology and expertise.

The announcement was made on the sidelines of the U.N. climate conference, COP27, which is taking place in the sun-baked Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh after a fifth failed rainy season on the Horn of Africa.

Forecasters have warned that an unprecedented sixth season of failed rains is likely next year.

"Science is telling us we will have more episodes of drought," said Andrea Meza, deputy executive secretary of the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification. "We need to be prepared for the next drought."

Droughts have become 29% more frequent across the globe since 2000, as warming temperatures exacebate the influence of forest degradation and poor land management in drying out previously temperate regions, the U.N agency said.

Climate scientists say droughts will become more severe and frequent in the coming years. They will also last longer as global warming disrupts weather patterns.

By 2050, weather disturbances, including drought as well as heavy winds and rains, could cost the global economy some $5.6 trillion, a report published in August by environmental engineering consultancy GHD found.

Meza said no country was immune to drought and the people worst affected ultimately cannot produce food, electricity or trade as rivers dry up preventing transportation.

The alliance will aim to mobilise resources to fight drought where it occurs, Spain's President Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón said in a statement, but did not give details about how much money might be made available. (Reuters)

At least seven people were killed and 11 others injured when a truck collided with a passenger bus in Turkey's eastern Agri province on Monday.

"Seven of our citizens have passed away after a bus crashed with a truck and caught fire," Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan announced.

Heavy black smoke billowed from the scene, and local media reports said passengers had suffered severe burns.

"A large number of teams has been sent to the accident scene, and rescue efforts continue," the interior ministry said in a statement.

Agri province sits on Turkey's borders with Armenia and Iran. (Reuters)

Germany wants dialogue with Washington rather than tit-for-tat measures to ease trade tensions triggered by the U.S Inflation Reduction Act, which could harm European businesses and industry, Germany's finance minister said on Monday.

Christian Lindner said a task force set up between the United States and the European Union should address the issue urgently.

"The correct path now is to seek dialogue with the U.S. administration in order to exchange concerns and find common ways in which our economic interests can be combined," Lindner said ahead of talks with his Eurogroup counterparts in Brussels.

"I have not been assured that the American side has completely grasped how great our concerns about the consequences are," he told reporters, while expressing confidence that solutions could be found.

"In everyone's interest, we will not enter a tit-for-tat but rather strengthen the sources of wealth and growth together," he added.

U.S. President Joe Biden signed the $430 billion anti-inflation bill into law in August, which includes state aid for certain industries such as the car sector.

The EU has said the new legislation, which makes tax breaks conditional on U.S-manufactured content, puts at a disadvantage European car companies and those producing a wide range of goods from the "green economy" sector, including batteries, hydrogen and renewable energy equipment.

Earlier on Monday, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said the law was a major threat to European companies and that the EU must stand firm against it. (Reuters)