"Felt Like Earthquake": 26 Killed In Trains' Head-On Collision In Greece

Twenty-six people were killed and at least 85 injured after two trains collided head-on in Greece late on Tuesday night, the fire brigade said, while the circumstances of the crash remained unclear.

An intercity passenger train travelling from Athens to the northern city of Thessaloniki collided with a cargo train outside the city of Larissa in central Greece, said the governor of the Thessaly region.

"The collision was very strong," governor Konstantinos Agorastos told SKAI TV, adding the first four carriages of the passenger train had derailed.

The first two carriages, which caught fire after the collision, were "almost completely destroyed," said Agorastos.

About 250 passengers were evacuated safely to Thessaloniki on buses. One passenger told state broadcaster ERT he managed to escape after breaking the train window with his suitcase.

"There was panic in the carriage, people were screaming," a young man who was evacuated to a nearby bridge told SKAI TV.

"It was like an earthquake," Angelos Tsiamouras, another passenger, told ERT.

Broadcaster SKAI showed footage of derailed carriages, badly damaged with broken windows and thick plumes of smoke, as well as debris strewn across the road. Rescue workers were seen carrying torches in carriages looking for trapped passengers.

"The evacuation of passengers is under way in very difficult conditions given the severity of the collision of the two trains," fire brigade spokesperson Vassilis Varthakogiannis said in a televised address.

In the early hours of Wednesday, footage from state broadcaster ERT showed rescue workers with headlights searching the wreckage and surrounding fields for survivors.

Local media reported about 350 people were travelling on the passenger train, which departed Athens around 19:30 local time (0530 GMT). The fire brigade said it was informed of the accident shortly before midnight on Tuesday. The cargo train had been travelling from Thessaloniki to Larissa.

The passenger train is operated by the Italian group Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane, which according to its website is the main provider of rail transport for passengers and freight in Greece and runs 342 passenger and commercial routes a day.

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"Classified" Report Says Covid Likely Caused By China Lab Leak: FBI Chief

FBI Director Christopher Wray said on Tuesday the agency has assessed that a leak from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, likely caused the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan," Wray told Fox News.

His comments follow a Wall Street Journal report on Sunday that the U.S. Energy Department has assessed with low confidence the pandemic resulted from an unintended lab leak in China.

Four other agencies, along with a national intelligence panel, still judge that the pandemic was likely the result of a natural transmission, and two are undecided, the Journal reported.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby said on Monday the U.S. government has not reached a definitive conclusion and consensus on the pandemic's origins.

China's foreign ministry, asked to comment on the Wall Street Journal report, which was confirmed by other U.S. media, referred to a WHO-China report that pointed toward a natural origin for the pandemic, rather than a lab leak.

Wray said he couldn't share many details of the agency's assessment because they were classified.

He accused the Chinese government of "doing its best to try to thwart and obfuscate" efforts by the United States and others to learn more about the pandemic's origins.

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Taiwan Claims 19 Chinese Fighter Jets Entered Air Space In 24 hours

Taiwan's defence ministry said on Wednesday it had spotted 19 Chinese air force planes in its air defence zone in the past 24 hours, part of what Taipei calls regular harassment by Beijing.

Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, has complained for the past three years or so of stepped up Chinese military activities near the island as Beijing seeks to assert its sovereignty claims.

China has said its activities in the area are justified as it seeks to defend its territorial integrity and to warn the United States against "colluding" with Taiwan, despite the anger this causes in Taipei.

Taiwan's defence ministry said 19 J-10 fighters had flown into the southwestern corner of the island's air defence identification zone, or ADIZ, though closer to the Chinese coast than Taiwan's according to a map the ministry released.

Taiwan's forces monitored the situation, including sending up its own air force planes, the ministry added, using the normal phrasing for its response to such Chinese incursions.

However, the aircraft did not cross the sensitive median line of the Taiwan Strait, which previously served as an unofficial barrier between the two sides but which China's air force has been flying over on an almost daily basis since staging war games near Taiwan last August.

No shots have been fired and the Chinese aircraft have been flying in Taiwan's ADIZ, not in its territorial air space.

The ADIZ is a broader area Taiwan monitors and patrols that acts to give it more time to respond to any threats.

The democratically elected Taiwanese government has repeatedly offered talks with China, but says the island will defend itself if attacked and that only the Taiwanese people can decide their own future.

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700-Year-Old Throne To Get A Makeover For King Charles's Coronation

The historic Coronation Chair on which Henry VIII and other monarchs of England and later Britain have been crowned for some 700 years is getting a makeover ahead of this year's ceremony for King Charles, London's Westminster Abbey said.

Charles and his wife, Queen Consort Camilla, will be formally crowned on May 6 in a solemn religious ceremony at the Abbey where the coronation of kings and queens has taken place for the best part of a thousand years.

The centrepiece of the ceremony sees the crown placed on the head of the monarch sitting on the oak chair, which was originally covered in gold leaf gilding and elaborately decorated with coloured glass.

Charles will follow some of his famous forebears, such as King Henry VIII, Queen Victoria and his own mother Elizabeth II, in being crowned on the chair.

"It is the oldest surviving piece of furniture still used for its original purpose," Krista Blessley, Paintings Conservator at the Abbey said.

The Coronation Chair was made on the orders of King Edward I to include the Stone of Scone, or Stone of Destiny, which had been used for the coronation of Scottish kings for centuries. Edward had brought down the Stone from Scotland in 1296.

It has featured in coronation ceremonies since 1308, and has been the chair used to crown monarchs since Henry IV in 1399, the Abbey says.

Over the years the chair has suffered from wear and tear, not least being subject to graffiti from local Westminster schoolboys and tourists during the 18th and 19th centuries. One visitor carved "P. Abbott slept in this chair 5-6 July 1800" on the seat.

A bomb attack in 1914, thought to have been organised by Suffragettes, also knocked a small corner off it. Its base, which features a lion at each corner, was also replaced in the 18th century.

Meanwhile, Scottish Nationalists took the Stone of Scone on Dec. 25, 1950 before it was recovered a few months later. The Stone was returned to Scotland in 1996 and is kept at Edinburgh Castle but will return to London for the coronation.

The latest conservation work will focus on cleaning the surface using sponges and cotton swabs to remove dirt, and stabilising surviving layers of gilding on the medieval chair and the base.

"The coronation chair is extremely fragile. It has a complex layer structure which means that the gilding layers on it often flake off," Blessley said. "So a lot of my work at the moment is sticking those layers of gilding back down and making sure it's completely sound for the coronation."

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"It's My Girlfriend": Peru Man Found With 800-Year-Old Mummy In Bag

Police in Peru have seized a mummified human, between 600 and 800 years old, from a former food delivery man who claimed to have had it at his home for three decades.  

The mummy was in the isothermal bag the man had once used to deliver food to people's homes.  

The man, 26-year-old Julio Cesar Bermejo, will remain in detention while investigators look into the case, a government official told AFP on Tuesday.  

Bermejo told local media the mummy, who he called "Juanita," was "like my spiritual girlfriend."   

"At home, she's in my room, she sleeps with me. I take care of her," he said in a video that went viral on social media.   

Bermejo said his father brought the mummy home almost 30 years ago.   

According to the Ministry of Culture, the pre-Hispanic relic was a "mummified adult male individual, presumably from the eastern area of Puno", a region in the Peruvian Andes some 1,300 kilometers (more than 800 miles) southeast of Lima.    

"It's not a Juanita, it's a Juan," a specialist at the ministry affirmed, adding the mummy was of a man at least 45 years old.   

The body was wrapped in bandages in the fetal position.   

Police found the remains in Bermejo's bag on Saturday while patrolling a park in the city of Puno, where he had been hanging out with friends.   

He denied he was trying to sell the mummy and said he was carrying it around because "my friends wanted to see it."   

The culture ministry said it had taken possession of the mummified remains "with the aim of protecting and preserving this heritage."   

Peru is rich in archaeological sites and objects. Its most visited tourist destination is the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, built in the 15th century near Cusco.   

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Imran Khan Gets Non-Bailable Arrest Warrant Over Gifts Case

A Pakistani court on Tuesday issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against former prime minister Imran Khan in the Toshakhana case but he was granted bail in three other cases, amid high drama outside the court premises where thousands of his supporters converged to support their leader.

Mr Khan, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief, travelled from his Zaman Park residence in Lahore to Islamabad, his first appearance here in the federal capital after being shot at a public rally in November last year.

The four cases include prohibited funding at a banking court located at the judicial complex, a terrorism case at the anti-terrorism court in the same complex.

The third was related to the Toshakhana, which was scheduled at the sessions court in F-8 Kachehri, situated half-an-hour drive from the judicial complex.

The fourth case was an attempted to murder case at the same sessions court.

Additional sessions judge Zafar Iqbal issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against the 70-year-old former prime minister in the Toshakhana case.

The court issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against Imran Khan and adjourned the hearing till March 7 for his repeated failure to appear before the court.

His indictment, in this case, was earlier postponed twice due to his failure to appear in court.

Khan has been in the crosshairs for buying gifts, including an expensive Graff wristwatch he had received as the premier at a discounted price from the state depository called Toshakhana and selling them for profit.

