Sudanese police: 16 killed by stray bullets at protests and sit-ins

At least 16 people were killed, and 20 injured by stray bullets at protests and sit-ins on Thursday and Friday, a Sudanese police spokesman said in a statement on Saturday.

from Reuters: World News https://reut.rs/2X9pUDA

Defiant Poroshenko: Ukraine's voters will choose substance over style in election

Ukraine's leader on Friday said he was confident of turning the tables on his inexperienced opponent in the second round of the presidential election, saying voters would choose a substantive program over his challenger's dangerous populism.

from Reuters: World News https://reut.rs/2P8nXEz

Factbox: Leading Sudanese security figures

Officers who ousted President Omar al-Bashir from three decades in power have announced that a military council will run Sudan for a transitional period lasting up to two years, followed by elections.

from Reuters: World News https://reut.rs/2IfX7d2

Backstory: A tip-off, a red light: how Reuters captured Assange's thumbs-up

(Backstory is a series of reports showing how Reuters journalists work and the standards under which they operate)

from Reuters: World News https://reut.rs/2v0OYRa

Clashes in Peru coca eradication operation leave at least two dead

Two farmers were killed in clashes in Peru that erupted on Friday as authorities launched an operation to uproot coca plants - used to make cocaine - in a region near the border with Bolivia, a local mayor and the police said.

from Reuters: World News https://reut.rs/2v105cL

Colombia gets $31.5 million grant to aid Venezuelan migrants

A refugee fund set up by the World Bank, the United Nations and the Islamic Development Bank on Friday approved a $31.5 million grant for Colombia to aid Venezuelan migrants and refugees.

from Reuters: World News https://reut.rs/2Gju5XB

With Bouteflika gone, protesters in Algeria demand more change

Hundreds of thousands of protesters demanding the departure of Algeria's ruling elite rallied in the North African nation's capital on Friday and police reported nearly 200 arrests after clashes that left more than 80 officers injured.

from Reuters: World News https://reut.rs/2Z9UM8z

Two Venezuela central bank employees arrested after meeting Guaido: lawyer

Two people who work at Venezuela's central bank were arrested on Friday after meeting opposition leader Juan Guaido, who has called on public officials to disavow President Nicolas Maduro, according to the employees' lawyer and a source familiar with the matter.

from Reuters: World News https://reut.rs/2v0gJZY

East Libyan warplanes hit Tripoli government positions

Eastern Libyan forces bogged down in street battles in a push to seize the capital Tripoli deployed warplanes on Friday to hit several government positions, as more civilians fled fighting.

from Reuters: World News https://reut.rs/2P4rC6p

Former Venezuelan general with 'treasure trove' of intelligence arrested for drug trafficking

Spanish police on Friday arrested Hugo Carvajal, a former head of Venezuelan military intelligence, who Washington believes has a "treasure trove" of details he is willing to share about Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

from Reuters: World News https://reut.rs/2ItrDPP

Satanic Temple challenges Missouri abortion law that forces women to wait three days

