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NOVOBAKHMUTIVKA, Ukraine (AP) — Three bridges on key roads leading into the Ukrainian city of Donetsk were blown up Monday — an apparent attempt to slow down any possible assault by government forces on the rebel-held stronghold.

Separatist fighters driven out of Slovyansk and other eastern towns by the Ukrainian army over the weekend had regrouped in Donetsk, a city of 1 million where pro-Russia rebels have declared independence as the Donetsk People's Republic. Pavel Gubarev, the region's self-described governor, had promised "real partisan war around the whole perimeter of Donetsk" before thousands of supporters at a rally Sunday.

It was not exactly clear who blew up the highway and train bridges Monday, but their destruction would most benefit the rebels. Battles between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russia separatists have left over 400 people dead and thousands homeless since they began in early April.

In the village of Novobakhmutivka, where a rail line crosses over a highway out of Donetsk, an 11-wagon cargo train was perched perilously Monday on the collapsed bridge. The road leads toward Slovyansk, a former insurgent stronghold that was recaptured Saturday by Ukrainian troops. Downing the bridge also damaged the rail line.

Anatoly Krasov, who was driving along the road Monday, said he saw an explosion before the bridge collapsed with a large cargo train on it. He said a group of men dressed in the camouflage uniforms often worn by the rebels then got into their cars and drove back toward Donetsk.

Two other bridges on roads leading from Slovyansk to Donetsk were also destroyed Monday in the villages of Zakitne and Seleznevka, the Road Transportation Agency of Donetsk Region said.

The insurgents control the regional administration building in Donetsk and checkpoints on the city's outskirts. They also face little internal resistance from police forces or government officials in the city, who have done nothing in recent months to hinder their free movement around Donetsk.

But it is unclear whether they will be able to put up major resistance in the face of a Ukrainian military attack. Ukrainian forces demonstrated their superior firepower in repelling a rebel attempt to take control of Donetsk Airport in May, a battle that killed dozens of rebel fighters. Many residents have fled the city and the streets are often deserted but for the rebels.

Still, experts say that capturing Donetsk would be much more difficult than retaking Slovyansk, a city ten times smaller, and it could require the type of street-to-street urban warfare that would favor the rebels, not government troops.

There was no word Monday from Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who had promised to start negotiations on a new cease-fire last week. A contact group for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe met in Kiev on Sunday to discuss the situation in Donetsk, but no representatives from the rebels attended and no breakthroughs were announced.

On a trip to Bulgaria, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov pressed again for a new cease-fire in Ukraine. He also condemned the OSCE for its "unrealistic demand" that the talks take place in Kiev, the capital, rather than in Donetsk.

Ukraine and the West have accused Russia of fomenting the insurgency by sending troops and weapons, including tanks and rocket launchers, something Moscow denies. Putin has so far resisted demands at home and by the rebels to come to their aid, wary of having more Western sanctions slapped on Russia.

On Monday, Russia's Foreign Ministry made its first statement about Slovyansk since the city fell. It tiptoed around the rebels' defeat, only mentioning Slovyansk as part of a long list of civilian casualties.

Russia also urged the European Union to put new pressure on Ukraine, which it accused of waging a "massive military operation which has resulted in the deaths of peaceful people."

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Laura Mills in Moscow and Veselin Toshkov in Sophia, Bulgaria contributed reporting.

SYDNEY (AP) — Australia's government confirmed Monday that it had handed over a boatload of asylum seekers to Sri Lankan authorities in a transfer at sea, drawing outrage from human rights groups who fear those on board could be persecuted in their home country.

The 41 Sri Lankans were intercepted by Australia's border patrol off the Cocos Islands in the Indian Ocean in late June, Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said in a statement. On Sunday, they were handed over to the Sri Lankan government after their refugee claims were assessed at sea and rejected.