The former cricketer-turned-politician was, however, granted bail in all the other three cases, even as thousands of his supporters thronged the judicial complex here in his support, prompting security officials to beef up security.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in October last year filed a case in an Islamabad-based banking court against Khan and other PTI leaders over allegedly receiving prohibited funding.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) last year found the party guilty of concealing that it had received the money and also disqualified Khan.

The prohibited funding case was filed by estranged PTI founding member Akbar S Babar in the ECP in 2014.

Khan has not attended any hearings since November last year when he was injured in an assassination attempt at his rally in the Wazirabad area of Punjab province.

He has since received extensions on his bail due to medical reasons.

Khan was ousted from power in April after losing a no-confidence vote in his leadership, which he alleged was part of a US-led conspiracy targeting him because of his independent foreign policy decisions on Russia, China, and Afghanistan.

The PTI chief, who came to power in 2018, is the only Pakistani Prime Minister to be ousted in a no-confidence vote in Parliament.

Since his ouster, Khan has been clamouring for immediate elections to oust what he termed was an "imported government" led by prime minister Shehbaz Sharif.

Sharif has maintained that elections will be held later this year once the parliament completes its five-year tenure.

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Wave Of Poison Attacks On Hundreds Of Schoolgirls Alarms Iranians

Hundreds of Iranian girls in different schools have suffered "mild poison" attacks over recent months, the health minister said, with some politicians suggesting they could have been targeted by religious groups opposed to girls' education.

The attacks come at a critical time for Iran's clerical rulers, who faced months of anti-government protests sparked by the death of a young Iranian woman in the custody of the morality police who enforce strict dress codes.

The poison attacks at more than 30 schools in at least four cities started in November in Iran's Shi'ite Muslim holy city of Qom, prompting some parents to take their children out of school, state media reported.

Social media posts showed some hospitalised schoolgirls, who said they had felt nauseous and suffered heart palpitations.

More than 300 school girls in Iran were intentionally poisoned with organophosphate chemical as an revenge who protested against forced hijab and also with a motive to stop them from going to schools .Nothing scares the Islamic regime more than a liberated woman.#WomanLifeFreedom pic.twitter.com/03OgIZwuiz

— Doctor Thalamus (@Neurochauhan) February 28, 2023

"Investigating where this mild poison comes from ... and whether it is an intentional move are not within the scope of my ministry," Health Minister Bahram Einollahi was quoted as saying by state media.

His deputy, Younes Panahi, said on Sunday "it was found that some people wanted schools, especially girls' schools, to be closed", according to IRNA state news agency.

One boys' school has been targeted in the city of Boroujerd, state media reported.

Lawmaker Alireza Monadi said the existence of "the devil's will" to stop girls from going to school was a "serious threat", according to IRNA.

He did not elaborate, but suspicions have fallen on hardline groups that operate as the self-declared guardians of their interpretation of Islam.

In 2014, people took to the streets of the city of Isfahan after a wave of acid attacks, which appeared to be aimed at terrorising women who violated the country's strict Islamic dress code.

"If operatives of the acid attacks had been identified and punished then, today a group of reactionaries would not have ganged up on our innocent girls in the schools," reformist politician Azar Mansoori tweeted.

Several senior clerics, lawmakers and politicians have criticised the government for failing to end the poison attacks and giving contradicting reasons for them, with some warning that frustration among families could ignite further protests.

"Officials are giving contradictory statements ... one says it is intentional, another says it is security-linked and another official blames it on schools' heating systems," state media quoted senior cleric Mohammad Javad Tabatabai-Borujerdi as saying.

"Such statements increase people's mistrust (towards the establishment)."

A judicial probe into the poisoning cases is under way, state media reported.

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After US, Canada Bans TikTok On Government Devices Over Data Concerns

The Canadian government on Monday banned TikTok from all of its phones and other devices, citing concerns about data protection.

TikTok, whose parent company ByteDance is Chinese, has faced increasing Western scrutiny in recent months over fears about how much access Beijing has to user data.

Effective Tuesday, "the TikTok application will be removed from government-issued mobile devices. Users of these devices will also be blocked from downloading the application in the future," the government said in a statement.

It added that Canada's chief information officer had "determined that it presents an unacceptable level of risk to privacy and security."

Although there's been no evidence of breaches of government data linked to the app, it warned that "TikTok's data collection methods provide considerable access to the contents of the phone."

The European Commission banned the app from its equipment last week, following similar moves in the United States.

A TikTok spokesperson said the Canadian decision to block TikTok was "curious" as it was taken "without citing any specific security concern" or consultation with the company.

Relations between China and Canada have deteriorated sharply in recent years, particularly after Canada's arrest on a US warrant of a Huawei senior executive in 2018 and China's retaliatory detention of two Canadian nationals.

Last week, Canada's privacy commissioner launched an investigation into TikTok over its collection and use of users' personal information.

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Musk's Plan For A Cheap Tesla Car Is What Fans Hope To Hear This Week

Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk has for years teased the world with his dream of an affordable electric car. This week, fans hope, he will explain what he has in mind - and perhaps how he can afford to build it.

Mr Musk said last year he shelved the plan for a $25,000 car, known as Model 2, and he hasn't mastered the new battery technology that he has stated would be crucial to the cheap cars.

Expanding into the mass market is critical to meeting Tesla's goal to increase vehicle deliveries 15-fold - to 20 million - by 2030. Tesla cut prices in recent months to boost sales, which were pressured by a weak economy and growing competition.

Its shares are up about 60% year to date but are still at half their November 2021 peak.

The low-priced car is expected to be the centerpiece of Musk's 'Master Plan Part Three', which he will offer at an 'Investor Day' on Wednesday, along with plans for factory expansion and capital spending.

Whatever he says about timelines, though, investors will be wary, since he has missed his most prominent deadlines while building the world's most valuable car company.

"The formula for decoding Musk is pretty simple. Take whatever time frame he has, and multiply it by two," said Gene Munster, Managing Partner at Deepwater Asset Management, which owns Tesla shares.

He expects the new car platform to be rolled out in 2025 at the earliest, which would still be years faster than the typical auto industry development of a new vehicle.

Tesla did not respond to Reuters' request for comment.

IT'S ALL ABOUT BATTERIES

Clues offered by Mr Musk about the Model 2 leave much to the imagination. Making a compelling $25,000 electric vehicle "has always been our dream from the beginning of the company," he said at a presentation about batteries in 2020.

Last year, Mr Musk announced a plan to roll out a robotaxi with no steering wheel or pedals by 2024, though it was not clear if it was the same inexpensive car.

A recent Tesla engineering video showed a small car with typical Tesla curves that was assumed by company watchers to be a Model 2 sketch.

Guidehouse Insights analyst Sam Abuelsamid said Tesla might announce a cheaper car with short driving range for the Chinese market, but a long-range, affordable car that would appeal in the U.S. market will probably take some time due to slow ramp up of its own batteries.

Mr Musk said last year in a podcast about minerals, titled 'Getting Stoned', that the new master plan, building on earlier ones for vehicle launches and developing solar and energy storage businesses, is about how to "scale" and get all the materials needed to make batteries for vehicles and energy storage systems.

The fundamental determinant "of the rate at which we can transition to sustainability is the rate at which we can grow the output of lithium ion batteries," he said in the interview.

Although there is some sign sky-high lithium prices may be easing, Mr Musk has said lithium costs could force Tesla to make its own supply of the electric vehicle battery metal.

Battery production also is an issue.

Mr Musk in 2020 forecast his company in 2022 would produce 100 gigawatts of newer generation, lower cost batteries, enough to power about 1.3 million Tesla Model Ys, but the December production rate of the batteries, called 4680s, was enough for just over 50,000 vehicles a year.

Mr Musk has also said Tesla will continue to use battery suppliers to scale up fast. Tesla counts Panasonic, CATL, LG Energy Solution and BYD as cell suppliers.

Batteries are also likely to figure in Mr Musk's plans for a "fully sustainable energy future" outside the car.

He may also discuss solar power generation and battery energy storage - which he has said are two other pillars to a sustainable energy future.

Investors will look out for any hints of demand, plans to ramp up production of the Cybertruck, which Mr Musk said will start volume production next year, and locations of new Tesla factories, with Mexico, Canada, Indonesia and South Korea all cited as potential candidates.

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Over 24 Pakistanis Drowned In Italy Migrant Boat Wreck: PM Shehbaz Sharif

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday said over two dozen Pakistanis were believed to be among 59 people who drowned when a boat carrying migrants to Europe crashed against rocks near the southern Italian coast.

At least 81 people survived Sunday's accident, with 20 hospitalised including one person in intensive care, Italian authorities said.

The wooden boat, which sailed from Turkey, is said to have carried people from Iran and Afghanistan as well.

"The reports of the drowning of over two dozen Pakistanis in a boat tragedy in Italy are deeply concerning and worrisome," Sharif said in a statement, adding, "I have directed the foreign office to ascertain facts as early as possible and take the nation into confidence."

Turkey is part of one of the most-used routes for human smugglers to smuggle migrants into Europe, who at times travel by road, walk for miles and endure being locked in ship containers for days.

Italy is one the main landing points for migrants trying to enter Europe by sea, with many seeking to travel on to northern European nations.

The United Nations Missing Migrants Project has registered more than 17,000 deaths and disappearances in the central Mediterranean since 2014. More than 220 have died or disappeared this year, it estimates.

