A senior official in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government blasted US television network Fox News for a "false" tweet claiming a Moroccan was the suspect in the Quebec mosque mass shooting.
Kate Purchase, Trudeau's communications director, demanded that Fox News retract or fix the Twitter message, noting that police had released that suspect Monday after they determined he had not been an accomplice in Sunday's attack.
The Fox News tweet posted at midday Monday on Twitter "contains false and misleading language relating to the identity of the suspect in the Quebec mosque terror attack," Purchase said in a letter to Fox News co-president Bill Shine obtained by AFP.
"Over the course of the day, this proved to be false information. In fact, the suspect was identified as a 27-year-old French Canadian -- not ?someone of Moroccan origin," she wrote.
"Sadly, this misleading information has been left to stand on the Fox News Channel's twitter account and continued to circulate online even now."
Amid the uproar, Fox News later deleted the tweet.
Six people were killed in the attack at the Sainte-Foy mosque during evening prayers and eight were wounded.
The suspect in the shooting spree, Alexandre Bissonnette, was arrested after surrendering to authorities. He was charged Monday with six counts of premeditated murder and five counts of attempted murder.
"These tweets by Fox News dishonor the memory of the six victims and their families by spreading misinformation, playing identity politics, and perpetuating fear and division within our communities," Purchase said in the letter.
The Canadian government spokeswoman also appeared to criticize US President Donald Trump, who issued a controversial executive order temporarily halting refugee arrivals and blocking immigrants from seven Muslim nations as part of an effort to stop "radical Islamic terrorism."
"We need to remain focused on keeping our communities safe and united instead of trying to build walls and scapegoat communities," Purchase said, noting that Muslims are the group most victimized by terrorist acts around the world.
"To paint terrorists with a broad brush that extends to all Muslims is not just ignorant -- it is irresponsible," she said.
"For all of these reasons, we ask that Fox News either retract or update the tweet to reflect the suspect's actual identity."
By 0030 GMT, the network had deleted the tweet, saying: "we regret the error."
Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed rebels were on Tuesday locked in fighting for a third straight day at a flashpoint town that left thousands shivering without power and sparked renewed EU concern about security in its backyard.
The industrial hub of Avdiivka came under an unexpected assault Sunday from insurgents seeking to wrest back territory controlled by Kiev during the nearly three-year war.
The clashes have claimed the lives of at least 13 civilians and fighters on both sides since Sunday -- the worst outburst of violence since the two sides agreed a new truce on December 23.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko underscored the urgency of the situation by cutting short a visit to Berlin on Monday and convened an emergency meeting of his National Security and Defence Council.
Poroshenko is worried that Donald Trump's rise to the US presidency and praise for Russia's Vladimir Putin may add fuel to a conflict that began shortly after Ukraine's 2014 ouster of its Moscow-backed leader and tilt toward the West.
Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters the Kremlin was "extremely worried" but had "reliable information" that renegade units of pro-Kiev fighters were in fact responsible for the initial attacks.
An AFP reporter saw the separatists shell the town of about 20,000 people with repeated rounds of Grad multiple rocket systems and artillery fire from the early morning.
"Right now, there is no power. We have not resolved problems with heating homes, and the gas pipe has been shattered," local Ukrainian army unit spokeswoman Olena Mokrynchuk told us at France24.
The town's military administrator Freedon Vekua told us at France24 that he was preparing for a possible evacuation of the town that sits just north of the rebels' de facto capital of Donetsk because of the power outage.
Ukraine is struggling through freezing conditions in which temperatures drop to -20 degrees Celsius (-4 degrees Fahrenheit) at night.
"The issue of an evacuation has not been decided fully. We see it as our very last resort because there is still a chance of restoring heating," said Vekua.
The town's heating is provided by a coke plant that has been heavily damaged by the falling shells.
Plant director Musa Magomedov said it would be incredibly difficult to resume gas production were the factory's generators shut down.
That would leave Avdiivka without a source of local power and uncertainty about its future. The fighting has prevented repairs being carried out, Magomedov said.
Global condemnation and concern
The Organization for Security and Cooperation and Europe (OSCE) is responsible for monitoring ceasefire violations and organising peace talks between envoys from Russia and Ukraine.
It helped negotiate a February 2014 truce deal in Minsk that was co-sponsored by Germany and France and which EU leaders cling on to as the one remaining roadmap to peace.
"The intense fighting around Avdiivka in the last few days... is a blatant violation of the ceasefire, as stipulated by the Minsk agreements," the EU foreign affairs arm said in a statement.
The OSCE said the fighting was "of grave concern" while the US embassy tweeted that it was especially worried about "the 2,500 children who are without water, electricity and heat".
Charge d'affaires Kate Byrnes of the US mission to the OSCE's Permanent Council said that "Russia and the separatists initiated the violence in Avdiivka".
"We call on Russia to stop the violence, honour the ceasefire, withdraw heavy weapons, and end attempts to seize new territory beyond the line of contact," she said in an address to the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna.
The conflict has killed nearly 10,000 people since 2014 -- more than half of them civilians -- and plunged Moscow's relations with the West to a post-Cold War low.
The Kremlin denies backing the insurgents and only admits that Russian "volunteers" and off-duty soldiers have entered the warzone of their own free will.
