By Humphrey Malalo and Ayenat Mersie

NAIROBI (Reuters) -Kenyan police tear gassed the leader of the opposition on Monday and arrested senior lawmakers in his parliamentary faction, as protesters took to the streets to march against President William Ruto and the high cost of living.

The convoy of Raila Odinga, who was defeated by Ruto last year in his fifth straight election as the runner up, was repeatedly sprayed with tear gas as he addressed supporters from the sunroof of his car.

Odinga has called for nationwide protests as he attempts to harness dissatisfaction with the president. At least four members of parliament were arrested during protests in Nairobi, including the minority leaders of the National Assembly and Senate, Odinga’s spokesman, Dennis Onyango, said.

Police officers in riot gear fired tear gas at hundreds of rock-throwing protesters in the capital Nairobi’s vast Kibera slum, who chanted: “Ruto must go.”

“We are suffering and tired of this Ruto regime. We’ve had enough,” said one protester, who asked not to be identified, as tear gas swirled around her.

The discontented include some of those who voted for Ruto and feel he has not delivered on pledges to help the country’s forgotten “hustlers”, or working-class Kenyans.

Police used tear gas and a water cannon to prevent Odinga’s convoy from driving towards the president’s State House residence to deliver a petition.

The convoy then sped through the streets of the capital attempting to dodge police roadblocks, before Odinga emerged from the sunroof to address a crowd of supporters. Tear gas engulfed the vehicle as he spoke, calling for protests every Monday until the cost of living comes down.

In the western city of Kisumu, an Odinga stronghold, police also fired barrages of tear gas in the direction of protesters who had started fires in the road, footage on Citizen TV showed.

Nairobi police chief Adamson Bungei said he would have details about arrests in the capital later in the day.

Despite Ruto’s promises to bring down living costs since taking power in September, inflation has remained high in East Africa’s economic powerhouse, rising to 9.2% in February.

Ruto has said his government is laying the foundations of a healthier economy, including by cutting reliance on borrowing.

Odinga has cast the demonstration as an opportunity to protest against the August vote, which he says was tainted by fraud.

He challenged the results in the Supreme Court last year, but the court affirmed Ruto’s win, and there was little of the violence that marred elections Odinga also disputed in 2007 and 2017.

(Reporting by Ayenat Mersie, Humphrey Malalo and Thomas Mukoya; Writing by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Hereward Holland and Peter Graff)

By Sarah N. Lynch

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Four associates of the far-right Oath Keepers group were found guilty on Monday for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, but the Washington jury remained deadlocked on some serious charges for two other defendants who did not enter the building during the chaos.

Oath Keeper associates Sandra Ruth Parker, Laura Steele, Connie Meggs and William Isaacs were found guilty of obstructing an official proceeding – a charge that can carry up to 20 years in prison, as well as several other felony and misdemeanor charges.

Michael Greene and Bennie Parker, the two who did not enter the Capitol building, were acquitted on the most serious felonies charges, though the jury remained deadlocked on one outstanding felony count for each man.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta instructed the jury to go back and continue to deliberate on the two remaining counts.

Greene and Bennie Parker were found guilty, however, on lesser misdemeanor charges of entering a restricted building or grounds.

The verdict marks the end of the third major trial against members of the extremist group, who were among the thousands of Donald Trump supporters who attacked the Capitol in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent Congress from certifying Democratic President Joe Biden’s November 2020 election win.

Then-president Trump, a Republican, fired up the crowd on Jan. 6 with false claims that his defeat was the result of widespread fraud. He has continued to repeat those false claims, which have been rejected by multiple courts and members of his own administration, as he seeks the Republican nomination to run in 2024.

The Oath Keepers is a militia group founded by Stewart Rhodes in 2009 whose members include current and retired U.S. military personnel, law enforcement officers and first responders.

Four people died during the chaos on Jan. 6, and five police officers died of various causes after the attack. Then-Vice President Mike Pence, members of Congress and staff ran for their lives as rioters breached the building.

The first two Oath Keeper trials involved members or associates of the group who were each facing one count of seditious conspiracy – a charge that was not included in this latest case.

Rhodes and the group’s Florida chapter leader, Kelly Meggs, were convicted in November of seditious conspiracy for plotting to use force to try to block Congress from certifying Biden’s 2020 victory.

Four other members of the group were also convicted in January on seditious conspiracy, as well as other charges.