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Indian-American Woman Research Scientist To Run For California Assembly

Indian-American woman research scientist, Darshana Patel, has announced her bid to run for the California State Assembly District 76 in 2024.

Ms Patel, 48, is seeking the North County seat that will be vacated after 2024 by Brian Maienschein, who is termed out.

"As the daughter of immigrants who struggled to realise the American Dream, I know the challenges that families can face during hard times," Ms Patel, a community leader and a Democrat, was quoted as saying by the Times of San Diego.

"I am running for State Assembly because I want to make sure that every person has the opportunity to succeed and thrive, and because I can use my experience as a scientist, elected school board member, and civic leader to make a difference in their lives," Ms Patel, who moved to California when she was a teen, added.

Ms Patel was elected to the Poway Unified board when the district was struggling because of financial mismanagement and criminal embezzlement and helped to restore fiscal responsibility. She was reelected in 2020.

In addition to her work on the school board, Patel serves on the California Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs and as president of the San Diego County School Boards Association.

She has previously held executive positions on the Rancho Penasquitos Planning Board, Rancho Penasquitos Town Council, Park Village Elementary School PTA and Education Foundation Board.

Ms Patel, her husband, and their three daughters live in San Diego.

She has done a BA in Biochemistry at Occidental College and a PhD in Biophysics from the University of California, Irvine.

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59 Migrants, Including 11 Children, Dead In After Boast Sinks Italy Coast

At least 59 migrants, including 11 children and a newborn baby, died after their overloaded boat sank early on Sunday in stormy seas off Italy's southern Calabria region, officials said.
"As of a few minutes ago, the number of confirmed victims was 59," Vincenzo Voce, mayor of the coastal city of Crotone, told TV channel Sky TG-24 on Sunday afternoon.

Crotone's rescue centre said 12 of the 59 victims were children, including a newborn, and 33 were women, according to AGI news agency.

Italian coastguards said the overloaded vessel broke up in violent waves off Crotone, with one officer reporting that a suspected people smuggler had been arrested by the security forces.

Wooden debris was strewn across around 100 metres of beach, where many rescuers were deployed, an AFP journalist saw.

Rescue workers told AFP that the vessel was carrying "more than 200 people".

"Calabria is in mourning after this terrible tragedy," regional governor Roberto Occhiuto said.

Far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who came to power in October vowing to stem the flow of migrants reaching Italian shores, said "The government is committed to preventing (migrant boat) departures and, with them, this type of tragedy."

'Eradicate the causes'

President Sergio Mattarella said: "A large number of these migrants came from Afghanistan and Iran, fleeing very harsh conditions."

He urged the international community "to make a strong commitment to eradicate the causes of these migrations -- wars, persecution, terrorism, poverty."

The government in Rome has accused its European Union partners of not taking in sufficient numbers of migrants seeking to enter the bloc.

This week Meloni's right-wing coalition government pushed through parliament a controversial new law that forces migrant aid charities to perform only one life-saving rescue mission at a time.

Critics say the measure violates international law and, by cutting the number of rescue ships able to operate, will result in more people drowning in the central Mediterranean, which is considered the most dangerous crossing for people seeking asylum in Europe.

On Sunday the United Nations and the European Commission chief urged countries to agree fairly on ways to share out responsibility for people fleeing conflict and poverty for what they hope will be a better life in Europe.

"Time for states to stop arguing and to agree on just, effective, shared measures to avoid more tragedies," UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called for progress on a stalled reform of EU rules on providing asylum for those in need.

"We must redouble our efforts on the (EU) Pact on Migration and Asylum and on the Action Plan on the Central Mediterranean," she said.

'Punished for saving lives'

Meloni, leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, said it was "criminal to put a boat of barely 20 metres to sea with 200 people on board and a bad weather forecast".

She demanded collaboration from migrants' home countries and states from where they embark on their perilous sea crossings.

A large proportion of people seeking to reach European shores cross the Mediterranean from Africa to Italy.

According to the interior ministry, nearly 14,000 migrants have arrived in Italy by sea so far this year, up from 5,200 over the same period last year.

Charities rescuing people in danger at sea bring only a fraction of migrants ashore.

Most of those who are rescued are plucked from the dangerous waters by Italian coastguards or the navy.

Despite this, Meloni's government has said rescue charities encourage migrants to attempt the crossing and boost the fortunes of human traffickers.

On Thursday, Italian authorities impounded a migrant rescue vessel belonging to medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) for allegedly breaking the new law on life-saving missions in the Mediterranean.

"It's unacceptable to be punished for saving lives," MSF said, adding that it was considering a possible legal challenge.

"People in difficulty at sea should be rescued, whatever the cost, without penalising those trying to help them," centrist former economy minister Carlo Calenda said on Sunday.

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COVID-19 Pandemic Likely Caused By Accidental Chinese Lab Leak: Report

New intelligence has prompted the Energy Department to conclude that an accidental laboratory leak in China most likely caused the novel coronavirus pandemic, reported The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

The shift by the Energy Department, which previously was undecided on how the virus emerged, is noted in an update to a 2021 document by Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines's office.

The conclusion was a change from the department's earlier position that it was undecided on how the virus emerged, reported WSJ.

The update, which is less than five pages, wasn't requested by the Congress. But lawmakers, particularly House and Senate Republicans, are pursuing their own investigations into the origins of the pandemic and are pressing the Biden administration and the intelligence community for more information.

The Energy Department now joins the Federal Bureau fof Investigation in saying the virus likely spread via a mishap at a Chinese laboratory, reported WSJ.

The Energy Department's conclusion is the result of new intelligence and is significant because the agency has considerable scientific expertise and oversees a network of US national laboratories, some of which conduct advanced biological research.

Energy Department's insights come from its network of national laboratories, some of which conduct biological research, rather than more traditional forms of intelligence like spy networks or communications intercepts.

The FBI previously came to the conclusion that the pandemic was likely the result of a lab leak in 2021 with "moderate confidence" and still holds this view.

US officials added that while the Energy Department and the FBI each say an unintended lab leak is the most likely cause of the pandemic, they arrived at those conclusions for different reasons.

The updated document underscores how intelligence officials are still putting together the pieces on how Covid-19 emerged. More than one million Americans have died in the pandemic that began more than three years ago, reported WSJ.

However, the conclusion was made with "low confidence," and came as America's intelligence agencies remained divided over the origins of the coronavirus, reported WSJ.

Four other agencies, along with a national intelligence panel, still believe that the pandemic was likely the result of a natural transmission, and two are undecided.

The Central Intelligence Agency and another agency that officials wouldn't name remain undecided between the lab-leak and natural-transmission theories, the people who have read the classified report said.

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan declined to confirm or deny the Journal's reporting in an appearance Sunday on CNN. He said President Biden had repeatedly directed every part of the intelligence community to invest in trying to discern as much as possible about the origins of the pandemic.

"President Biden specifically requested that the national labs, which are part of the Energy Department, be brought into this assessment because he wants to put every tool at use to be able to figure out what happened here," Sullivan said.

The Covid-19 virus first circulated in Wuhan, China, no later than November 2019, according to the US 2021 intelligence report. The pandemic's origin has been the subject of vigorous debate among academics, intelligence experts and lawmakers.

The emergence of the pandemic heightened tensions between the US and China, which US officials alleged was withholding information about the outbreak. It also led to a spirited and at times partisan debate in the US about its origin.

China, which has placed limits on investigations by the World Health Organisation, has disputed that the virus could have leaked from one of its labs and has suggested it emerged outside China.

The Chinese government didn't respond to requests for comment about whether there has been any change in its views on the origins of Covid-19.

However, the fact that Wuhan is the center of China's extensive coronavirus research, has led some scientists and US officials to argue that a lab leak is the best explanation for the pandemic's beginning.

Wuhan is home to an array of laboratories, many of which were built or expanded as a result of China's traumatic experience with the initial severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, epidemic beginning in 2002.

They include campuses of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products, which produces vaccines.

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In Latest Round Of Layoffs, Twitter Cuts Engineering And Product Jobs

Twitter Inc. laid off more workers late Saturday in a fresh wave of cuts meant to curb costs at the social networking company now owned by Elon Musk.

The layoffs hit employees on teams across the company, including engineering and product, according to people familiar with the situation. Some employees learned they were laid off via an email late Saturday, the people said, and others tweeted that they learned they were terminated when they could no longer log in to the internal system.

It's unclear exactly how many employees were impacted, though sources believe it was dozens. The Information previously reported more than 50 people were let go.

Twitter has not responded to a request for comment by Bloomberg News outside normal business hours.

Among those cut was Esther Crawford, one of the executives who had been in charge of Twitter Blue, the site's subscription service, Platformer's Zoe Schiffer said in a tweet Sunday.

In the days after Musk's takeover of Twitter last year, she notably tweeted in a post that went viral that employees sometimes will have to #SleepWhereYouWork in order to meet deadlines.

Crawford didn't immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular working hours.

Just got confirmation that Esther Crawford, chief executive of Twitter Payments, is out.

— Zoë Schiffer (@ZoeSchiffer) February 26, 2023

Several startup founders who joined Twitter via acquisitions the past few years tweeted Sunday that they'd also been cut, including a founder of the newsletter startup Revue and the design firm Ueno. Previously, Twitter had tried to avoid cutting founders to avoid having to expedite vesting of larger stock grants, people familiar with the company said.

