Sri Lankans are headed to the polls to choose a new president, seven months after the devastating Easter Sunday terror attacks.
A total of 35 candidates are vying for the presidential post, but analysts say the fight is mainly between former defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who oversaw the military defeat of Tamil separatists 10 years ago, and minister Sajith Premadasa.
President Maithripala Sirisena, however, has decided against running after evidence emerged that he may have disregarded intelligence about the Easter Sunday bombings.
About 16 million people are eligible to vote, with the ballot allowing voters to choose up to three candidates in order of preference.
The results are not expected before Sunday.
Meanwhile, there were reports of violence as gunmen opened fire on a convoy of buses carrying Muslim voters, but police said there were no casualties.
Turkey has detained 11 people as part of an investigation into a fire that killed 79 people and injured dozens at a ski resort in the Bolu mountains, Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said on Wednesday.
The climate crisis and an unlimited expansion of artificial intelligence could be existential threats for humanity, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday, adding AI should serve humanity and not the other way around.
Prince Harry claimed a "monumental" victory over Rupert Murdoch's UK newspaper group on Wednesday after the publisher settled his lawsuit, admitting unlawful actions at its Sun tabloid for the first time and paying substantial damages.
US President Donald Trump has pardoned Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, who was sentenced to life in prison for running an underground online marketplace where drug dealers and others conducted more than $200 million in illicit trade using bitcoin.
Israeli security forces backed by helicopters raided the volatile West Bank city of Jenin on Tuesday, killing at least nine Palestinians in what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a, "large-scale and significant military operation".