Canada

Seized Russian oligarchs' assets – which local media have said top tens of millions of dollars in Canada, but officials declined to confirm – could then be used to help reconstruction in Ukraine.

The incident, which did not go unnoticed by internet users, provoked a range of reactions from amusement and annoyance to mockery.

Authorities had released a photo of the victim's distinctive nail polish design in asking for help identifying her, and later made a public appeal to locate her son.

Richard Vallieres, who was among the 16 people arrested by police, was found guilty of fraud, trafficking and theft and sentenced to eight years in prison and fined over C$9 million by the Quebec Superior Court.

Canada banned Russian planes from entering its airspace starting on Sunday as part of severe sanctions imposed on Moscow in response to its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

This comes after more than 90% of Canadian adults have already received two jabs of other vaccines, but about half of the population has yet to get a booster shot.

The rarely used powers had been invoked nine days earlier – for only the second time ever in peacetime – and their final approval was still being debated in the Senate when Trudeau lifted them.

The protesters initially wanted an end to cross-border Covid-19 vaccine mandates for truck drivers, but the occupation turned into a demonstration against Trudeau and the minority Liberal government.

Demonstrators had used hundreds of trucks and vehicles to block the city since Jan 28, prompting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to invoke rarely used emergency powers.

Hundreds of heavily armed officers gathered in the early morning on the edges of downtown Ottawa for the start of a gradual clearance process that could take days.

At its peak, the movement also included blockades of a half-dozen US-Canada border crossings – including the key route between Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, Michigan.

Protesters remain camped out on Parliament Hill, weeks after police first allowed hundreds of trucks to park in the riverside core of the city.