Hong Kong police stormed into a university campus held by protesters early Monday after an all-night siege that included firing repeated barrages of tear gas and water cannons.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a former defence official revered by Sri Lanka's ethnic majority for his role in ending a bloody civil war but feared by minorities for his brutal approach, declared victory Sunday in the nation's presidential election.

In the swing state of Michigan, which helped Obama and Trump win their elections, here's how the fallout from the presidential impeachment hearings is affecting voters.

Stores and museums in Venice were mostly closed in the hardest-hit area around St. Mark's Square, but tourists donned high rubber boots or even hip waders to witness and photograph the spectacle.

British media on Sunday slammed Prince Andrew's effort to rebut claims that he had sex with a teenager who says she was trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein, branding his televised interview a complete public relations disaster.

An anti-government protester in Iraq was killed Sunday by a direct hit to the head from a tear gas canister amid fresh clashes on a strategic Baghdad bridge, security and medical officials said. Since the protests began Oct. 1, at least 320 people have been killed and thousands wounded.

At least seven people were killed and another 25 injured after a gas pipeline exploded in southeastern Bangladesh on Sunday, police said.

Iran's supreme leader on Sunday backed the government's decision to raise gasoline prices and called angry protesters who have been setting fire to public property over the hike "thugs," signaling a potential crackdown on the demonstrations.

Months of protest have driven many Hong Kongers to consider moving abroad and rekindled memories of the 1990s, when hundreds of thousands fled out of fear of communist rule.

The first witnesses to the House impeachment hearings offered a cogent, damaging portrait of President Trump's attempts to strong-arm Ukraine to investigate Democrats. Some of next week's witnesses may offer a rebuttal.

U.N. Rights Chief: Violence in Bolivia could 'spin out of control'

Thousands protest in Iranian cities for a second day after President Hassan Rouhani cuts gasoline subsidies. Clashes erupt in Tabriz and Sirjan, with at least one dead.

Bernie Sanders holds an L.A. rally as part of his strategy to mobilize Latinos, particularly younger voters, to help him win California's Democratic primary.

Doehner was the only person left of the 62 passengers and crew members who survived the 1937 aviation accident.

Here are the stories you shouldn't miss today: TOP STORIES A 16-Second Burst of Violence A routine day.

Ammon Bundy, who led a 2106 standoff with the federal government at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon, thought he'd found another cause to champion this week in Idaho.

Police pulled back after attempted dawn raid on Polytechnic University was met with fire

• Full story: Hundreds trapped as police lay siege to university
  

8.45am GMT

Our correspondent in Hong Kong, Lily Kuo, has posted this view of the besieged Hong Kong Polytechnic University that shows thick smoke billowing from the campus and multiple explosions — with hundreds of students still inside.

Multiple explosions in this fire that seems to be quickly spreading at the entrance of Polyu. There are still hundreds of people inside. pic.twitter.com/odfG9ZYkLR

8.15am GMT

The Associated Press has published its latest update, which describes how police are preventing protesters from leaving the campus:

Hundreds of protesters in Hong Kong are trapped inside a university campus, with police firing rounds of teargas at them to stop them breaking through a cordon to escape the area.

Protesters stuck in Hong Kong Polytechnic University advanced on the police from outside the cordon, while others emerged from the campus. However, they faced teargas and in some places police swooped in to make arrests.

Dean Baquet decries abuse of journalists and defends not calling president racist

The executive editor of the New York Times has accused Donald Trump of putting his reporters’ lives at risk by subjecting them to personal abuse and describing them as “enemies of the people”.

Dean Baquet, who has led the news outlet during one of the most tumultuous periods in its history, said the US president’s history of verbal attacks on journalists such as the New York Times’s political reporter Maggie Haberman was “appalling” and risked having serious consequences.

Exclusive: PM’s relationship with Helen Macintyre will be examined by London assembly

• Latest election news - live updates

An investigation into the prime minister’s relationship with the US businesswoman Jennifer Arcuri will also review an affair that Boris Johnson failed to declare when he was mayor of London, the Guardian can reveal.

Johnson escaped censure in 2010 when he failed to declare an interest over an unpaid City Hall adviser, Helen Macintyre, who it later emerged had an extramarital affair with the then London mayor and gave birth to one of his children.

US president says potential Democratic rival is ‘somewhat better than that’ and urges North Korean leader to agree nuclear deal

Donald Trump has come to the defence of one of his potential rivals for the presidency, telling North Korea its recent description of Joe Biden as a “rabid dog” that should be “beaten to death” was a little unfair.

Trump’s criticism of Pyongyang – albeit via a half-hearted endorsement of Biden’s character – came amid attempts to resurrect stalled nuclear talks, with Trump imploring North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, to “get the deal done”, and the US and South Korea agreeing to postpone an annual air force drill the North routinely condemns as a rehearsal for an invasion.

Lawyers for Epstein’s victims say they were ‘almost completely ignored’ in interview

Prince Andrew is facing a transatlantic backlash over his extraordinary defence of his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein after lawyers who represent 10 of the billionaire predator’s victims branded the royal unrepentant and implausible and demanded that he speak to the FBI.

After the royal’s defiant Newsnight interview on Saturday triggered a disbelieving reaction from the public and the media, the prince was under growing pressure from critics in the UK and US on Sunday who demanded an apology for his conduct and said that his defence of his actions was simply not credible.

Trump tactic suggesting Marie Yovanovitch and Alexander Vindman have mixed loyalties criticized as bigoted

Republicans and Donald Trump have sought to smear key witnesses in the impeachment inquiry against the president as having dual or mixed loyalties to the US, due to being born abroad.

The move has sparked condemnation as a bigoted tactic that has maligned career US diplomats and officials as being potentially disloyal to their adopted country due to not being born in America.

Even the prime minister has chopped the vegetable out of her official menu after monsoon caused Indian crop failure

Bangladesh has been forced to import planeloads of onions as the price of the cooking staple soared to record highs, an official said, with even the prime minister chopping the bulb from her menu.

The price of onions – a sensitive subject in south Asia where shortages can trigger widespread discontent with political ramifications – has climbed to eye-watering levels in Bangladesh since neighbouring India banned exports in late September after heavy monsoon rains reduced the crop.

Police say 10 people shot by unknown assailants at family gathering in California city

Four people have been shot dead in Fresno, California, after suspects entered a backyard party and fired into the crowd, police said.

The shooting took place at about 6pm at a residence in the south-east of the city where people were gathered to watch a football game, according to Fresno police.