Musk last year eliminated more than 3,700 jobs at Twitter, or half of the company's workforce, in a bid to drive down costs following his $44 billion acquisition.

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SpaceX Crew To Take Off For International Space Station On Monday

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is to blast off early Monday for the International Space Station carrying two NASA astronauts, a Russian cosmonaut and the second Emirati to voyage to space.

The SpaceX Dragon Crew-6 mission is set to lift off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 1:45 am (0645 GMT). Weather conditions are expected to be near perfect.

The Crew Dragon capsule, dubbed Endeavour, is scheduled to dock with the ISS at 2:38 am (0738 GMT) on Tuesday if all goes as planned.

NASA's Stephen Bowen and Warren Hoburg, Russia's Andrey Fedyaev and Sultan al-Neyadi of the United Arab Emirates are to spend six months on the orbiting space station.

Neyadi, 41, will be the fourth astronaut from an Arab country and the second from the oil-rich United Arab Emirates to journey to space; his countryman Hazzaa al-Mansoori flew an eight-day mission in 2019.

Neyadi described the upcoming mission as a "great honor."

Hoburg, the Endeavour pilot, and Fedyaev, the Russian mission specialist, will also be making their first space flights.

Fedyaev is the second Russian cosmonaut to fly to the ISS aboard a SpaceX rocket. NASA astronauts fly regularly to the station on Russian Soyuz capsules.

Space has remained a rare venue of cooperation between Moscow and Washington since the Russian offensive in Ukraine placed the two capitals in sharp opposition.

Such exchanges have continued despite those tensions.

Bowen, a veteran of three space shuttle missions, said politics rarely come up while in space.

"We're all professionals. We keep focused on the mission itself," the mission commander said. "It's always been a great relationship we've had with cosmonauts once we get to space."

While aboard the ISS, the Crew-6 members will conduct dozens of experiments including studying how materials burn in microgravity and researching heart, brain and cartilage functions.

The current crew is the sixth to be transported by a SpaceX rocket to the ISS. The Endeavour capsule has flown into space three times.

NASA pays the private SpaceX company to ferry astronauts to the flying laboratory roughly every six months.

The space agency expects Crew-6 to have a handover of several days with the four members of the SpaceX Dragon Crew-5, who have been stationed on the ISS since October. Crew-5 will then return to Earth.

Rescue Capsule

Also currently aboard the ISS are Russian cosmonauts Dmitry Petelin and Sergei Prokopyev, as well as NASA astronaut Frank Rubio.

They had been scheduled to return home on March 28 but the cooling system of their Soyuz MS-22 capsule was damaged by a tiny meteoroid in mid-December while docked with the ISS.

An uncrewed Russian Soyuz capsule, MS-23, took off on Friday from Kazakhstan to bring the three astronauts home. They are now scheduled to return to Earth in September.

The ISS was launched in 1998 at a time of increased US-Russia cooperation following the Cold War space race.

Russia has been using the ageing but reliable Soyuz capsules to ferry astronauts into space since the 1960s.

But in recent years, Russia's space program has been beset by a litany of problems that have led to the loss of satellites and vehicles.

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Olaf Scholz Asks More Indian Techies To Consider Working In Germany

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, wrapping up a two-day visit to India, urged the country's IT specialists and other skilled workers to consider working in Germany.

Looking for ways to tackle labor shortages in Europe's largest economy, Scholz said his coalition government was planning to reduce immigration hurdles and introduce a point-based system that would grant visas even to specialists who don't yet have a firm job offer in hand.

He offered no specifics on how many workers Germany hopes to attract from India.

"I am quite sure that many will want to take advantage of the opportunities to work as skilled workers in Germany," Scholz told reporters during a visit at software company SAP Labs India in Bangalore, where he held a roundtable discussion with workers.

"We need this in all areas of employment, but of course especially when it comes to skills such as those we have seen today in the area of software and IT development," Scholz said.

The German leader's trip to India was aimed at deepening economic ties as well as discussing Russia's war in Ukraine with PM Modi, who'll host the next leaders summit of the Group of 20 nations in September.

Scholz, who traveled with a large business delegation, said Saturday he would personally make an effort to advance talks between the EU and India for a trade and investment agreement.

PM Modi and the German chancellor also discussed closer defense cooperation, including a possible joint venture to build six submarines in India to help the Asian nation modernize its maritime forces.

#Indien ist eine Hightech-Nation, mit enormer Kompetenz in der Digitalisierung. Das hat mich beeindruckt, etwa bei SAP in Bengaluru, der zweiten Station meiner Indien-Reise. Als starkes und offenes Land kann DEU vom Austausch - insbesondere auch von Fachkraften - sehr profitieren pic.twitter.com/BRlhu58OxF

-- Bundeskanzler Olaf Scholz (@Bundeskanzler) February 26, 2023

During his meeting with workers at the SAP Labs, Scholz said he was "determined" to reduce bureaucratic hurdles to immigration for skilled workers, and "make it easier to come to Germany as a specialist, including with your own family."

Scholz said he wants to "establish a new system that allows people to apply for a visa to Germany who still have not signed a specific job contract, but who come with a lot of talent and skills, and then find a job in Germany."

The coalition government is putting the finishing touches on a draft law to ease immigration barriers, Scholz said. The new system is planned to work on a points basis, comparable to those in countries such as Canada.

A command of the German language would be an advantage, he added.

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Twitter Lays Off More Employees In 8th Job Cut Since October: Report

Elon Musk's Twitter Inc laid off dozens of employees on Saturday in what is at least the eighth round of job cuts since Musk took over the social network in late October, the Information reported.

The job cuts impacted multiple engineering teams, including those supporting advertising technology, the main Twitter app as well as technical infrastructure to keep Twitter's systems up and running, the report in the U.S. technology focused publication said early on Sunday, citing people with direct knowledge of the matter.

Twitter did not immediately respond to Reuters request for a comment.

In early November, Twitter laid off about 3,700 employees in a cost-cutting measure by Musk, who acquired the company for $44 billion.

The Information reported that the latest job cuts aim to offset a plunge in revenue following Musk's takeover and further whittle down a staff that had shrunk by at least 70% to roughly 2,000.

Musk in November said that the service was experiencing a "massive drop in revenue" as advertisers pulled spending amid concerns about content moderation.

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Pakistan's Latest Move To Please IMF May Take Loan Interest Rate Up To 19%

Pakistan's government has agreed to increase the policy interest rate which stands at 17 per cent by two per cent or 200 basis points to meet another condition set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), The Express Tribune reported.

With the new decision, Pakistan has accepted another pre-condition of the IMF for the release of USD 1.1 billion in critical funding, a part of the USD 6.5 billion bailout package, the report said, adding that Pakistan has announced the increase in interest rate based on rates the government set in the auction to raise domestic debt.

The decision by Pakistan authorities will push the interest rate to 19 per cent, just below the previous record of 19.5 per cent set in October 1996, The Express Tribune reported.

Sources in Pakistan's Ministry of Finance said that a technical-level discussion had virtually taken place between Islamabad and the IMF review mission.

The sources revealed that there was an expectation that Pakistan will increase the interest rate by two per cent, according to The Express Tribune report. According to sources, the discussions between the Pakistan government and IMF officials were in the final stage on some issues of the power sector.

Earlier this month, the Pakistan government and the IMF staff concluded the ninth review of the USD 6.5 billion bailout package without a staff-level agreement. The Pakistani government had hoped that they would be able to convince the IMF about implementing the conditions in a gradual manner.

However, Islamabad's hopes were dashed during the IMF mission's 10-day visit to Pakistan.

Amid an unprecedented economic crisis in the country, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif instructed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to cut the number of foreign missions as part of austerity measures, reported Geo News.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced the decision on February 22.

"The prime minister is pleased to direct that a well-considered proposal/ plan in this respect may please be submitted to this office within two weeks positively," a directive issued by the PM Office reads.

Shehbaz has issued instructions to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to slash down a number of foreign missions abroad and reduce their offices, staff, and other measures to cut down expenditures by 15 per cent, as per the Geo News report.

As per the news report, the official communication titled "Rationalisation of Foreign Mission Abroad" states that in view of the ongoing economic constraints and the consequent need for fiscal consolidation and control of external deficit, the prime minister was pleased to constitute a National Austerity Committee (NAC).

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8-Year-Old, Who Played Trans Girl, Wins Best Actor Award At Berlin Festival

Eight-year-old Spanish girl Sofia Otero on Saturday won the best acting prize at the Berlin Film Festival for her role in the film "20,000 Species of Bees".

In the feature debut by Spanish director Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren, Otero plays a nine-year-old child who was born a boy but who considers herself a girl.

Collecting the prize, Otero fought back tears, later telling journalists that she was "very happy" to have won.

"I want to dedicate my life to acting," she said.

Director Urresola Solaguren said it was important for her to pick a girl to play the role and not a boy.

"It is easier for her. She's a really intelligent girl," she said.

Gender and identity issues were the focus of several films awarded at the festival on Saturday.

The prize for best supporting performance was awarded to Austrian transgender actress Thea Ehre for "Till the End of the Night".

The movie, by German filmmaker Christoph Hochhaeusler, is a love story between a gay police officer and a transgender person against the backdrop of an investigation into a drug dealer.

