A 30-day moratorium on striking Ukrainian energy infrastructure ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin last month has "expired", the Kremlin said Friday.

Scores of penitents whipped themselves bloody under a scorching Philippine sun while others were nailed to crosses in a polarising Good Friday tradition drawing the most extreme of Catholic devotees.

By seizing large swathes of the Gaza Strip, Israel is redrawing the map of the Palestinian territory, one of the most densely populated places on Earth, making it increasingly "unlivable".