In this latest case, prosecutors said that Sandra Parker, Laura Steele, William Isaacs and Connie Meggs, who is married to Kelly Meggs, forcibly entered the Capitol in a “stack” formation, with some of them trying to push their way toward the Senate Chamber.

Greene and Bennie Parker did not physically enter the building, but prosecutors said they were part of the conspiracy.

The jury on Monday was deadlocked over whether to convict Bennie Parker for conspiring to obstruct an official proceeding, and remained deadlocked over whether to convict Greene for obstructing an official proceeding.

Prosecutors have brought criminal charges against more than 1,000 people following the riot.

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; writing by Susan Heavey; editing by Costas Pitas and Grant McCool)

By Krisztina Than and Marton Monus

BUDAPEST (Reuters) – After the lights dim in Budapest’s magnificent Opera House, Ukrainian ballerina Ganna Muromtseva flutters high with undulating arms in the lead role of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake ballet. At the end, the audience bursts into applause.

One year ago, the 29-year-old dancer fled Ukraine’s capital Kyiv on a packed train with thousands of other refugees after the Russian invasion, wondering if she would ever be on stage again.

Muromtseva was at the peak of her career at the National Opera of Ukraine when the war rewrote all her plans.

She last performed in Kyiv on Feb. 22, 2022.

Then on March 3, she was on a train with a friend, taking turns to share one seat during a gruelling 12-hour journey to western Ukraine. She found a driver for her mother and grandmother and convinced them to also leave Kyiv as Russian bombs started to rain down.

They all met up in Lviv and travelled to Belgium, welcomed by a family where she had once stayed on vacation as a child.

Muromtseva even left her pointe shoes behind in Kyiv, as all she could pack was one bag.

“When I left Kyiv I even did not count that I will dance any day again. I said bye-bye to my career,” she said between rehearsals in Budapest to play the demanding dual role of ethereal white swan Odette and deceptive black swan Odile.

Muromtseva had danced the role, considered a tour de force for the best ballerinas, for more than five years with her home company in Ukraine, China and Japan.

BACK AT THE TOP

Performing it at the Hungarian State Opera was a dream: back at the top after a year of surviving from one day to another and rebuilding herself as a dancer physically and mentally.

At a public dress rehearsal, Muromtseva enchanted the audience with her passionate and hypnotic performance.

“I’m happy to make a story on stage again,” she said.

“It is a totally different production (in Budapest). For me it feels like I really have to prove (myself) …. You have to be…very flexible in your head, not in your body.”

The Ukrainian works on her mental balance each day, going out for long walks, and has made new friends since she arrived in Budapest last summer.

Tough training and a tight schedule helps get by, Muromtseva said, though back in her rented flat, she sometimes cries to let it all out.

“We call it war-life balance, not work-life balance any more. It was difficult, now it’s getting a little bit easier.

“Do what you love and then you have power to do what you have to do.”

Muromtseva was registered as a refugee in Germany last year where she was offered new pointe shoes and a place to practice, before she auditioned for the job at the Hungarian State Opera, which has Ukrainian, Russian and Belarusian dancers among its soloists and international corps de ballet.

Her mother and grandmother returned to Kyiv last year and she is happy to be close to them in a neighbouring country in case they need help. Her mother plans a visit to see her in Swan Lake at the end of March, which gives her emotional strength.

“It means a lot for me, as she and grandfather were always my biggest support in ballet,” she said.

Muromtseva’s father also lives in Kyiv, and her godfather was just back injured from the front line after several months, she said.

Though the Hungarian State Opera has hired her for another year and she is happy with her new opportunity, Muromtseva would naturally like to return home one day.

“I am waiting for this day, that one day I can dance on Kyiv stage again, but for now I have a contract here.”

(Reporting and writing by Krisztina Than; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)

By Daphne Psaledakis and Simon Lewis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States has determined that all sides committed war crimes during the conflict in northern Ethiopia that killed tens of thousands of people, left hundreds of thousands facing hunger and displaced millions, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday.

Blinken said that after a careful review of the law and facts, the State Department determined that members of the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF), Eritrean Defense Force, forces loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and regional forces from Amhara committed war crimes during the conflict.

Members of the ENDF, Eritrean forces, and Amhara forces also committed crimes against humanity, Blinken told reporters, including murder, rape and other forms of sexual violence and persecution.

Members of the Amhara forces committed the crime against humanity of deportation or forcible transfer and committed ethnic cleansing through their treatment of Tigrayans in western Tigray, Blinken said.

The determination comes after the top U.S. diplomat’s trip to Ethiopia last week, where Blinken praised progress in implementing a peace deal in the country but stopped short of re-admitting it to a U.S. trade program.