Picking up the prize, Ehre had a special message for her parents.

"Thanks for supporting me, for always (giving) me the space to be what I wanted."

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"Will Be That President": Nikki Haley's Message For 'Bad Guys' Pak, China

US Republican Party, Grand Old Party (GOP) Presidential candidate Nikki Haley has said that if voted to power, she will cut every cent in foreign aid for countries that hate the US. This includes China, Pakistan and other adversaries as "a strong America doesn't pay off the bad guys".

"I will cut every cent in foreign aid for countries that hate us. A strong America doesn't pay off the bad guys. A proud America doesn't waste our people's hard-earned money. And the only leaders who deserve our trust are those who stand up to our enemies and stand beside our friends," Ms Haley, the Former Governor of South Carolina and former US ambassador to the UN, wrote in an op-ed for New York Post.

According to Ms Haley, America spent $46 billion on foreign aid last year. That's more than any other country by far. Taxpayers deserve to know where that money is going and what it's doing. They will be shocked to find that much of it goes to fund anti-American countries and causes.

Nikki Haley formally launched her 2024 campaign for the White House on February 15 (local time), pitching herself to voters as part of a "new generation" of Republican leaders who can win at the ballot box.

Ms Haley is now the first Indian American woman from the Republican Party to run for the presidential bid. As the former governor of South Carolina and US ambassador to the United Nations, took the stage, Haley introduced herself as the proud daughter of Indian immigrants pitching a new future for the Republican party.

Ms Haley in the Op-ed, while citing examples said that the US has given Iran more than USD 2 billion over the last few years, even though its government is getting closer to the murderous thugs in Iran who shout "Death to America!" and launch attacks on our troops.

"The Biden administration resumed military aid to Pakistan, though it's home to at least a dozen terrorist organizations and its government is deeply in hock to China. Team Biden restored half a billion dollars to a corrupt United Nations agency that's supposed to help the Palestinian people but in fact covers for deeply anti-Semitic propaganda against our ally Israel," she said.

The US has given hundreds of millions of dollars to Zimbabwe, a country with one of the most anti-American voting records in the UN.

American taxpayers still give money to Communist China for ridiculous environmental programs, despite the obvious threat China poses to Americans. We give money to Belarus, which is Russian dictator Vladimir Putin's closest ally. We even give money to Communist Cuba -- a country our own government has designated as a state sponsor of terrorism, Haley stated in her Op-ed for the New York Post.

"This is not just Joe Biden. It's been happening for decades under presidents of both parties. Our foreign-aid policies are stuck in the past. They typically operate on autopilot, with no consideration for the conduct of the countries that receive our aid. It will take a determined president to root out these taxpayer rip-offs."

Ms Haley said she is running for the president's post to restore US's strength, national pride, people's trust. Backing American allies and friends like Israel and Ukraine is smart. Sending our tax dollars to enemies isn't.

"I will be that president, just as I was that ambassador," Nikki Haley wrote.

"As ambassador, I strongly supported President Donald Trump's decision to cut nearly $2 billion of military aid to Pakistan because that country supports terrorists who kill American troops. It was a major victory for our troops, our taxpayers and our vital interests, but it didn't go nearly far enough. We've still given them way too much in other aid. As president, I will block every penny," the US presidential candidate further wrote.

With the aim of moving from the "stale ideas and faded ideas" of the past, the Indian American leader Nikki Haley on February 15 (Wednesday) announced her candidacy for the 2024 Republican Presidential nomination.

After Republican leader Nikki Haley, another Indian-American, healthcare and tech sector entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy on Wednesday (local time) announced his 2024 US presidential election bid.

"We've celebrated our "diversity" so much that we forgot all the ways we're really the same as Americans, bound by ideals that united a divided, headstrong group of people 250 years ago. I believe deep in my bones those ideals still exist. I'm running for President to revive them," tweeted Ramaswamy in a video announcing his intention to run for president.

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Thousands Protest In Berlin Over Arming Ukraine Against Russia

A demonstration against supplying Ukraine with weapons for war with Russia attracted 10,000 people on Saturday, drawing criticism from top German government officials and a large police presence to maintain order.

Organised by a prominent left-wing German politician, the protest comes a day after the one-year anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which drew promises of more weapons from western allies, fresh sanctions against Russia and shows of support for Kyiv across the globe.

"We call on the German chancellor to stop the escalation of arms deliveries. Now!...Because every day lost costs up to 1,000 more lives - and brings us closer to a 3rd world war," the protest's organizers said on their website.

The "Uprising for Peace" was organised in part by Sahra Wagenknecht, a member of Germany's left-wing Die Linke party.

Germany, along with the United States, has been one of the biggest suppliers of weapons for Ukraine.

"Negotiate, not escalate" one sign held by a demonstrator said, while a banner in the crowd read "Not our war".

A police spokesperson said 10,000 people gathered around Germany's symbolic Brandenburg Gate in central Berlin.

Police mobilised 1,400 officials to keep the peace and to enforce bans on military uniforms, Russian and Soviet flags, Russian military songs and right-wing symbols.

The police spokesperson said there was no sign of right-wing groups attending and that the protest, which German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said must be "clearly opposed", was peaceful.

"Whoever does not stand by Ukraine is on the wrong side of history," Lindner said on Twitter.

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Pakistan's Weekly Inflation Crosses 40 Percent For 1st Time In 5 Months

Consumer prices rose significantly in the outgoing week on the back of onions, chicken, eggs, rice, cigarettes and fuel, official data showed on Friday, driving the weekly inflation to over 40 per cent for the first time in over five months, the Dawn reported.

Though week-on-week inflation eased slightly, it still remained high as bananas, chicken, sugar, cooking oil, gas and cigarettes became costlier, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported.

As a result, short-term inflation, measured by Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI), jumped to 41.54 per cent on a year-on-year basis for the week ended on Feb 23, rising from 38.42 per cent in the previous week.

The hike in prices is the highest annual rise since the week ending September 8, 2022, when the SPI inflation was 42.7 per cent. And it was above 40 per cent for the first time since Sept 15, when the reading was 40.58 per cent.

Prices of onions, chicken, eggs, cigarettes and fuel see the highest increase, the Dawn reported.

The week-on-week inflation eased to 2.78 per cent from 2.89 per cent a week ago. Of the 51 items tracked, the prices of 33 items increased, six items decreased, whereas those of 12 items remained stable.

The previous week-on-week reading of 2.89 per cent reading was the highest since October 27, when the change in SPI was 4.13 per cent, official data showed.

During the week under review, the items whose prices increased the most compared to the same week a year ago were onions 372 per cent, cigarettes 164.7 per cent, gas 108.38 per cent, chicken 85.7 per cent, diesel 81.36 per cent, eggs 75.81 per cent, Irri 6/9 rice 75.41 per cent, broken basmati rice 74.16 per cent, bananas 72.22 per cent, washed moong pulse 70.39 per cent, and petrol 69.87 per cent.

In contrast, the highest year-on-year fall was recorded in the prices of tomatoes -67.93pc, chilli powder -7.42pc, and electricity charges for the lowest-income group (-6.64pc).

On a week-on-week basis, the biggest change was noted in the prices of gas 108.4pc (for the lowest-income group), cigarettes 76.45 per cent, bananas 6.67 per cent, chicken 5.27 per cent, sugar 3.37 per cent, cooking oil five-litre tin 3.07 per cent, vegetable ghee 2.5 kg pack 2.79 per cent, vegetable ghee 1 kg pack 2.2 per cent, and prepared tea 1.09 per cent.

The products whose prices saw the highest decline compared to the previous week were onions -13.84 per cent, eggs -5.5 per cent, tomatoes -4.23 per cent, garlic -3.03 per cent, LPG -0.81 per cent, and gram pulse -0.21 per cent.

Meanwhile, the headline inflation measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was recorded at 27.6 percent in January. However, the government has been taking strict measures under IMF conditions that are likely to further cool the economy and stoke inflation.

The government has already taken a string of measures, including adopting a market-based exchange rate; a hike in fuel and power tariffs; the withdrawal of subsidies, and more taxation to generate revenue to bridge the fiscal deficit.

As per the Dawn news, officials say the lender is still negotiating with Islamabad over power sector debt and a potential rise in the policy rate, which currently stands at 17 per cent.

The country's economy has been in turmoil and desperately needs external financing, with its foreign exchange reserves dipping to around USD 3 billion, barely enough for three weeks' worth of imports.

China this week announced refinancing of USD 700 million, which was received by the State Bank of Pakistan on Friday.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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Russia Accuses West Of "Destabilising" G20 Talks In India

Russia on Saturday accused the West of destabilising the G20 finance ministers' meeting in India by trying to force through a joint statement on Ukraine that stalled because of disagreements.

"We regret that the activities of the G20 continue to be destabilised by the Western collective and used in an anti-Russian... way," the foreign ministry said.

Moscow accused the United States, the European Union and the G7 nations of having "disrupted the adoption of collective decisions" by trying to impose their "diktat" by what they said was "clear blackmail".

Their aim had been to impose their interpretation of the Ukraine conflict in the joint statement by means of lobbying and "ultimatums", said the ministry statement.

The ministry called on the West to "renounce its destructive policy as soon as possible, to acknowledge the objective realities of a multipolar world".

