World

COLOMBO,  (Reuters) – Police imposed an overnight curfew in several parts of Sri Lanka’s main city of Colombo early today after protests over the government’s handling of the country’s worst economic crisis in decades turned violent, an official said.

CARACAS,  (Reuters) – International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan, appearing on Venezuelan state television on a visit to Caracas yesterday, said the court will open an office there.

LOS ANGELES,  (Reuters) – Los Angeles police were on site and ready to arrest actor Will Smith at the Academy Awards on Sunday for slapping presenter Chris Rock, the producer of the Hollywood ceremony said yesterday.

TROSTYANETS/LVIV, Ukraine,  (Reuters) – Russia’s President Vladimir Putin threatened today to halt contracts supplying Europe with a third of its gas unless they are paid in roubles, his strongest economic riposte so far to crushing Western sanctions over his invasion of Ukraine.

THE HAGUE,  (Reuters) – Dutch lawmakers demanded of Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s government today that it speed up the implementation of sanctions against Russia, saying the Netherlands was “shamefully behind” other countries in freezing targeted assets.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – Americans will be allowed to choose an X for gender on their passport applications beginning on April 11, the U.S.

LVIV,  (Reuters) – Ukrainian forces are preparing for new Russian attacks in the east of the country as Moscow builds up its troops there after suffering setbacks near the capital Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said yesterday.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – The Biden administration is considering releasing up to 180 million barrels of oil over several months from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), four U.S.

TUNIS,  (Reuters) – Tunisian President Kais Saied late yesterday issued a decree dissolving parliament, which has been suspended since last year, after it defied him by voting to repeal decrees that he used to assume near total power.

LOS ANGELES, (Reuters) – Will Smith refused a request to leave the Oscars ceremony after he slapped presenter Chris Rock, Hollywood’s film academy said yesterday as it started a process that could lead to the best actor winner’s expulsion from the group.

LOS ANGELES,  (Reuters) – Bruce Willis, the star of the “Die Hard” franchise and dozens of other action movies, will retire from acting after being diagnosed with aphasia, a disease that has hampered his “cognitive abilities,” his family said yesterday.

LONDON,  (Reuters) – The world’s top banks provided $742 billion in finance to the fossil fuel industry in 2021, little changed on the prior year, a report yesterday showed, despite growing calls to rein in lending to help tackle global warming.

 (Reuters) – The World Health Organization today released an updated plan for COVID-19, laying out key strategies that, if implemented in 2022, would allow the world to end the emergency phase of the pandemic.

LVIV, Ukraine/KYIV OUTSKIRTS,  (Reuters) – Russian forces bombarded the outskirts of Kyiv and a besieged city in northern Ukraine today, a day after promising to scale down operations there in what the West dismissed as a ploy to regroup by invaders taking heavy losses.

GENEVA,  (Reuters) – The United Nations named three human rights experts today to investigate possible war crimes in Ukraine where Russia has been accused of indiscriminate bombardment of civilians.

LONDON/HONG KONG, (Reuters) – Two senior British judges, including the president of the UK Supreme Court, resigned from Hong Kong’s highest court today because of a sweeping national security law China imposed on Britain’s former colony cracking down on dissent.

LVIV, Ukraine/KYIV OUTSKIRTS  (Reuters) – Ukraine reacted with skepticism to Russia’s promise in negotiations to scale down military operations around Kyiv and another city as some Western countries expected Moscow to intensify its offensive in other parts of the country.

(Reuters) – A U.S. appeals court in Washington yesterday rejected a bid by Russian aluminum tycoon Oleg Deripaska to lift sanctions imposed on him by the United States in 2018, finding that American officials had sufficient evidence to back up their action.

KINSHASA, (Reuters) – Eight peacekeepers were killed when a U.N. helicopter crashed in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo yesterday amid rebel fighting, the United Nations said.

LONDON,  (Reuters) – Energy major Shell SHEL.L has filed its appeal against a Dutch court ruling that ordered the oil, gas and fuel producer to cut its emissions faster in a landmark win for activists turning to courts to force climate action.