North America

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney say they will vote to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s historic elevation to the Supreme Court, giving President Joe Biden’s nominee a burst of bipartisan support and all but assuring she’ll become the first Black female justice.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A second suspect was arrested Tuesday in connection to the mass shooting in Sacramento that killed six people in California’s capital, and police said he is the brother of the first suspect.

Smiley Martin, 27, was arrested while hospitalized with serious injuries from the gunfire. When his condition improves enough for him to be jailed, he will be booked for possession of a firearm by a prohibited person and possession of a machine gun, a police statement said.

Washington, Apr 5 (PTI) The White House has reiterated that it is not in India's interest to "accelerate or increase" imports of Russian energy and other commodities, while offering to work with New Delhi to help it reduce its reliance on imports from Moscow.

United Nations, Apr 5 (AP) A top official in the global campaign against the use of land mines urged Russia on Monday to stop its troops in Ukraine from laying the weapons that too often kill and maim civilians.

Alicia Arango Olmos, Colombia's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva and this year's president of the state parties to the 1997 convention banning the production and use of land mines, expressed deep concern at media reports that Russia is using land mines in its war in Ukraine.

April 4 (Reuters) - The global market for nuclear missiles and bombs should surpass $126 billion within ten years, up nearly 73% from 2020 levels, according to a report by Allied Market Research on Monday, as Russian aggression in Ukraine spurs military spending.

The value of the market would jump 72.6% from the Portland-based research firm's estimate of nearly $73 billion in 2020, when COVID-19 delays and reallocation of funds to support the health crisis "severely affected" the defence sector.

April 4 (Reuters) - Canada said on Monday it will impose sanctions on nine Russian and nine Belarusian individuals for having "facilitated and enabled" Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

"By enabling (Russian President) Vladimir Putin's senseless invasion of Ukraine, these close collaborators of the regime are complicit in the horrific events unfolding before our eyes," Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said in a statement.

The individuals are close associates of the Russian and Belarusian regimes, according to the statement.

TORONTO, April 4 (Reuters) - Pope Francis's long-awaited apology to Canada's indigenous community for more than a century of abusive residential schools, many of them run by the Catholic Church, should be followed by millions of dollars in compensation and the release of residential school records, survivors and indigenous leaders said.

Canada's state-sanctioned schools forcibly separated about 150,000 children indigenous children from their families, subjecting many of them to physical and sexual abuse in what the Truth and Reconciliation Commission called "cultural genocide."

WASHINGTON, April 4 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of war crimes and called for a trial, adding to the global outcry over civilian killings in the Ukrainian town of Bucha as more graphic images of their deaths emerged.

"You saw what happened in Bucha," Biden told reporters at the White House. "This warrants him - he is a war criminal."

(AP) --- Tesla CEO Elon Musk has taken a 9.2% stake in Twitter, purchasing approximately 73.5 million shares, according to a regulatory filing Monday.

Musk’s stake in Twitter is considered a passive investment, which means Musk is a long-term investor that’s looking to minimize his buying and selling of the shares.

(AP) --- Over a year ago, two off-duty police officers from a small town in Virginia were charged with storming the U.S. Capitol together. A trial for one of them starts this week. The other could be a key prosecution witness.

The trial of former Rocky Mount police officer Thomas Robertson will be the third among hundreds of people charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. The first two trials both ended with convictions, although one of those defendants was acquitted of a disorderly conduct charge.