East Timor heads to polls for presidential election

Today's headlines: authorities in Shanghai declare 10 deaths from Covid-19; sectarian violence flares up again in India; Sri Lanka's president tries to reset government; Israel says it has hit Hamas targets in Gaza Strip; Russia blocks Ukrainian news sites.

TIMOR EAST

Voting in the second round of East Timor's presidential election began today, with Jose Ramos-Horta, who received more than 45% of the vote in the first round, and incumbent President Francisco 'Lu Olo' Guterres on the ballot. The next Head of State will then be sworn in on 20 May.

CHINA

There have been seven more deaths from Covid-19 in Shanghai, with official authorities reporting 10 deaths in the city so far. Several posts on social media questioned the count by Beijing, which insists on applying its zero covid policy.

SRI LANKA

Colombo has begun talks with the International Monetary Fund in a bid to ease the worst economic crisis in decades. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, whose resignation is demanded by the population, tried to calm the protests by appointing a new cabinet of 17 ministers.

PAKISTAN

Six people were sentenced to death in Pakistan for the lynching of Priyantha Diyawadanage, the Sri Lankan citizen in charge of a factory who was killed by a mob of fanatics in early December. Nine other people were sentenced to life imprisonment and others were given prison terms of between two and five years.

INDIA

Jahangirpuri, near Delhi, was the scene of another episode of sectarian violence this weekend: during a Hindu procession there were clashes with Muslims living in the neighbourhood. The situation has not yet completely calmed down: yesterday some women started throwing stones at the police again after the arrest of the wife of a suspect.

RUSSIA - UKRAINE

The Russian monitoring agency Roskomnadzor, at the request of the General Prosecutor's Office, blocked the site of "Human Rights Watch", after it had published news about civilians killed in Ukraine by the Russians. Almost all Ukrainian information sites were blocked, including that of the Ministry of Finance in Kiev, and the Georgian site "News Tbilisi".

KYRGYZSTAN

A billion agreement was signed in Kyrgyzstan between President Sadyr Zaparov and investors from three French companies, with the aim of building the "green city" of Asman on Lake Issyk-Kul, an urban model of ecological purity, without asphalt and pollution. Other sites are being evaluated, also for future similar projects in the country.

ISRAEL - PALESTINE

The Israeli defence said it had hit a Hamas weapons production site in the Gaza Strip. Yesterday, a missile from the Strip was intercepted by the Iron Dome system. No casualties were reported. The violence flared up again after clashes between Jews and Muslims on the Esplanade of Mosques in Jerusalem.