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A Sri Lankan court on Wednesday ordered the arrest of police officers involved in the death of a protester after the police opened fire at unarmed anti-government protestors demonstrating against the fuel price hike in southwestern region of Rambukkana. A 41-year-old father of two was killed and 13 others were injured on April 19 when police opened fire on residents of Rambukkana – some 90 kilometres northeast of Colombo, who were protesting against the fuel price hike. It was the first death during the ongoing protests over the worst-ever economic crisis in the country’s history. Fifteen police personnel also sustained injuries. Magistrate Vasana Navaratne in the southwestern town of Kegalle ordered the arrest of the police hierarchy who had ordered the firing. The angry residents had lined up for refuelling at a local fuel station and were protesting over the non-availability of fuel. When the fuel did arrive many hours later, the protesters were accused of blocking the main railway ...

Criminal violence in Haiti worsened this week. with fighting among gangs in part of the capital chasing thousands from their homes and killing at least 20 people, including children. Haiti’s Civil Protection Agency said the fighting began Sunday in four neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince, north of the international airport. At least a dozen homes were burned downand many of those who fled initially took shelter in the yard of a local mayor’s office. The eruption comes amid a spike in violence and kidnappings as gangs grow more powerful and seek to control more territory amid the power vacuum following the July 7 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. The situation has angered and frustrated Haitians, who are demanding action from Prime Minister Ariel Henry’s administration, which is receiving international help to boost an underfunded and understaffed police force. A family of eight, including six children, was among those killed since Sunday, authorities said Wednesday. Schools and bu...

They pull up soggy linoleum from their floors, and fish potatoes and jars of pickles from submerged cellars. They hang out waterlogged rugs to dry in the pale spring sunshine. All around Demydiv, a village north of Kyiv, Ukraine, residents have been grappling with the aftermath of a severe flood, which under ordinary circumstances would have been yet another misfortune for a people under attack by Russi This time, though, it was a tactical victory. The Ukrainians flooded the village intentionally, along with a vast expanse of fields and bogs around it, creating a quagmire that thwarted a Russian tank assault on Kyiv and bought the army precious time to prepare defenses. The residents of Demydiv paid the price in the rivers of dank green floodwater that engulfed many of their homes. And they could not be more pleased. “Everybody understands and nobody regrets it for a moment,” said Antonina Kostuchenko, a retiree, whose living room is now a musty space with waterlines 1 foot or so u...

Canada’s House of Commons on Wednesday unanimously voted to adopt a motion accusing the Russian government of committing “acts of genocide against the Ukrainian people”. The motion said war crimes by Russia include mass atrocities, systematic instances of willful killing of Ukrainian civilians, the desecration of corpses, forcible transfer of Ukrainian children, torture, physical harm, mental harm, and rape. The motion, introduced by MP Heather McPherson, is non-binding, but McPherson said later that her intent in moving it was to use it as “a tool to urge our government to do more”. “This is a tool to say that the conflict in Ukraine is not over, that the support we’ve been providing has not been enough and we need to do more for the people of Ukraine,” she said,  The motion was to “recognise that the Russian Federation is committing acts of genocide against the Ukrainian people” and also acknowledging “there is clear and ample evidence of systematic and massive war crimes and cri...