Politics overshadowed Easter observances in Kiev and Moscow, with the Orthodox religious leaders in each capital trading barbs over the crisis in Ukraine -- while the US reportedly prepared to send ground forces to neighbouring Poland. Patriarch Filaret thundered to the faithful in pro-West Kiev that Russia was an "enemy" whose "attack" on Ukraine was doomed to failure because it was evil and contrary to God's will. Worshippers who gathered for a service which stretched into Sunday morning at St Michael's Cathedral in Kiev, close to the Maidan, the Ukrainian capital's protest tent-city, said they had hopes of a peaceful resolution. However, in Moscow, the patriarch of the Russian Church, Kirill, delivered a prayer for Ukraine in which he called on God in turn to put "an end to the designs of those who want to destroy Holy Russia".

MOKPO, South Korea (AP) — After more than three days of frustration and failure, divers on Sunday finally found a way into a submerged ferry off South Korea's southern shore, discovering more than a dozen bodies inside the ship and pushing the confirmed death toll to 49, officials said.