For days, Morrison refused to comment on reports that Australian officials had intercepted two boats carrying around 200 Sri Lankan asylum seekers and handed them over to Sri Lankan authorities. On Monday, the minister again declined to say whether a second boat exists, and his spokesman did not respond to requests seeking clarification.

Late Monday night, Australia's High Court issued an interim injunction blocking the government from transferring asylum seekers from the second boat to Sri Lankan authorities. The injunction will remain in place until a hearing is held on Tuesday. The matter was brought before the court by a group of lawyers who argue the asylum seekers' return to Sri Lanka is illegal.

In a bid to stem a rising tide of asylum seekers trying to reach Australian shores, the nation's conservative government implemented a tough policy of turning back their boats. Until now, the vessels have been returned to Indonesia, where asylum seekers from Afghanistan, Iran, Sri Lanka and other countries pay people smugglers to ferry them to Australia aboard rickety boats.

This marks the first time Prime Minister Tony Abbott's government has confirmed it had screened asylum seekers at sea and returned them directly to their home country. Among the asylum seekers leaving Sri Lanka are ethnic Tamils who survived a lengthy civil war between government troops and the now-defeated separatist Tamil Tiger rebels. Refugee advocates say Tamils still face violence by the military.

"Some of these people will be handed straight back to danger," said Sarah Hanson-Young, immigration spokeswoman for the minor Greens party.

Morrison said four of the asylum seekers on board were Tamils, and said none was at risk of persecution.

"All were screened in terms of any potential protection obligation and none were found to be owed that protection," Morrison told Macquarie Radio.

A Sri Lankan navy spokesman confirmed the asylum seekers had arrived in the southern port city of Galle, but gave no details on what would happen to them. Generally, asylum seekers in Sri Lanka are handed over to police for questioning; they face fines, but jail terms are likely only for those with proven links to militant groups or the smuggling trade.

The initial reports of a handover last week prompted the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, to issue a statement expressing "profound concern" that Australia was processing asylum seekers at sea rather than bringing them ashore to assess their claims.

"UNHCR considers that individuals who seek asylum must be properly and individually screened for protection needs," the agency said in a statement, adding that "international law prescribes that no individual can be returned involuntarily to a country in which he or she has a well-founded fear of persecution."

Ming Yu, spokeswoman for Amnesty International, said the cursory processing of complex refugee claims means they may not be properly investigated. That could leave Australia in violation of its international obligation of non-refoulement, which forbids victims of persecution from being forced back to a place where their life or freedom is under threat.

"We know (Sri Lanka) is a country where persecution is still occurring, where torture by police is still occurring," Yu said. "So we're trying to raise the attention to the Australian government of where your actions of returning people without properly assessing their claim to asylum that you're really risking refoulement."

Morrison said Australia had complied with its legal obligations.

Just one of the 41 people on board was assessed as possibly having a case for asylum, and was given the option of being transferred to Australia's detention camps in the South Pacific island nations of Nauru or Papua New Guinea for further processing, Morrison said.

The asylum seeker opted instead to return to Sri Lanka.

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Associated Press writer Krishan Francis contributed to this report from Colombo, Sri Lanka.

ROME (AP) — In apparent defiance of Pope Francis, a church procession detoured from its route through a southern Italian town to honor a convicted mobster under house arrest.

Interior Minister Angelino Alfano on Sunday denounced the tribute in Oppido Mamertina, a Calabrian town and 'ndrangheta crime syndicate stronghold, as "deplorable and disgusting." He praised three Carabinieri policemen who abandoned the procession in disapproval.

On June 21, Francis, visiting Calabria, had denounced the 'ndrangheta for its "adoration of evil" and said its members were excommunicated.

The July 2 procession included clergy, the mayor, parents pushing baby strollers and dozens of local men carrying on their shoulders an ornate Madonna statue.

Carabinieri officer Andrea Marino said he and his fellow officer walked away from the procession after the detour and headed to the church to complain about what happened.

