Dozens of people were arrested in Sri Lanka following protests near the president's home demanding that he resign amid the country's worst economic crisis in memory, police said Friday.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's office blamed "organized extremists" within the group of protesters for violence during Thursday night's demonstration, where police fired tear gas and a water cannon at thousands of protesters and arrested 54 people.

The appearance by video of the head of Ukrainian soccer, wearing an armored vest from the streets of Kyiv, has brought the impact of Russia's war into the FIFA Congress.

"We have regularly received sad news of the deaths of members of the Ukrainian football community," Andriy Pavelko said in a recorded message to the gathering in Qatar including delegates from Russia.

A dozen years of defending Qatar's suitability to host the World Cup can leave Hassan Al-Thawadi exasperated at the enduring glare of scrutiny and the accusatory, rather than celebratory, tone.

At times, Al-Thawadi can seem to be the face — even leader — of this Persian Gulf nation given his prominence. As head of the bid, and now general secretary of the organizing committee, Al-Thawadi has rights groups, protesting football federations and fans worldwide to answer to.

Tia Rutherford is worried about her 3-year-old son.

As energy prices soared last fall, she tacked fleece blankets over her doors and windows to keep the cold out and started serving Jacob breakfast in his room so she didn't have to heat the living room. But she's consumed by worry that she can't pay her utility bills and that her son isn't warm enough.

The United States has returned a cache of smuggled ancient artifacts to Libya as the oil-rich Mediterranean country struggles to protect its heritage against the backdrop of years of war, turmoil and unrest.

The repatriated items include two sculptures dating to the 4th century B.C. from the ancient city of Cyrene.

The head of the United Nations said Thursday that nearly all Afghans don't have enough to eat and some have resorted to "selling their children and their body parts" to get money for food.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' statement was part of a dramatic appeal from the world body and several rich countries that want to help beleaguered Afghans, whose fate has worsened since the Taliban returned to power last year.

The European Union will seek China's assurances that it won't assist Russia in circumventing economic sanctions leveled over the invasion of Ukraine at an annual summit Friday.

EU officials say they will also look for signs Beijing is willing to cooperate on bringing an end to the war at the virtual meeting.

Russian troops left the heavily contaminated Chernobyl nuclear site early Friday after returning control to the Ukrainians, authorities said, as eastern parts of the country braced for renewed attacks and Russians blocked another aid mission to the besieged port city of Mariupol.

Ukraine's state power company, Energoatom, said the pullout at Chernobyl came after soldiers received "significant doses" of radiation from digging trenches in the forest in the exclusion zone around the closed plant. But there was no independent confirmation of that.

A powerful Iraqi Shiite cleric has said that he was stepping back for the next 40 days and giving his Iran-backed rivals the chance to form the country's next government.

The surprising move by Muqtada al-Sadr comes against the backdrop of a persisting political deadlock in Iraq, five months after general elections.

There couldn't be a better moment for Jonathan Clauss to return to the club which once thought he was not ready for the roughness of the game.

It has been a long road, but the 29-year-old Lens right back ultimately made it to the top level, getting a first taste of international soccer with France's national team over the past few days.