Reuters: World

Ukraine interior minister among dead in helicopter crash that ignites nursery Ukraine's interior minister and a child were among at least 14 people killed on Wednesday when a helicopter crashed into a nursery and set it ablaze in a suburb of the capital Kyiv. Dozens of other people were hurt, including a number of children, many suffering burns. The French-made Super Puma helicopter went down in the fog in Brovary on the eastern outskirts of Kyiv, plummeting into the nursery grounds. Ukrainian state emergency services said 14 people in total had been killed. Government agencies had earlier published higher death tolls ranging up to 18. read more

Greta Thunberg released after brief detention at German mine protest, police say Climate campaigner Greta Thunberg was detained alongside other activists on Tuesday during protests against the demolition of a village to make way for a coal mine expansion but was released after an identity check, according to police. Thunberg was held while protesting at the opencast coal mine of Garzweiler 2, some 9 km (5.6 miles) from the village of Luetzerath, after police warned that the group would be removed by force if they did not move away from the edge of the mine. The village in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia is being cleared to allow for the expansion of the mine. The mine's owner, RWE (RWEG.DE), agreed with the government that it could demolish Luetzerath in exchange for its faster exit from coal and the saving of five villages originally slated for destruction. read more

Sex pills, designer clothes found in mafia boss Messina Denaro's hideout Perfumes, designer clothes and sex pills were found on Tuesday in an apartment which investigators believe was the last hideout of Sicilian mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, judicial sources said, a day after the arrest of the fugitive. Messina Denaro, 60, caught on Monday at a private hospital in Palermo after 30 years on the run, is being held in the central Italian city of L'Aquila, the Palermo prosecutor said. He was transferred from Sicily on the day of his arrest. The apartment is in an a modest building near the centre of Campobello di Mazara, a town in the Western Sicilian province of Trapani, just a few kilometres from Messina Denaro's home town of Castelvetrano. read more

China's first population drop in six decades sounds alarm on demographic crisis China's population fell last year for the first time in six decades, a historic turn that is expected to mark the start of a long period of decline in its citizen numbers with profound implications for its economy and the world. The country's National Bureau of Statistics reported a drop of roughly 850,000 people for a population of 1.41175 billion in 2022, marking the first decline since 1961, the last year of China's Great Famine. That possibly makes India the world's most populous nation. U.N. experts predicted last year India would have a population of 1.412 billion in 2022 though they did not expect the South Asian nation to overtake China until this year. read more

Sweden, Finland must send up to 130 "terrorists" to Turkey for NATO bid, Erdogan says Sweden and Finland must deport or extradite up to 130 "terrorists" to Turkey before the Turkish parliament will approve their bids to join NATO, President Tayyip Erdogan said. The two Nordic states applied last year to join NATO following Russia's invasion of Ukraine but their bids must be approved by all 30 NATO member states. Turkey and Hungary have yet to endorse the applications. Turkey has said Sweden in particular must first take a clearer stance against what it sees as terrorists, mainly Kurdish militants and a group it blames for a 2016 coup attempt. read more

A pilot couple killed in air crashes in Nepal - 16 years apart In 2010, Anju Khatiwada joined Nepal's Yeti Airlines, following in the footsteps of her husband, a pilot who had died in a crash four years earlier when a small passenger plane he was flying for the domestic carrier went down minutes before landing. On Sunday, Khatiwada, 44, was the co-pilot on a Yeti Airlines flight from Kathmandu that crashed as it approached the city of Pokhara, killing at least 68 people in the Himalayan nation's deadliest plane accident in three decades. No survivors have been found so far among the 72 people on board. "Her husband, Dipak Pokhrel, died in 2006 in a crash of a Twin Otter plane of Yeti Airlines in Jumla," airline spokesman Sudarshan Bartaula told Reuters, referring to Khatiwada. "She got her pilot training with the money she got from the insurance after her husband's death." read more

UK condemns 'barbaric' execution of British-Iranian national Britain on Saturday called the execution by Iran of British-Iranian national Alireza Akbari a barbaric act, and imposed sanctions on Iran's prosecutor general in response. The Iranian judiciary's Mizan news agency had earlier reported the execution of the former Iranian deputy defence minister who had been sentenced to death on charges of spying for Britain. Britain had said it should not follow through with the death penalty. "I am appalled by the execution of British-Iranian citizen Alireza Akbari in Iran," British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Twitter. "This was a callous and cowardly act, carried out by a barbaric regime with no respect for the human rights of their own people." read more

Indonesia sends warship to monitor Chinese coast guard vessel Indonesia has deployed a warship to its North Natuna Sea to monitor a Chinese coast guard vessel that has been active in a resource-rich maritime area, the country's naval chief said on Saturday of an area that both countries claim as their own. Ship tracking data shows the vessel, CCG 5901, has been sailing in the Natuna Sea, particularly near the Tuna Bloc gas field and the Vietnamese Chim Sao oil and gas field since Dec. 30, the Indonesian Ocean Justice Initiative told Reuters. A warship, maritime patrol plane and drone had been deployed to monitor the vessel, Laksamana Muhammad Ali, the chief of the Indonesian navy, told Reuters. read more

Tesla ramps up pressure on rivals with U.S., Europe price cuts Tesla (TSLA.O) has slashed prices on its electric vehicles in the United States and Europe by as much as 20%, extending an aggressive discounting strategy and challenging rivals after missing Wall Street delivery estimates for 2022. The move, which prompted a 4.5% fall in Tesla's shares in pre-market U.S. trade, came after CEO Elon Musk warned that the prospect of recession and higher interest rates meant it could lower prices to sustain volume growth at the expense of profit. Musk acknowledged last year that prices had become "embarrassingly high" and could hurt demand. The lower pricing across Tesla's major markets marks a reversal from the strategy the automaker had pursued through much of 2021 and 2022 when new vehicle orders exceeded supply. read more

Cardinal Pell lies in state, funeral plans overshadowed by memo revelation Australian Cardinal George Pell was lying in state on Friday, with funeral preparations overshadowed by revelations that he was the author of an anonymous memo that branded Pope Francis' pontificate a catastrophe. Pell's closed dark brown wooden coffin was placed on the floor of the small church of St. Stephen of the Abyssinians, inside the Vatican walls just metres (yards) away from the Santa Marta residence where Francis lives. Early on Friday, a reporter saw about 20 people kneeling in prayer in the church when it opened for 10 hours of lying in state. read more

Ukraine says its forces hold out against Russia in battle for Soledar Ukraine said its troops were holding out against pro-Moscow forces in the eastern salt mining town of Soledar as more than 500 civilians including children were trapped there. In a video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Thursday thanked two units in Soledar that he said "are holding their positions and inflicting significant losses on the enemy." He did not give more details. Zelenskiy said he and senior Ukrainian commanders analysed the need for reinforcements in Soledar and nearby towns in the eastern industrial area known as the Donbas and next steps for the coming days. read more

U.S. extends public health emergency status for COVID The U.S. health department on Wednesday extended the COVID-19 pandemic's status as a public health emergency, allowing millions of Americans to continue receiving free tests, vaccines and treatments. The emergency was first declared in January 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic began, and has been renewed each quarter since then. It was due to end this week. The increased availability of vaccines and medications has significantly diminished the COVID-19 pandemic's toll since early in President Joe Biden's term, when more than 3,000 Americans per day were dying. read more