World briefing: The earth opens up in Ottawa

Wrong man?:

The

Guardian

reports Italian and British police are investigating whether they got the wrong man after a anti-smuggling operation reportedly caught one of the world's most-wanted people smugglers. Investigators had said that they had arrested Medhanie Yehdego Mered, a 35-year-old Eritrean known as The General whom an Italian prosecutor called "the boss of one of the most important criminal groups operating in central Africa and Libya". The

Guardian

said there was now a probe into whether Sudan had extradited the wrong man, after three friends of the detainee alleged he was the victim of mistaken identity. They said the man sent to Italy was Medhanie Tesfamariam Kidane, a 27-year-old refugee.

Canadian sinkhole: A shopping centre and buildings around a major intersection near Parliament in Ottawa were evacuated because of a large sinkhole, city officials said. The road collapse occurred at Rideau Street and Sussex Drive, not far east of Parliament. A van fell into the hole but there were no injuries.The city said buildings in the area were evacuated because of the smell of gas but the leaks have since been contained.

Bulls spared: Spanish MPs have voted to ban the spearing to death of bulls at one of the country's goriest spectacles. The decision in the Castile and Leon region confirms an earlier government decree to prohibit bull-killing at September's annual Toro de la Vega festival in the town of Tordesillas 200km northwest of Madrid. The vote does not affect traditional bullfighting in the region.

Delegate milestone: Hillary Clinton has reached another delegate milestone: She's now won a majority of delegates from primaries and caucuses. Her win in California easily put her over the top among those delegates. It's notable because Bernie Sanders has argued that his White House bid remained viable as long as he stood a chance of winning a majority of pledged delegates. Clinton now has 2191 delegates - or more than half of the 4051 total pledged delegates. Sanders has 1816.When including superdelegates, Clinton's lead is much bigger - 2765 to Sanders' 1864. It takes 2383 to win. Clinton crossed that threshold to become the Democrat presumptive nominee.

Trump narrows choice: US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump says he had narrowed his search for a vice-presidential running mate down to four or five unnamed establishment politicians, including one former rival who has not endorsed him, according to a Bloomberg interview. "I'd like to save it, give it the old fashioned way, right?" Trump said of not announcing his choice until the Republican National Convention in July.

Special forces in Fallujah: A column of black Humvees carrying Iraqi special forces rolled into southern Fallujah, the first time in more than two years that government troops have entered the western city held by Isis (Islamic State). The counterterrorism troops fought house-to-house battles with the militants in the Shuhada neighbourhood, and the operation to retake the city is expected to be one of the most difficult yet.

Soldier sacked: Former Australian special forces soldier and federal MP Andrew Hastie has reportedly been sacked by the Army Reserve. Hastie, who served in Afghanistan, was given the boot by the Department of Defence after he failed to comply with requests to remove pictures showing him in Army uniform from election campaign material, the West Australian reports. Australian Armed forces are zealous in guarding their apolitical stance and Defence Force members are banned from taking part in any political activities while in uniform.

More information: The Australian Government is seeking more information from Australia's High Commission in Port Moresby on what happened in a violent clash between police and students. Initial reports said four students were killed and more than a dozen injured when police opened fire. The Papua New Guinea Government says no one was killed although five were injured. It has launched an inquiry to determine the reasons for the continuing student unrest, which it says is driven by outsiders with political agendas.

IVF technique:

A study of a new three-parent IVF technique designed to reduce the risk of mothers passing hereditary diseases to their babies has found it is likely to work well and lead to normal pregnancies, British scientists say. Britain's Parliament voted last year to become the first in the world to allow the three-parent in-vitro-fertilisation (IVF) technique, which doctors say will prevent incurable inherited diseases but critics see as a step towards "designer babies". Having completed pre-clinical tests involving more than 500 eggs from 64 donor women, researchers from Britain's Newcastle University said the technique, called "early pronuclear transfer", does not harm early embryonic development. The technique also showed promise in being able to "greatly reduce" the level of faulty mitochondria in the embryo, the researchers said.

Missing acknowledged: Sri Lanka has acknowledged for the first time that some 65,000 people are missing from its 26-year-long war with Tamil Tiger rebels and a separate Marxist insurrection. President Maithripala Sirisena's coalition Government has agreed to address past human rights violations through independent probes and to implement a resolution by the United Nation Human Rights Council. Former president Mahinda Rajapaksa's Government had rejected the UN recommendations, saying it wanted to address rights concerns without any international pressure. Rajapaksa lost power in January 2015.

Tube attacker convicted: A British court convicted an Isis-inspired taxi driver of attempted murder after he tried to behead a musician at an east London subway station and threatened other travellers with a knife. A Central Criminal Court jury convicted Muhaydin Mire, 30, of the unprovoked and brutal attack at Leytonstone station on December 5 that was captured on closed circuit television and by mobile phone cameras. Prosecutors told the trial that Somalia-born Mire had suffered "delusions of a persecutory, religious and grandiose nature," including a belief he was being followed by British spy agencies, and that his family had sought mental-health treatment for him.

- agencies