World News Roundup: Forest search resumes for Kenyan death cult victims of 'highly organised crime'; Putin touts 'sacred' battle with West in Ukraine as Russia marks pared back Victory Day and more

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Forest search resumes for Kenyan death cult victims of 'highly organised crime'

Kenyan investigators have resumed the search for members of a doomsday cult in a forest where more than 100 corpses, mostly of children, have been exhumed, victims of a "highly organised crime", Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki said on Tuesday. Paul Mackenzie, leader of the Good News International Church, has been detained and accused of ordering his followers to starve their children and themselves to death so they could go to heaven before the end of the world, which he predicted was going to happen on April 15.

Putin touts 'sacred' battle with West in Ukraine as Russia marks pared back Victory Day

President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russians were united in a "sacred" fight with the West over Ukraine but the strains of war were evident at one of the most pared back anniversaries of the victory over Nazi Germany in decades. Putin has repeatedly likened the war in Ukraine - which he casts as a defensive move against a West which wants to carve up Russia - to the challenge Moscow faced when Adolf Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in 1941.

Russia fires missiles at Ukraine on Victory Day as Kyiv celebrates Europe

Russia fired cruise missiles at Kyiv on Tuesday and paraded troops and vintage equipment across Red Square in a curtailed celebration of victory in World War Two, while Kyiv fended off the air strikes and hosted the head of the European Union. In a fiery 10-minute speech in front of the Kremlin walls, Russian President Vladimir Putin thundered against "Western global elites" and said Russia again faced an existential threat.

Over 5,500 still missing in flood-hit east Congo: local official

More than 5,500 people are still unaccounted for in an area in east Democratic of Congo where floods killed more than 400 people last week, a local official said on Tuesday, as shaken survivors waited for food aid. Scores of bodies have been recovered from the villages of Bushushu and Nyamukubi in South Kivu province's Kalehe territory since torrential rain caused landslides and flash floods on Thursday, flattening buildings and sweeping away crops.

Ousted Pakistan PM Imran Khan arrested, prompting call for 'shut down' protests

Pakistan's anti-corruption agency arrested former Prime Minister Imran Khan at Islamabad High Court on Tuesday, in a dramatic move that threatens fresh turmoil in the nuclear-armed country as his party called for nationwide "shut down" protests.

Footage of the arrest showed dozens of security personnel in riot-control gear surrounding Khan and leading him into a black van by his arm.

Israel kills three Islamic Jihad chiefs, 10 civilians in Gaza

Israel killed three Islamic Jihad commanders and 10 civilians in surprise airstrikes in Gaza on Tuesday, Palestinian officials said, drawing threats of reprisals from the faction and censure from Egypt, which has mediated past ceasefires in the enclave. Signalling it anticipated an imminent flare-up, Israel closed roads in Israeli towns near Gaza, instructed residents there to keep close to bomb shelters, and said it was calling up some military reservists. Images on social media showed Iron Dome rocket interceptor batteries being trucked to the front.

Sudan faces displacement crisis as truce talks yield no progress

Residents of Sudan's capital reported air strikes overnight and sporadic gun battles on Tuesday morning amid what they call a surge in looting, with no sign of progress in ceasefire talks taking place in Saudi Arabia. The violence has accelerated a wave of people fleeing their homes, with the number of people internally displaced inside Sudan more than doubling in a week to more than 700,000 the U.N.'s migration agency said.

Hundreds of migrants amass near US-Mexico wall with COVID ban set to end

Long lines of migrants have amassed this week in the border city of Tijuana, near the sprawling wall that divides Mexico from the United States, in the final days of a three-year long COVID-19 policy that blocked people crossing from seeking asylum. The policy, known as Title 42, is set to expire at midnight on May 11, prompting a rush of migrants to the border, now huddled under black plastic or makeshift tents waiting to cross into the U.S.

Jurors set to deliberate in civil rape case against Donald Trump

Jurors on Tuesday will begin deliberating whether Donald Trump raped writer E. Jean Carroll more than two decades ago and then defamed her by claiming she made up the story. Lawyers for Carroll and the former U.S. president delivered closing arguments on Monday in Manhattan federal court after seven days of a civil trial.

Imran Khan, the cricket star who ditched playboy image to rule Pakistan

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, a cricketing hero-turned-politician who was arrested on Tuesday, whipped up popular support amid decades-high inflation and a crippling economic slowdown before his ouster last year. The 70-year-old has since showed no sign of slowing down, even after being wounded in a November attack on his convoy as he lead a protest march to Islamabad calling for snap general elections.

(With inputs from agencies.)