World

SEOUL,  (Reuters) – North Korea confirmed its first COVID-19 outbreak yesterday, calling it the “gravest national emergency” and ordering a national lockdown, with state media reporting an Omicron variant had been detected in Pyongyang.

RIO DE JANEIRO,  (Reuters) – Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro replaced his energy minister with a high ranking Economy Ministry official yesterday in the latest sign of political turmoil over fuel-price hikes by state run oil company Petrobras.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – Haitian gang members raped women and girls and burned people alive during two weeks of turf wars near the capital of Port-au-Prince, a Haitian rights group said in a report detailing the bloody conflict.

NEW DELHI,  (Reuters) – India’s Supreme Court yesterday barred the government from using a colonial-era sedition law, that critics say is often used to stifle dissent, pending a review.

(Reuters) Bolivian President Luis Arce has announced that he will not participate in next month’s Summit of the Americas in the United States if Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela are excluded from the gathering.

NEW YORK,  (Reuters) – U.S. prosecutors on Wednesday unveiled drugs and weapons charges against a former police chief for Honduras, saying he conspired with now-detained former President Juan Orlando Hernandez to ship cocaine to the United States.

KYIV/BRUSSELS, (Reuters) – Finland is expected to announce today its intention to join NATO with Sweden likely to follow soon after, diplomats and officials said, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine reshapes European security and the Atlantic military alliance.

KYIV/VILHIVKA, Ukraine, (Reuters) – Ukrainian forces reported battlefield gains on Wednesday in a counterattack that could signal a shift in the momentum of the war, while Kyiv shut gas flows on a route through Russian-held territory, raising the spectre of an energy crisis in Europe.

COLOMBO/WEERAKETIYA, Sri Lanka,  (Reuters) – Sri Lanka’s central bank governor said today he would quit within weeks unless political stability was restored to the country after deadly violence forced the prime minister to quit and take shelter in a navy base.

BEIJING/SHANGHAI, (Reuters) – China hit back today against what it called “irresponsible” comments by the head of the World Health Organization, who described the country’s uncompromising and increasingly painful “zero COVID” policy as “not sustainable.”

COLOMBO, (Reuters) – Protesters and a key trade group in Sri Lanka called for a new government to take control of the crisis-hit country on Tuesday while the president asked for calm following clashes that claimed eight lives and prompted his brother to quit as prime minister.

(Reuters) – A Haitian gang leader was indicted in the United States yesterday in connection with the kidnapping of 16 American missionaries last year, the first defendant charged in a crime that brought global attention to power of gangs in the Caribbean nation.

KHARKIV, Ukraine,  (Reuters) – Ukraine said yesterday its forces had recaptured villages from Russian troops north and northeast of the city of Kharkiv, pressing a counter-offensive that could signal a shift in the war’s momentum and jeopardise Russia’s main advance.

MEXICO CITY/SAO PAULO,  (Reuters) – Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said yesterday he would not attend the U.S.-hosted

BOGOTA,  (Reuters) – Marcelo Pecci, a Paraguayan prosecutor known for his work in fighting organized crime, was killed on the Colombian tourism island of Baru yesterday, authorities from both countries said.

KYIV, (Reuters) – Leonid Kravchuk, a former communist who helped sign the Soviet Union’s death warrant and then served as the first president of independent Ukraine, died yesterday at the age of 88.

KHARKIV, Ukraine, (Reuters) – Ukraine said today its forces had recaptured villages from Russian troops north and northeast of Kharkiv, pressing a counter-offensive that could signal a shift in the war’s momentum and jeopardise Russia’s main advance.

MANILA, (Reuters) – The son of the disgraced late Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos vowed today to work for all people after his stunning election victory, and told the world to judge him by his presidency, not his family’s past.

LONDON, (Reuters) – Britain’s heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles and Prince William took centre stage amid the pomp and pageantry of the opening of parliament today, replacing the 96-year-old Queen Elizabeth who missed the grand set-piece event with health issues.

KYIV/KHARKIV, Ukraine, (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin exhorted Russians to battle in a defiant Victory Day speech yesterday, but was silent about plans for any escalation in Ukraine, despite Western warnings he might use his Red Square address to order a national mobilisation.