PARIS (AFP) - Australia’s prime minister expressed his sorrow on Friday at the killing of a 15-year-old Aboriginal boy, insisting that the attack was clearly ‘racially motivated’. The alleged murder of Cassius Turvey in the western city of Perth has sparked outrage nationwide, with protests planned and rights activists decrying what they said was another symptom of systemic racism. Lamenting Turvey’s death as a “terrible tragedy”, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese insisted “we’re a better country than that, and my heart goes out to the family and the friends”. Turvey died in hospital after a man allegedly jumped out of a vehicle, chased him and hit him on the head with a metal pole.

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NICOSIA (Reuters) - Police have fired tear gas after clashes broke out and fires were lit at an overcrowded reception centre for migrants in Cyprus, according to police and witnesses. At least one person needed a hospital treatment after being injured on Friday at the Pournaras reception facility, about 22km (14 miles) west of the capital, Nicosia. People hurled rocks and objects at each other, forcing many to flee in panic, and firefighters rushed to extinguish a blaze that sent billowing smoke into the sky. Tensions later “calmed”, a police said.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul Pelosi was “violently assaulted” after a break-in at the couple’s San Francisco home early on Friday and a suspect has been arrested, authorities said. Paul Pelosi, 82, was taken to the hospital and to make a full recovery, Pelosi’s office said. The Democratic speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, who is second in line to the presidency, was in Washington with her protective detail at the time of the assault, according to the U.S. Capitol Police. The Capitol Police said a motivation for the attack was still under investigation. The circumstances of the attack were unclear, including how the intruder got into the home. The Capitol Police, responsible for protecting Congress, said it was working with the FBI and the San Francisco Police on the investigation.

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OKLAHOMA (Reuters) - Eight people died in a house fire on Thursday in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, where police said the blaze was being investigated as a homicide. Neighbors reported the fire about 4 p.m. (2100 GMT) in the Tulsa suburb of about 40,000 people, police said. Officials provided scant details of what happened or who was killed. “Preliminary reports are that this is going to be a homicide investigation,” Broken Arrow police spokesperson Ethan Hutchins told reporters. “We’re still focused on trying to put out the fire and also investigate what happened to these victims.”

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SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Human rights groups and researchers have raised concerns in Brazil that social media platforms are failing to effectively police disinformation ahead of a highly polarized presidential vote on Sunday. Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court (TSE) bolstered measures this month to tackle disinformation around the election, especially on video sharing platforms. Sunday’s runoff vote pits far-right President Jair Bolsonaro against leftist former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Groups that monitor the online spaces said that tech companies are still struggling to follow through on agreements they signed with the TSE in February, in which they promised to combat material that could undermine the democratic process.