"The G20 must remain an economic forum rather than encroaching on the security sphere," it said.

G20 finance ministers failed Saturday to agree a joint statement on the global economy at talks in India, after China sought to water down references to the Ukraine conflict.

Instead, current G20 president India issued a "chair's summary" which said "most members strongly condemned" the conflict and that there were "different assessments of the situation and sanctions" at the two-day meeting in Bengaluru.

A footnote said two paragraphs in the summary about the conflict, which it said were adapted from the G20 Bali Leaders' Declaration in November, "were agreed to by all member countries except Russia and China".

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US Billionaire Thomas Lee Found Dead With "Self-Inflicted" Gunshot Wound

American billionaire Thomas Lee, who was considered a pioneer of private equity investment and leveraged buyouts, died by suicide at the age of 78 at his Manhattan office on Thursday, according to a report in the New York Post. 

The businessman was declared dead at his Fifth Avenue Manhattan office, the headquarters of his investment firm, on Thursday morning around 11:10 am local time when police responded to an emergency 911 call. The outlet added that Mr Lee died by "a self-inflicted gunshot wound" and life-saving efforts were unsuccessful.  He was spotted on the bathroom's floor in his office by a female assistant. She had gone to look for him since she had not heard from him since morning. 

Furthermore, the first-responders found Mr Lee "lying on his side with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head". 

According to a report in Fox News, Thomas Lee's family friend and spokesperson Michael Sitrick said in a statement, "The family is extremely saddened by Tom's death. While the world knew him as one of the pioneers in the private equity business and a successful businessman, we knew him as a devoted husband, father, grandfather, sibling, friend and philanthropist who always put others' needs before his own."

Thomas Lee was the Founder and Chairman of Lee Equity, which he founded in 2006 and previously served as Chairman and CEO of Thomas H. Lee Partners, which he founded in 1974. The Lincoln Center, the Museum of Modern Art, Brandeis University, Harvard University and the Museum of Jewish Heritage were among the institutions he served on the boards of as a trustee and philanthropist.

Over the past 46 years, the billionaire was responsible for investing more than $15 billion in hundreds of deals, including the purchase and later sales of well-known brands like Warner Music and Snapple Beverages. Reportedly, he was one of the first financiers to buy businesses using money borrowed against the business entity. It is now referred as a "leveraged buyout".
 

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"We Are Looking To...": Iran Commander's Warning For Donald Trump

Iran has developed a cruise missile with a range of 1,650 km (1,025 miles) a top Revolutionary Guards commander said on Friday, in a move likely to raise Western concerns after Russia's use of Iranian drones in the Ukraine war.

Separately, Amirali Hajizadeh, the head of the Revolutionary Guards aerospace force, also spoke of Iran's often repeated threat to avenge the U.S. killing of a top Iranian commander, saying "We are looking to kill (former U.S. President Donald) Trump."

"Our cruise missile with a range of 1,650 km has been added to the missile arsenal of the Islamic Republic of Iran," Hajizadeh, told state TV.

The television broadcast what it said was the first footage showing the new Paveh cruise missile.

Hajizadeh said Iran did not intend to kill "poor soldiers" when it launched a ballistic missile attack on U.S.-led forces in Iraq days after Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani was killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2020 in Baghdad.

"God willing, we are looking to kill Trump. (Former Secretary of State Mike) Pompeo ... and military commanders who issued the order (to kill Soleimani) should be killed," Hajizadeh said in the television interview.

Iranian leaders have often vowed to avenge Soleimani in strong terms.

Iran has expanded its missile programme, particularly its ballistic missiles, in defiance of opposition from the United States and expressions of concern by European countries. Tehran says the programme is purely defensive and of a deterrent nature.

Iran has said it had supplied Moscow with drones before the war in Ukraine. Russia has used the drones to target power stations and civilian infrastructure.

In November, the Pentagon said the United States was sceptical of reports quoting Hajizadeh as saying Iran had developed a hypersonic ballistic missile.

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World Bank Announces Additional $2.5 Billion In Ukraine Aid

The World Bank on Friday announced $2.5 billion in additional grant financing from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID )to support Ukraine's budget and maintain essential services.

The latest financing under the World Bank's Public Expenditures for Administrative Capacity Endurance in Ukraine(PEACE) project lifts the total to $20.6 billion and will support salaries in core government functions and sectors such as healthcare and education while allowing Kyiv to pay pensions and support internally displaced people.

"One year into Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the world continues to witness the horrific destruction inflicted on the country and its people," said World Bank Group President David Malpass.

He said that $18.5 billion of the total funds mobilized had been disbursed, reaching more than 12 million Ukrainians.

The additional funding was announced a day after U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that Washington was preparing an additional $10 billion in economic assistance for Ukraine and called on the International Monetary Fund to pull together a loan programme for Ukraine.

Ukraine is seeking a $15 billion multi-year IMF package.

The World Bank-facilitated financing under the PEACE program is set up to minimize the risk of corruption. The World Bank transmits funds to cover Ukraine's expenditures a month after they are made, once it has verified that the money has gone to the government employees, pensioners and other recipients.

The latest USAID funds will be transmitted to the government of Ukraine after the World Bank verifies eligible expenditures.

The total of $20.6 billion in emergency financing comes from commitments and pledges from, the United States, Britain, the Netherlands, Spain, Norway, Germany, Canada, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Austria, Finland, Ireland, Lithuania, Latvia, Iceland, Belgium, and Japan.

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"Need A Just Peace" In Ukraine: Turkey's Erdogan On Call With Putin

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Friday for "a just peace" in Ukraine during a phone conversation with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, the presidency announced.

"President Erdogan stressed the need for achieving a just peace to prevent further loss of life and destruction," it said in a brief statement.

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Russia Might Provide Iran Fighter Jets, Missiles: US

Russia is considering sending fighter jets to Iran as part of an expanding military cooperation that has seen Tehran ship growing quantities of weaponry to Moscow for use in the invasion of Ukraine, the White House said Friday.

"We believe that Russia might provide Iran unprecedented defense cooperation, including on missiles, electronics and air defense. We believe that Russia might provide Iran with fighter jets," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

Kirby said Iran, which is deeply isolated by Western sanctions aimed at halting its disputed nuclear program, was seeking to bolster its military with Russian help in exchange for sending armaments used in the year-long onslaught against Ukraine.

"Iran is also seeking to purchase additional military equipment from Russia, including attack helicopters, radars and combat training aircraft. In total, Iran are seeking billions of dollars' worth of military equipment," Kirby said.

"We were concerned it was going to go both ways, and those concerns are certainly being realized," he said.

According to Kirby, Iran has already sent hundreds of drones, as well as artillery and tank ammunition, to Russia and that "Iran's support for Russia's war has expanded."

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Eiffel Tower Lit In Yellow And Blue To Mark 1 Year Of Ukraine War

Paris lit up the Eiffel Tower in blue and yellow and people draped in Ukrainian flags gathered at a vigil in London on Thursday, as the world marks one year of war between Ukraine and Russia.

Russia invaded Ukraine by land, air and sea on Feb. 24, 2022, the biggest attack by one state against another in Europe since World War Two. Russia has called its actions "a special military operation," while Ukraine and the West call the attack an unprovoked land grab.

"There will be a life after this war, because Ukraine will win," Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said in a speech before the Eiffel Tower was lit up to show solidarity with Ukraine.

"I think no one will run out of this fierce desire for freedom, for Europe, for democracy that the Ukrainians are showing."

In Brussels, European Union buildings including those of the European Parliament and Commission were similarly lit up in the colours of the Ukrainian flag.

In London, people draped in Ukrainian flags and holding banners - including one that said "Put Putin in the bin" in a reference to Russian President Valdimir Putin - gathered at Trafalgar Square at a vigil to mark the anniversary.

"Tomorrow is the anniversary of the full-scale invasion of Russia into my country, this is why I thought I just can't stay home," said Olena Iliuk, an 18-year-old Ukrainian at the vigil.

Ukraine had success with counter-offensives in late 2022 to seize much of the territory it lost early on, and the war has settled into one of attritional trench warfare and rising losses on both sides. Russia controls around a fifth of Ukraine a year on.

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"Sending Weapons Will Not Bring Peace": China On Ukraine War Anniversary

China's deputy UN Ambassador Dai Bing told the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday that one year into the Ukraine war "brutal facts offer an ample proof that sending weapons will not bring peace."

"Adding fuel to the fire will only exacerbate tensions. Prolonging and expanding the conflict will only make ordinary people pay an even heftier price," he said. "We stand ready to continue playing a constructive role in resolving the Ukraine crisis, and bring about peace at an early date."

Western powers have provided Ukraine with billions of dollars in weapons since Russia invaded. The United States and NATO have accused China of considering supplying arms to Russia and warned Beijing against such a move.

China has dismissed the accusations saying that the United States was in no position to make demands of Beijing.

Dai was speaking at the United Nations a day after China's top diplomat visited Moscow and pledged a deeper partnership with Russia. China and Russia announced a "no limits" partnership shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine.

The UN General Assembly will vote later on Thursday on a draft resolution calling a "comprehensive, just and lasting peace" and demanding Russia withdraw its troops.

Since Moscow invaded its neighbor on Feb. 24 last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly hinted that Russia could use a nuclear weapon if threatened.