The Ethiopian government and forces from Tigray signed a ceasefire in November, ending the conflict.

Ethiopian government spokesperson Legesse Tulu did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Blinken’s remarks. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s spokesperson Billene Seyoum also did not respond to requests for comment.

Additionally, Ethiopian Army spokesperson Colonel Getnet Adane, Eritrean Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel, TPLF official Getachew Reda, and Amhara regional government spokesperson Gizachew Muluneh did not respond to requests for comment.

Blinken said he discussed with both sides in his meetings in Addis Ababa last week that there must be acknowledgement for the atrocities committed by all parties, as well as accountability.

“The conflict in northern Ethiopia was devastating. Men, women and children were killed. Women and girls were subject to horrific forms of sexual violence. Thousands were forcibly displaced from their homes. Entire communities were specifically targeted based on their ethnicity. Many of these actions were not random or a mere byproduct of war – they were calculated and deliberate,” Blinken said.

“In terms of what happens next in Ethiopia, including what process they establish to provide for justice, for accountability, we’ll see. I don’t think that’s been determined,” he said.

Human rights violations by all sides, including extra-judicial killings, rapes, looting and displacing people by force, have been documented by U.N. bodies, Ethiopia’s state-appointed human rights commission, independent aid groups and media including Reuters. All sides have denied the allegations.

The United States was outspoken in its criticism of alleged atrocities by Ethiopian forces and their allies from Eritrea and the Amhara region during the Tigray war.

When presented with allegations of human rights violations, Ethiopia – Africa’s second most populous nation and traditionally a U.S. ally in East Africa – has traditionally responded by accusing Washington of meddling in its internal affairs and threatening to reassess the bilateral relationship.

(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis, Simon Lewis and Susan Heavey in Washington and Hereward Holland and Giulia Paravicini in Nairobi; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

By John Kruzel

WASHINGTON -The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a traveling Christian evangelist’s free-speech challenge to a University of Alabama requirement that he obtain a permit before handing out religious pamphlets and preaching from a sidewalk adjacent to its campus.

The justices turned away an appeal by preacher Rodney Keister of a lower court’s ruling rejecting his claim that the university’s permit requirement violated free speech rights under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.

Keister, founder of a Pennsylvania-based group called Evangelism Mission, regularly visits U.S. university campuses in hopes of spreading his Christian message to students, according to court filings.

In 2016, Keister, along with a companion, preached using an amplifier and distributed Christian literature from a sidewalk adjacent to the University of Alabama campus in Tuscaloosa, trying to engage passersby. School officials told Keister he needed a permit for a public-speaking event, prompting him and his companion to leave.

The university’s policy at issue governed when, where and how a person unaffiliated with the school may engage in public speaking on campus including on sidewalks, other than “casual recreational or social activities.” It required a permit application 10 business days in advance – which has since been reduced to five business days – and sponsorship by a student organization or university academic department.

Keister in 2017 filed a civil rights suit against University of Alabama officials, arguing that the sidewalk’s status under the First Amendment is that of a “traditional public forum,” affording speakers the most robust protections available under the Constitution. Following losses in lower courts, Keister’s appeal in 2018 was turned away by the U.S. Supreme Court, prompting him to file an amended civil rights suit against school officials the next year.

A federal judge in 2020 ruled in favor of the school officials, finding that the sidewalk was a “limited public forum” – a status giving public universities and other government entities more leeway to regulate particular classes of speakers or kinds of speech. The Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed last year.

Erik Jaffe, an attorney for Keister, expressed disappointment over the Supreme Court’s decision to turn away his client’s appeal.

“Whether public sidewalks remain traditional public forums with full First Amendment protection for free speech, regardless of their proximity to university or other restricted-use property, remains an important and unsettled issue, marked by inconsistent and unpredictable decisions,” Jaffe said. “We hope that the Supreme Court eventually steps in to rationalize and expand constitutional protections in this area, even if they passed on this current opportunity to do so.”

Lawyers representing the University of Alabama officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, in recent years has taken an expansive view of religious rights, though this case came to the justices as a free speech dispute.

The high court is due to rule by the end of June in another free speech case involving religion. The court’s conservative justices during arguments in December appeared ready to rule that a Christian web design business owner named Lorie Smith has a right to refuse to provide services for same-sex marriages. Smith has said that under her Christian beliefs marriage should be limited to opposite-sex couples.

(Reporting by John Kruzel; Editing by Will Dunham)