Brazil’s former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has handed himself in to police after spending two nights at the metalworkers’ union headquarters in São Paulo in defiance of an arrest warrant. “I’m going to prove my innocence,” Lula told a large crowd of adoring supporters on Saturday at the building where he began his political career. “Do what you want, the powerful can kill one, two or 100 roses. But they’ll never manage to stop the arrival of spring.”

Afterwards, he was carried on the shoulders of supporters shouting “Free Lula!” before being flown to the southern city of Curitiba where he will begin serving a 12-year sentence for corruption. Military police in Curitiba later dispersed Lula supporters with rubber bullets and teargas when he arrived at a police station in the city.

Although the 72-year-old will appeal against the conviction and is unlikely to serve the whole sentence, his imprisonment has for now ended his hopes of regaining the presidency in October’s elections. A final decision on his eligibility will be made by the electoral court. Thousands of supporters, many from unions and leftwing social movements, had for two days formed a human shield around the union building in the São Bernardo do Campo district of the city to prevent Lula from handing himself in.

“He managed to transform the moment of his imprisonment into a demonstration of his political force and popular support, not humiliation,” said Maurício Santoro, a political scientist and professor of international relations at Rio de Janeiro’s State University.(theguardian)…[+]

Canada has been plunged into “shock and mourning” after 15 people died and more than a dozen were injured in a “nightmare” collision between a bus carrying a junior hockey team and a semi-trailer. The royal Canadian mounted police said 29 people, including the driver, were on the Humboldt Broncos team bus when the crash occurred late on Friday afternoon on a rural highway some 200km north-east of Saskatoon in the province of Saskatchewan. The team had been heading to a Saskatchewan junior hockey league playoff game against the Nipawin Hawks, officials said.The crash has shocked hockey-crazed Canada, where sports teams often travel hours in gruelling winter conditions. Within hours of the launch of a fundraising campaign to help those affected by the crash, it had raised more than C$2.4m, far exceeding its initial target of C$10,000.(theguardian)…[+]

India’s railway ministry said a “ghastly” accident had narrowly been avoided after 22 passenger carriages carrying about 1,000 people became detached from a train engine and sped backwards for miles before being stopped. The runaway carriages rolled for seven miles in the north-eastern state of Odisha before being brought to a shuddering halt by rocks placed on the tracks by railway staff. A spokesman for the railway ministry’s eastern division said on Sunday that none of about 1,000 passengers had been injured in the incident on Saturday night.

Seven railway employees who were reported not to have followed proper procedures were suspended and an investigation was opened into how the carriages became separated during the journey from the western state of Gujarat to Odisha, said JP Mishra, a spokesman. Authorities believe that brakes normally applied when carriages are detached or attached to an engine were either incorrectly used or overlooked altogether. “Something ghastly could have happened and it was averted by alert staff. Safety cannot be compromised,” Mishra told AFP. He said more heads were likely to roll, adding: “Everybody in the railways [ministry] is aghast and shocked.”(theguardian)…[+]