"Nuclear weapons cannot be used, nuclear war cannot be fought," Dai said. "All parties should join together against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons, prevent nuclear proliferation and avoid a nuclear crisis."

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US, South Korea Hold 'Tabletop' Drills On North Korea's Nuclear Threat

The United States and South Korea held a "tabletop" exercise at the Pentagon on the nuclear threat from Pyongyang, the two countries said Thursday.

"Given the DPRK's recent aggressive nuclear policy and advancements in nuclear capabilities, the... scenario focused on the possibility of the DPRK's use of nuclear weapons," a joint statement said, referring to North Korea.

The US and South Korean delegations "focused their discussion on alliance deterrence to maintain peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and potential options for responding to DPRK nuclear weapons use," the statement said.

"Both sides affirmed that the alliance stands ready to respond to the DPRK's nuclear threats."

The delegations -- which were made up of military and defense officials as well as personnel from South Korea's foreign ministry and the US State Department -- held the exercise on Wednesday, the same day as separate drills by Washington, Seoul and Tokyo in the Sea of Japan.

Those drills were held with an emphasis on "sharing ballistic missile target information and mastering detection, tracking, and interception procedures," Seoul's defense ministry said in a statement.

On Thursday, the US and South Korean delegations visited a submarine base in Georgia.

During the visit, a senior US Navy officer "explained the mission of Ohio-class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine (SSBNs), and emphasized that SSBN forces operated by the US are a key means of providing US extended deterrence to Allies," the statement said.

The United States has sought to reassure South Korea over America's so-called extended deterrence commitments, after North Korea declared itself an "irreversible" nuclear power last year and has conducted a series of banned weapons tests, including multiple missile launches in recent days.

On Thursday the North test-fired four strategic cruise missiles into the sea, state media said, adding that the drill demonstrated the conflict readiness of Pyongyang's "nuclear combat force."

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North Korea Test Fires 4 Strategic Cruise Missiles: Report

North Korea has test-fired four strategic cruise missiles during a drill designed to demonstrate its ability to conduct a nuclear counterattack against hostile forces, its state media said on Friday.

The exercise on Thursday involved an apparently operational strategic cruise missile unit of the Korean People's Army, which fired the four "Hwasal-2" missiles in the area of Kim Chaek City, North Hamgyong Province, towards the sea off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula, state news agency KCNA said.

Other units conducted firepower training at hardened sites without live firing, it added.

The four strategic cruise missiles hit a preset target after traveling the "2000km-long (1,242.7 miles) elliptical and eight-shaped flight orbits for 10,208 seconds to 10,224 seconds," the English-language report said.

The drill demonstrated "the war posture of the DPRK nuclear combat force bolstering up in every way its deadly nuclear counterattack capability against the hostile forces," said KCNA.

The missiles were not announced by South Korea or Japan, which often detect and publicly report North Korean launches.

US and South Korean officials took part in a tabletop, or simulated, exercise that focused on the possibility of North Korea using a nuclear weapon, the Pentagon said on Thursday.

North Korea has forged ahead steadily in developing and mass producing new missiles, despite sanctions imposed by United Nations Security Council resolutions that ban the nuclear-armed country's missile activities.

Many launches, including an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on Saturday, have been reported by state media as drills designed to improve the capabilities of the troops operating the weapons.

"These demonstrations might be considered missile exercising rather than developmental testing," the US-based Center for International and Strategic Studies said in a report this week.

North Korea could test-fire ICBMs on a lower, longer trajectory and conduct its seventh nuclear test this year to perfect its weapons capabilities, South Korean lawmakers said on Wednesday, citing intelligence officials.

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French Teen Stabs Teacher To Death At School

A teenage pupil stabbed a teacher to death in the middle of a lesson at a school in southwest France on Wednesday, the regional prosecutor said.

The victim, Agnes Lassalle, 52, was teaching a Spanish class at the school in the seaside town of Saint-Jean-de-Luz when the 16-year-old attacked her with a knife, the prosecutor said.

"I didn't see him get up but I saw him in front of the teacher," classmate Ines, 16, told reporters.

"He was very calm. He got closer to her and plunged a big knife into her chest without saying anything," she added.

The teacher was given emergency aid at the scene, but Bayonne prosecutor Jerome Bourrier told AFP she died of her wounds.

The pupil was arrested and a murder investigation has been opened, Bourrier said, adding he was not previously known to police.

Lassalle's partner told broadcaster BFMTV she was "a very beautiful, very good person, who everyone loved." He added she had been dedicated to her job to the extent she would spend time on work "even during the holidays."

A source close to the case said that, by the time the police arrived on the scene at around 9:50 am, the attacker had been disarmed and other pupils isolated.

He had been carrying a blade some 10 cm (almost 4 inches) long, they added.

The pupil seemed to have acted in a "moment of madness", rather than on any "terrorist motive" or "resentment", the source said.

Ines, who witnessed the attack, said she did not really know the teenager.

"We're just in Spanish class together. But there had never been a problem between him and the teacher in class," she said.

'Conscientious' teacher

The school, Saint-Thomas d'Aquin, is a private, Catholic-based establishment close to the centre of Saint-Jean-de-Luz, which in summer is one of France's best-loved resorts on the sandy Basque country coast.

The teacher had long taught at the school and was "conscientious", a representative from the FEP-CFDT teachers' union said.

President Emmanuel Macron on Twitter said he was "extremely upset" by the stabbing.

He said he shared the grief of her family, colleagues and pupils, as well as that of "teachers who dedicate their life to passing on knowledge to future generations".

"The nation is by your side," said the president, whose wife is a former schoolteacher.

By lunchtime, pupils had started to leave the premises after being confined to their classrooms for around two hours after the incident.

Anxious parents were waiting for them but only those parents of the class where the stabbing happened were allowed to enter the school, an AFP reporter said.

France's Education Minister Pap Ndiaye said all schools would observe a minute of silence for her on Thursdayat 3:00 pm.

Visiting the scene, Ndiaye saluted the victim's "exceptional dedication" and her commitment to her pupils.

BFMTV said that the attacker had locked the classroom door and stabbed the teacher in the chest.

The channel quoted a source as saying that the boy then told another teacher that a "voice" had told him to carry out the action.

The investigation was to seek to determine his psychological state and motives.

No details have been released concerning his background.

'Could have happened to me'

Such attacks at schools are generally rare in France but there have been growing concerns about the security of teachers.

In the past 40 years, there have been fewer than a dozen deadly attacks in schools.

The attack in Saint-Jean-de-Luz is the first killing of a teacher in France since the October 2020 beheading of Samuel Paty outside Paris by an Islamist radical.

In July 2014, a 34-year-old teacher was stabbed to death in the southern town of Albi by the mother of a pupil. The perpetrator was later found to be legally irresponsible.

A Jewish school was targeted in the attacks carried out by Islamist gunman Mohamed Merah around Toulouse in 2012, with a teacher and three pupils shot dead.

In Saint-Jean-de-Luz, Maha Bargueche, a mathematics teacher from the Paris region who was holidaying in the area, placed a bouquet of flowers in front of the school "as a sign of support".

"I'm very sad, it could have happened to me, it can happen to any teacher. That's why I came immediately," she said.

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What Joe Biden Said On Putin's Decision To Suspend Nuclear Treaty

President Joe Biden said on Wednesday he did not read into Vladimir Putin's decision to temporarily suspend participation in a nuclear arms treaty as a signal the Russian president was considering using nuclear weapons, even though the U.S. leader called it a "big mistake."

"It's a big mistake to do that. Not very responsible. But I don't read into that that he's thinking of using nuclear weapons or anything like that," Biden told ABC News in an interview.

Putin earlier this week backed away from the New START arms control treaty - a 2010 agreement that limits the number of Russian and U.S. deployed strategic nuclear warheads - and warned that Moscow could resume nuclear tests.

However, Russia said it will stick to agreed limits on nuclear missiles and keep informing the United States about changes in its deployments despite the suspension.

When asked in the interview if the treaty's suspension made the world less safe, Biden said: "Well look, I think we're less safe when we walk away from arms control agreements that are very much in both parties' interests and in the world's interest."

However, he added there was no evidence to suggest a change in Russia's nuclear posture.

"The idea that somehow this means they're thinking of using nuclear weapons, intercontinental ballistic missile, there's no evidence of that," Biden said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday that Russia's announced suspension was "deeply unfortunate and irresponsible". NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said it made the world more dangerous, urging Putin to reconsider.

Moscow has demanded that British and French nuclear weapons targeted against Russia be included in the arms control framework, a position seen as a non-starter for Washington after over half a century of bilateral nuclear treaties with Russia.

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A Woman Dies Every 2 Minutes During Pregnancy Or Childbirth: UN

A woman dies every two minutes due to pregnancy or childbirth complications, despite maternal mortality rates dropping by a third in 20 years, the United Nations said Thursday.

Rates fell significantly between 2000 and 2015 but largely stagnated between 2016 and 2020 -- and in some regions have even reversed, the UN said.

The overall maternal mortality rate dropped by 34.3 percent over a 20-year period -- from 339 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in 2000 to 223 maternal deaths in 2020, according to a report by the World Health Organization and other UN agencies.

Nonetheless, that means nearly 800 women died per day in 2020 -- or around one every two minutes.