The Satanic Temple has launched a legal challenge to Missouri laws requiring women to wait three days before undergoing an abortion.An appeal filed in the Eighth US Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday on behalf of a member of the group, named only as “Judy Doe”, claims rules in the state infringe on First Amendment rights to religious freedom.Missouri operates a so-called “Informed Consent” abortion process, where women are forced to wait at least 72 hours after requesting the procedure before it is carried out.In that time, laws require patients are given a booklet which states: “the life of each human being begins at conception”.They must also be offered the opportunity to listen to the foetal heartbeat and view an ultrasound before an abortion can take place.A federal judge initially dismissed the case in March, ruling the laws were not discriminatory on religious grounds.But the temple has now requested the appeals court adjudicate on whether life begins at conception and whether a matter of “religious opinion” can be imposed by law.“Our appeal presents a challenge for judges who want to defy the law to promote an agenda because the Eighth Circuit will have to overrule itself to deny our claims,” said Satanic Temple co-founder and spokesman Lucien Greaves.“It is laughable for theocrats to obviously impose their religious viewpoint into law only to claim that their actions are not discriminatory by virtue of the fact that everybody is equally burdened by the restrictions they’ve created. We are confident that reason will prevail upon appeal.”A similar lawsuit filed by a Satanic Temple member was rejected by the Missouri Supreme Court in February this year.In that case, a woman known as “Mary Doe” argued the temple taught a woman’s body is “inviolable and subject to her will alone”.She also stated it was her sincerely-held religious belief a foetus was not part of her body and was not a human being.However, the court ruled Informed Consent did not violate religious freedoms because parts of it only “happened to coincide” with certain religious tenets on abortion, rather than being based on them.A spokesman for Missouri attorney general Eric Schmitt at the time said the law was “designed to protect women from undue pressure and coercion during the sensitive decision of whether or not to have an abortion.”The Satanic Temple, which has 13 chapters across the US and Canada, is a non-theistic moment founded in 2013, which promotes egalitarianism, civil liberties, secularism and reproductive rights.Adherants do not believe in a literal Satan, but consider the literary Satan a metaphor for questioning authority and promoting scepticism.It is also known for its use of satire to challenge Christianity, an action for which its members have faced accusations they do not hold sincere Satanist beliefs and are instead just attempting to prank or “troll” targets. In August last year, the group unveiled an eight-foot bronze statue of the goat-headed devil figure Baphomet outside the Arkansas state capitol building in protest against a Ten Commandments monument on the site.In 2016, the temple sought to establish “After School Satan” clubs, in protest against evangelical Christian Good News Clubs, which it considers an erosion of the separation of church and state in public education.Additional reporting by AP

Geraldo Rivera has little doubt that Obama's DOJ 'engineered' the Russia probe

Fox News correspondent-at-large Geraldo Rivera gives his take on Attorney General Bill Barr's claim that spying occurred during President Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and former FBI Director Comey's 'disingenuous' defense.

New York Post stirs Ilhan Omar controversy with 9/11 cover

Conservative media outlets have seized on remarks made by Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., at a fundraiser for an organization founded to combat Islamophobia.

Leaker Chelsea Manning stuck in jail after Assange arrest

Nine years ago, a 23-year-old US army specialist, deeply troubled by the US war in Iraq and by her own gender identity, rocked the US government by leaking disturbing classified military records to WikiLeaks. Chelsea Manning spent years in prison for her crime before her sentence was commuted -- but on Friday was again sitting in jail for what her supporters say is an ongoing punitive political vendetta. Last month, she refused to testify in a secret grand jury investigation of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who was arrested in London on Thursday on a US indictment linked to their cooperation in 2010 on the leak of secret US records of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

REFILE-UPDATE 2-Italy, France spar over tackling escalating conflict in Libya

TRIPOLI/ROME, April 11 (Reuters) - France and Italy wrangled on Thursday over how best to tackle renewed conflict in Libya as a bid by eastern forces under Khalifa Haftar to seize Tripoli stalled in the face of strong resistance on the capital's southern outskirts. The United Nations said the fighting between Haftar's forces and troops under the internationally-backed Tripoli government had killed at least 56 people and forced 8,000 to flee their homes in the city in the last week.

US cop's son arrested in arson of three black churches

The white son of a Louisiana police officer has been arrested and accused of burning down historically black churches in the southern US state, authorities announced Thursday. Holden Matthews is charged with three counts of arson on a religious building for allegedly burning down three rural churches over a 10-day period beginning in late March. Authorities said they were not ready to discuss the motive for the attacks, but a federal hate crimes investigation was ongoing.

Heartbeat bill: Ohio governor signs one of the nation's strictest abortion bans

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed a "heartbeat" abortion ban Thursday afternoon alongside Republican legislative leaders.

After years of giving refuge, Ecuador suspends Assange's citizenship

A bearded and frail-looking Assange was arrested by British police on Thursday after Ecuador terminated his asylum at its London embassy, where he had lived since 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden over a sexual assault investigation. Assange's Ecuadorean citizenship was suspended on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Jose Valencia told reporters. To some, Australian-born Assange is a hero for exposing what supporters cast as abuse of power and for championing free speech.

The Latest: Sudan's post-coup transitional leader steps down

CAIRO (AP) — The Latest on the situation in Sudan (all times local):

At Egypt’s Tourism Gems, Brutal Animal Abuse Is an Ugly Flaw

By DECLAN WALSH from NYT World https://nyti.ms/2IfbZbx