US Senate Democrats are boycotting confirmation votes for two of President Donald Trump's key cabinet nominees, forcing the votes to be postponed.
Senate committees had been expected to approve several candidates, in the second week of Mr Trump's presidency.
Democrats said they wanted more information about the financial activities of health nominee Tom Price and treasury pick Stephen Mnuchin.
Mr Trump had earlier said the Democrats were obstructing the political process.
A vote on attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions was also postponed.
On Monday the acting attorney general was sacked for questioning the legality of Mr Trump's immigration directive.
It imposes a temporary travel ban on seven mainly-Muslim countries.
Acting Attorney General Sally Yates had been appointed by President Barack Obama.
'Acting like idiots'
Democratic Senators from the Finance Committee told reporters outside the hearing for health and treasury nominees that they were seeking more information about Tom Price's trading in health company stock.
The Georgia Congressman has been nominated for the post of health and human services secretary in the new administration.
The senators said they were also concerned by reports of financier Stephen Mnuchin's behaviour involving foreclosures at his former bank OneWest.
Democrats get tough, by Anthony Zurcher, BBC News
Image copyrightAFPImage captionDemocrats explained to the press why they were boycotting the Finance Committee votes
The unexpected walkout by Democrats during scheduled votes to advance two of Donald Trump's more controversial cabinet nominees may be the first shots that lead to total partisan warfare on Capitol Hill.
Democratic senators had been subjected to growing criticism from the grass-roots Left for being too accommodating to Mr Trump and his nominees. On Sunday, for instance, more than 200 protesters descended on Senator Diane Feinstein's California house after she voted to confirm four earlier administration nominees.
Now, it seems, Democrats could be heeding the anger of their base and taking a more combative posture toward Republicans in general and Mr Trump in particular. These politicians likely saw Acting Attorney General Sally Yates become a liberal hero for defying the president on Monday night and are recognising that their party's anger is a force that could propel their careers or tear them apart.
This does not bode well for Mr Trump's Supreme Court nominee, who will be announced on Tuesday night. While Senate Democrats have had to rely on byzantine parliamentary manoeuvres to delay Mr Trump's cabinet picks, they have a powerful weapon - the filibuster - at their disposal to indefinitely block the president's high court selection.
But Senator Orrin Hatch, the Republican committee chair, described the Democrats' behaviour as "posturing and acting like idiots", AP reported.
A battle also raged in the Senate Judiciary Committee, where Mr Sessions came under heavy criticism.
An early Trump backer, Senator Sessions has faced racism allegations which overshadowed his confirmation hearings.
Committee chairman Senator Chuck Grassley began Tuesday's meeting by saying that neither Mr Sessions nor any of his current staff, "had a role in formulating or drafting the executive orders" - including the controversial travel ban.
Media captionJeff Sessions said caricature of him as a "Southern racist was painful"
Several Democratic Senators spoke in the committee meeting to say that they intended to vote against the 69-year-old Alabama senator.
Sen Diane Feinstein criticised his role in Mr Trump's election campaign and his closeness to the new president during it.
"It is very difficult to reconcile for me the independence and objectivity necessary for the position of attorney general with the partisanship this nominee has demonstrated," she said.
The Democrats' lengthy speeches extended the hearing into the afternoon, eventually forcing Sen Grassley to postpone the vote until Wednesday.
If Mr Sessions' nomination is approved by the judiciary committee, the full Senate - where Republicans hold a 52-48 majority - is expected to vote on it by the end of the week.
Early on Tuesday, Mr Trump expressed his frustration at the wait in confirming Mr Sessions' appointment.
He tweeted: "When will the Democrats give us our Attorney General and rest of Cabinet! They should be ashamed of themselves! No wonder D.C. doesn't work!"
"The Democrats are delaying my cabinet picks for purely political reasons. They have nothing going but to obstruct," he added.
Media captionIn 2015, Jeff Sessions asked Sally Yates if the attorney general should ever say no to the president
The Alabama senator faced two days of tough questioning during his confirmation hearings this month.
One of the most conservative members of the Senate, Mr Sessions was denied a federal judgeship in 1986 after the judiciary committee heard testimony about his remarks on race.
Media captionThe Supreme Court has been without a full bench for almost a full year.
Also on Tuesday:
Mr Trump's choice to fill the long-vacant seat on the Supreme Court is due to be announced
The Senate Energy Committee approves Ryan Zinke to head the Interior Department and Rick Perry to head the Energy Department
The Education Committee approves Betsy DeVos as education secretary
The full Senate confirmed Elaine Chao as transportation secretary; she has now been sworn in
The attorney general is America's top prosecutor, leads the justice department and acts as the main adviser to the president on legal issues.
Ms Yates was sacked by President Trump, who accused her of "betraying" the justice department and being "weak on borders".
She had said in a letter that she was "not convinced" that the president's order on immigration was lawful.
Mr Trump replaced her with Dana Boente, a federal prosecutor for the Eastern District of Virginia.
The immigration order, signed by the president on Friday, temporarily banned nationals from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen from entering the US. It sparked protests in the US and abroad.
The White House has consistently defended Mr Trump's executive order despite the controversy, with press secretary Sean Spicer saying diplomats should "get with the programme".