Belarus recorded the biggest decline -- down 95.5 percent -- while Venezuela saw the highest increase. Between 2000 and 2015, the biggest rise was in the United States.

"While pregnancy should be a time of immense hope and a positive experience for all women, it is tragically still a shockingly dangerous experience for millions around the world," said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

"These new statistics reveal the urgent need to ensure every woman and girl has access to critical health services... and that they can fully exercise their reproductive rights."

The report found that between 2016 and 2020, maternal mortality rates dropped in only two of the eight UN regions: in Australia and New Zealand by 35 percent, and in Central and Southern Asia by 16 percent.

'Unconscionable'

The rate went up in Europe and Northern America by 17 percent, and in Latin America and the Caribbean by 15 percent. Elsewhere, it stagnated.

The two European countries witnessing "significant increases" are Greece and Cyprus, the report's author Jenny Cresswell told journalists.

Maternal deaths remain largely concentrated in the world's poorest regions and in conflict-affected countries.

Around 70 percent of those deaths recorded in 2020 were in sub-Saharan Africa, where the rate is "136 times bigger" than in Australia and New Zealand, Cresswell said.

In Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and Yemen -- all facing severe humanitarian crises -- rates were more than twice the global average.

Severe bleeding, infections, complications from unsafe abortions and underlying conditions such as HIV/AIDS are among the leading causes of death, the report said -- which are all largely preventable and treatable.

The WHO said it was "critical" that women had control over their reproductive health -- particularly about if and when to have children, so that they can plan and space childbearing to protect their health.

Natalia Kanem, head of the UN Population Fund, said the rate of women "needlessly" dying was "unconscionable".

"We can and must do better by urgently investing in family planning and filling the global shortage of 900,000 midwives," she said.

While the report covers data up to 2020, the WHO's Anshu Banerjee told journalists that the statistics since then look bleak, due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the economic crisis.

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6.8-Magnitude Earthquake Hits Eastern Tajikistan

A 6.8-magnitude earthquake hit eastern Tajikistan on Thursday, the US Geological Survey said. The quake struck around 5:37 am local time (0037 GMT) at a depth of about 20.5 km (12.7 miles).

USGS estimated that "little or no population" will be exposed to landslides from the quake.

Its epicentre appeared to be in Gorno-Badakhshan, a semi-autonomous eastern region that borders Afghanistan and China.

A 5.0-magnitude aftershock hit the area about 20 minutes after the initial quake.

The sparsely populated territory is surrounded by the towering Pamir Mountains.

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India Gives Me Hope For Future, Says Bill Gates

India gives hope for the future and proved that the country could solve the big problems at once even when the world is facing multiple crises, Microsoft cofounder and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation co-chair Bill Gates said in his blog "Gates Notes".

In his blog, Bill Gates said that he believed that with the right innovations and delivery channels the world is capable of making progress on lots of big problems at once, even at a time when the world is facing multiple crises and usually he received the response like, "There isn't enough time or money to solve both at the same time."

But India proved all the responses wrong. "There is no better proof than the remarkable progress that India has accomplished," Mr Gates said in his blog.

"India as a whole gives me hope for the future. It's about to become the world's most populous country, which means you can't solve most problems there without solving them at scale. And yet, India has proven it can tackle big challenges. The country eradicated polio, lowered HIV transmission, reduced poverty, cut infant mortality, and increased access to sanitation and financial services," he added.

Microsoft's co-founder also stated that India has developed a world-leading approach to innovation that ensures solutions reach those who need them. When the rotavirus vaccine, which prevents the virus that causes many fatal cases of diarrhoea, was too expensive to reach every child, India decided to make the vaccine itself.

India worked with experts and funders (including the Gates Foundation) to build factories and create large-scale delivery channels to distribute the vaccines. By 2021, 83 per cent of 1-year-olds had been inoculated against rotavirus, and these low-cost vaccines are now being used in other countries around the world, Mr Gates said.

While talking about its funding in India's Indian Agricultural Research Institute, or IARI, in Pusa, Bill Gates said, "The Gates Foundation joined hands with India's public sector and CGIAR institutions to support the work of researchers at IARI. They found a new solution: chickpea varieties that have more than 10 per cent higher yields and are more drought-resistant. One variety is already available to farmers, and others are currently developing at the institute. As a result, India is better prepared to keep feeding its people and supporting its farmers even in a warming world. It's no exaggeration to say that India's agricultural future is growing right now in a field in Pusa."

"One of the reasons why challenges like climate, hunger, and health seem insurmountable is that we don't yet have all the tools to solve them. But I'm optimistic that one day soon we will, thanks in part to innovators like researchers at IARI," he added.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also shared Gates' blog published in one of the media publications.

In his blog, Mr Gates also informed that he is coming to India next week to see the work being done by innovators and entrepreneurs. Some are working on breakthroughs that will help the world to mitigate the effects of climate change, like the work being done by Breakthrough Energy Fellow Vidyut Mohan and his team to turn waste into biofuels and fertilizers in remote agricultural communities.

"Others are finding new ways to help people adapt to a warmer world, such as IARI's efforts to create more drought-tolerant crops. I'm looking forward to seeing the progress that's already underway by both the Gates Foundation's and Breakthrough Energy's amazing partners," Bill Gates said.

"Like every other country on the planet, India has limited resources. But it has shown us how the world can still make progress in spite of that constraint. By collaborating and trying novel approaches, the public, private, and philanthropic sectors can turn limited resources into big pools of funding and knowledge that lead to progress. If we work together, I believe we can fight climate change and improve global health at the same time," he added.

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Meta's Plea To Drop Verdict In $175 Million Streaming Patent Case Rejected

A federal judge in Austin, Texas on Tuesday rejected a request by Meta Platforms Inc's to throw out a $175 million jury patent verdict for walkie-talkie app maker Voxer Inc.

US District Judge Lee Yeakel's decision leaves intact the jury's finding that Meta's Facebook Live and Instagram Live live-streaming technology infringed two Voxer patents related to video streaming and messaging. Meta can still appeal the verdict to a higher court.

Representatives for Meta and Voxer did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday.

San Francisco-based Voxer's 2020 lawsuit said its representatives disclosed its patented technology to Meta, which was then Facebook, when the companies met in 2012 about a potential collaboration.

Voxer said Facebook cut it off from key features of the social media platform in 2013 and misused its technology in Facebook Live and Instagram Live, which launched in 2015 and 2016.

A jury found last September that Meta infringed the two patents, which relate to a method for streaming video and infrastructure for a video-messaging service, and awarded Voxer $174.5 million in royalty damages.

Meta asked the court to overturn the verdict or hold a new trial. It raised several arguments, including that a reasonable jury could not have found infringement, the patents were invalid, the damages were unjustified, and Voxer's lawyer had made "inappropriate comments" that biased the jury against Meta.

Mr Yeakel denied Meta's requests Tuesday and said there was enough evidence to support the jury's verdict.

The case is Voxer Inc v. Meta Platforms Inc, US District Court for the Western District of Texas, No. 1:20-cv-00655.

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North Korea May Conduct 7th Nuclear Test This Year: South Korean Lawmakers

North Korea could test-fire intercontinental ballistic missiles at a normal angle and conduct its seventh nuclear test this year to perfect its nuclear and missile capabilities, South Korean lawmakers said on Wednesday, citing intelligence officials.

The isolated country has so far conducted ICBM tests on lofted trajectories, but has already secured capabilities to launch them at a normal angle, which it might do to pressure the United States, the lawmakers said after a briefing by Seoul's National Intelligence Service (NIS).

North Korea is also likely to launch a spy satellite this year in line with its previous warnings, said Yoo Sang-bum, a member of the parliamentary intelligence committee.

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Foreign Aid Is "Poisoned Candy": North Korea Paper Calls For Self-Reliance

North Korea's official newspaper said on Wednesday that relying on external aid to cope with food shortages would be equal to taking "poisoned candy", urging economic self-reliance despite deepening hardships amid sanctions and coronavirus lockdowns.

The isolated country has suffered food shortages in recent years, reeling from floods and typhoons, international sanctions aimed at curbing its nuclear and missile programmes, and a sharp cut in trade with China due to border closures and COVID-19 lockdowns.

Most UN agencies and Western relief groups have since left North Korea, with China remaining one of the few sources of external food assistance.

In a commentary, the ruling Workers' Party paper Rodong Sinmun warned against receiving economic help from "imperialists" who use aid as a "trap to plunder and subjugate" recipient countries and interfere with their internal politics.

"It is a mistake to try to boost the economy by accepting and eating this poisoned candy," the commentary said.

The article came as South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported on Wednesday that some 700 inmates at three countryside prisons, including in the central city of Kaechon, have died from famine and diseases over the past two years, citing an unnamed source.

Seoul's Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korea affairs, declined to comment on the report but said on Tuesday that there appeared to have been a recent increase in deaths from starvation in some North Korean provinces.

"Food production dropped from last year, and there is a possibility of distribution issues due to a change in their food supply and distribution policy," a ministry official told reporters.

South Korea's rural development agency in December estimated the North's crop production at around 4.5 million tonnes last year, 3.8% down from 2021, citing heavy summer rains and other weather conditions.

Unification Minister Kwon Young-se has said Pyongyang had asked the U.N. food agency, the World Food Programme, to provide support but there was no progress because of differences over monitoring issues. The agency has not responded to a request for comment.

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