One of Calabria's anti-Mafia prosecutors, Nicola Gratteri, told The Associated Press that the detour to the mobster's house appeared to be a "challenge to the diktat" of Francis.

'Ndrangheta, a global cocaine trafficker, is one of the world's most powerful crime syndicates. Religious rituals hold an important place in the mobsters' mentality.

Oppido Mamertino's bishop, Monsignor Francesco Milito, said he would take undescribed "measures" against those exploiting the church procession to pay homage to the 82-year-old local boss. The mobster, because of his age, was allowed to serve out his life sentence at home for murder.

Elsewhere in southern Italy, other 'ndrangheta members appeared to have paid attention to the pope's words but perhaps not in the way he intended.

Another bishop, Monsignor Giancarlo Bregantini, told Vatican Radio Sunday that some 200 inmates in the maximum-security section of Larino prison told their chaplain they would boycott Mass, reasoning if they were excommunicated it made no sense for them to attend anymore.

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Follow Frances D'Emilio on Twitter at www.twitter.com/fdemilio.

NOVOBAKHMUTIVKA, Ukraine (AP) — Three bridges on key roads leading into Donetsk were blown up Monday — an apparent attempt to slow down any possible assault by Ukrainian forces on the country's main rebel-held city.

Fighters driven out of Slovyansk and other eastern towns by the Ukrainian army had regrouped in Donetsk, a city of 1 million where pro-Russia separatists have declared independence under the Donetsk People's Republic. Pavel Gubarev, the region's self-described governor, had promised "real partisan war around the whole perimeter of Donetsk" before thousands of supporters at a rally Sunday.

It was not exactly clear who blew up the highway and train bridges Monday, but their destruction would most benefit the rebels.

In the village of Novobakhmutivka, where a rail line crosses over a highway out of Donetsk, an 11-wagon cargo train was perched perilously on the collapsed bridge. The road leads toward Slovyansk, a former insurgent stronghold that was recaptured Saturday by Ukrainian troops after intense fighting.

Anatoly Krasov, who was driving along the road Monday, said he saw an explosion before the bridge collapsed with a large cargo train on it. He said a group of men dressed in the camouflage uniforms often worn by the rebels then got into their cars and drove back toward Donetsk.

Two other bridges on roads leading from Slovyansk to Donetsk were also destroyed Monday in the villages of Zakitne and Seleznevka, the Road Transportation Agency of Donetsk Region said.

The insurgents control the regional administration building in Donetsk and checkpoints on the city's outskirts. They also face little internal resistance from police forces or government officials in the city, who have done nothing in recent months to hinder their free movement around Donetsk.

But it is unclear whether they will be able to put up major resistance in the face of a Ukrainian attack. Ukrainian forces demonstrated their superior firepower in repelling a rebel attempt to take control of Donetsk Airport in late May, a battle that left dozens of rebel fighters dead. Many residents have fled the city and the streets are often deserted but for the rebels.

Still, experts say that capturing Donetsk would be much more difficult than retaking Slovyansk, a city ten times smaller, and it could require the type of street-to-street urban warfare that would favor the rebels, not government troops.

There was no word Monday from Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who had promised to start negotiations on a new cease-fire last week.

Battles between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists have left over 400 people dead and thousands homeless since they began in early April.

Ukraine and the West have accused Russia of fomenting the insurgency by sending troops and weapons, including tanks and rocket launchers, something Moscow denies. Putin has so far resisted demands at home and by the rebels to come to their aid, wary of having more Western sanctions slapped on Russia.

On Monday, Russia's Foreign Ministry made its first statement about Slovyansk since the city fell. It tiptoed around the rebels' defeat, only mentioning Slovyansk as part of a long list of civilian casualties.

Russia urged the European Union to put new pressure on Ukraine, which it accused of waging a "massive military operation which has resulted in the deaths of peaceful people."

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Laura Mills in Moscow contributed reporting.