The United Nations human rights office has strongly criticised a police raid against suspected drug traffickers in Rio de Janeiro, amid allegations of abuse and extrajudicial executions. The deadliest police operation in the city’s history has left 25 dead, including a police officer. Residents say police killed suspects who wanted to surrender and entered homes without a warrant. Police have denied any wrongdoing, saying officers acted in self-defence. Vast areas of Rio de Janeiro, one of Brazil’s most violent cities, are under the control of criminals, many of them linked to powerful drug-trafficking gangs. Security forces are often accused of disproportionate force during their anti-crime operations.Thursday’s raid in Jacarezinho, one of the city’s largest slums known as favelas, was carried out by about 200 police officers and an armoured helicopter with a sniper. The area is controlled by one of Brazil’s largest criminal organisations, the Comando Vermelho, or Red Command.(BBC)…[+]

Australia will resume repatriation flights for some citizens in India after a controversial ban on arrivals from the country ends on 15 May. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has faced criticism for failing to help citizens trapped in the Covid-ravaged nation. The ban sparked further anger after the government said Australians seeking to fly home could face jail or fines. Mr Morrison later played down this threat. On Friday, he said they would begin by bringing back “vulnerable” citizens. About 900 Australians are registered with the government in this group. More than 9,000 Australians are in India in total. Mr Morrison said he expects the travel ban to end on 15 May. However, his government will wait until next week to make a decision on whether to restart commercial flights from India, which is how most stranded Australians will be able to get home.(BBC)…[+]

US employers hired fewer workers than expected last month despite a huge stimulus package that saw the government send $1,400 (£1,003) cheques to most Americans. Just 266,000 jobs were added in April and the unemployment rate edged up to 6.1%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It said a hiring spree among leisure and hospitality businesses was offset by declining courier numbers. In all, 9.8 million remain unemployed. In February 2020, before lockdowns forced millions into unemployment, 5.7 million people were out of work. In March, the Biden administration pushed through the $1.9tn stimulus package. The latest jobs figures were well below the expectations of economists, who had predicted that the gain would be anywhere from 900,000 to 2 million jobs.(BBC)…[+]

Twitter will now prompt users to review and revise “potentially harmful or offensive” replies. The social media platform, which has often faced criticism over abusive user behaviour, tested the feature last year.

Twitter said the tests showed that the prompts reduced offensive replies. On Wednesday, the company said it would roll the prompts out to English language accounts using Twitter on Apple and Android.  In a blog post, Twitter said they had found that prompts led 34% of people to revise their initial reply or to decide against sending their reply at all. Users composed, on average, 11% fewer offensive replies after being prompted for the first time, Twitter said.(BBC)…[+]

As India’s devastating Covid-19 crisis mounted last month, countries around the world began sending emergency medical supplies to help stem the surge. Planeloads of ventilators, medicines and oxygen equipment began pouring into India, from countries including the UK and the US, at the start of last week. By Sunday, some 300 tonnes of supplies on 25 flights had arrived at Delhi International Airport alone.

But – as cases continue to reach record levels across the country – concerns are mounting about delays in supplying the aid to those most in need. For several days, much of the cargo sat in airport hangars as hospitals called for more support. The supplies did not begin being distributed until as late as Monday evening – more than a week after the first batch of emergency assistance arrived, state officials have told local media. The Indian government has strongly denied there is a delay, issuing a statement on Tuesday evening saying it had introduced a “streamlined and systematic mechanism” for distributing the supplies.(BBC)…[+]

A former Ugandan child solider who became a commander in a notorious rebel group has been jailed for war crimes. Dominic Ongwen, now 45, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for crimes including murder, rape and torture. He is the first former Ugandan child solider to be convicted and sentenced by the International Criminal Court. Ongwen was abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebel group when he was nine years old and eventually became a feared commander. He was convicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in February on 61 of 70 counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes. The crimes relate to attacks on four camps for internally displaced people in Uganda in 2004. More than 4,000 victims provided testimony in the case, which was heard in The Hague.(BBC)…[+]

A 25-year-old Malian woman has given birth to nine babies – two more than doctors had detected during scans. Halima Cisse gave birth to the nonuplets in Morocco. Mali’s government flew her there for specialist care. The five girls and four boys were born by Caesarean section and were doing well, Mali’s health minister said.

It is extremely rare to give birth to a set of nonuplets – and complications during and after birth often mean that some of the babies do not survive. Fanta Siby, Mali’s health minister, congratulated the medical teams in both countries for the “happy outcome”. Ms Cisse’s pregnancy became a subject of fascination in Mali – even when it was thought she was only carrying septuplets, the Reuters news agency reports. Doctors in the West African nation had been concerned for her welfare and the chances of the babies’ survival – so the government intervened. After a two-week stay in a hospital in Mali’s capital, Bamako, the decision had been made to move Ms Cisse to Morocco on 30 March, Dr Siby said. After five weeks at the Moroccan clinic, she had given birth on Tuesday, the minister said.(BBC)…[+]

The white former Minneapolis police officer convicted last month of the murder of the black man George Floyd has requested a new trial. Derek Chauvin’s legal team have filed court documents alleging misconduct by both prosecutors and jurors. Chauvin, who was captured on video kneeling on Mr Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes, was found guilty of murder and manslaughter. His lawyer says his client was deprived of a fair trial. The rare verdict against a police officer was considered a milestone in the racial history of the US and was widely applauded by Americans. Chauvin faces up to 40 years in prison. He will be sentenced next month.(BBC)…[+]

The Seychelles, which has fully vaccinated over 60% of its population against Covid-19, is bringing back restrictions amid a rise in cases. The archipelago of nearly 100,000 people recorded close to 500 new cases in the three days to 1 May and has about 1,000 active cases. A third of the active cases involved people who had had two vaccine doses, the country’s news agency said. The rest had either had a single dose or were unvaccinated.

Schools have been closed and sports activities cancelled for two weeks. Bars, restaurants and shops are to close early and some gatherings have been banned. “Despite all the exceptional efforts we are making, the Covid-19 situation in our country is critical right now with many daily cases reported last week,” Health Minister Peggy Vidot told a press conference on Tuesday.(BBC)…[+]

An Australian man who was almost killed in an attack by a great white shark has won the right to keep a tooth the animal left wedged in his surfboard. Surfer Chris Blowes lost his leg and was in a coma for 10 days after he was attacked in South Australia in 2015. The shark’s tooth was embedded in his board, but state rules ban people from possessing parts of protected species. Now the state has granted him an exemption, and Mr Blowes says he’s keeping the tooth as a “souvenir”. Mr Blowes, now 32, was surfing at Fishery Bay in April 2015 when a 5.5m-long (18ft) great white shark struck him from behind. “It shook me about and played with me for a bit,” he told the BBC. “And it ended up pulling my leg off”.(BBC)…[+]