Firefighters said an explosion erupted in central Milan, in northern Italy, on Thursday, setting several vehicles on fire and injuring one person. No deaths were reported.

The explosion was suspected to have originated in a van transporting oxygen gas canisters.

Footage from Milan's Porta Romana neighborhood, showing high plumes of black smoke and firefighters on the scene.

Covid-19 was the fourth leading cause of death among Americans in 2022, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

More than 3.2 million persons died in the US during January to December 2022.

Heart disease (699,659) remained the top reason for death, followed by cancer (607,790), unintentional injuries (218,064) -- which includes drug overdoses and car accidents -- and Covid (186,702).

Retail food sales in Germany in March were down by 10.3 per cent in real terms, recording the sharpest year-on-year decline since the record keeping began in 1994, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) said.

"The further significant increase in food prices is likely to be a reason for this," Destatis said.

More than 10,000 child Covid-19 cases were reported in the US in the week ending on April 27, according to the latest report by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Children's Hospital Association.

Almost 15.6 million children have been reported to have tested positive for the virus since the onset of the pandemic in early 2020.

Over the past seven months, weekly reported child cases have plateaued at an average of about 27,000 cases, while in the past four weeks the average reported weekly cases have dropped further to about 10,000, according to the report.

Reported cases are likely a "substantial undercount" of Covid-19 cases among children, it added.

There is a need to collect more age-specific data to assess the severity of illness related to new variants as well as potential longer-term effects, said the report.

It is important to recognise there are immediate effects of the pandemic on children's health, but importantly there is the need to identify and address the long-lasting impacts on the physical, mental, and social well-being of this generation of children and youth, said the AAP.

Pakistan witnessed a slight increase in the number of terror attacks in April with a total of 48 incidents, which led to 68 deaths and 55 injuries, according to a new report.

In its report released on Tuesday, the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies said the new figures were higher than the 39 militant attacks recorded in March, resulting in 58 deaths and 73 injuries.

The US administration announced it will end Covid-19 vaccination requirements for federal employees, international air travellers and contractors on May 11 -- the same day that the public health emergency implemented for the pandemic will also end.

In a statement on Monday, the White House said the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) also separately announced that they will start the process to end their vaccination requirements for head start educators, CMS-certified healthcare facilities, and certain non-citizens at the land border.

Four people were killed in a mass shooting in a small desert community in California, local media reported citing police.

The shooting took place at a home in Mojave, a community of some 4,000 residents and about 104 km east of Bakersfield, the county seat of Kern County in the southern Central Valley of the state.

The victims were men in their 20s or 30s, said the report, citing the Kern County Sheriff's Office.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi will embark on a visit to Syria on Wednesday, marking the first such trip by an Iranian leader to Damscus in 13 years.

During the two-day visit, talks will be held between senior officials of the two countries aimed at furthering diplomatic relations and strengthening economic and trade cooperation.

Raisi will also attend meetings with Iranian and Syrian traders as well as Iranian nationals living in the conflict-hit Arab nation.

Reality show 'Bride and Prejudice' actress Dannii Erskine has died in a fatal car accident at the age of 28.

Dannii Erskine was driving back from the shops on Friday when a "drunk" driver hit her car, her sister Dee told.

"As she went through a green light, a driver was intoxicated and T-boned her", Dee said, adding that Dannii's "skull was crushed upon impact with the airbag".

Turkey has joined the club of nuclear power countries with the nuclear fuel delivery into the first power unit of the Akkuyu power plant, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

"With the delivery of nuclear fuel by sea and air to our plant, Akkuyu has now acquired the nuclear power plant status. Therefore, our country has risen to the league of countries with nuclear power, albeit after 60 years of delay," Erdogan said at a ceremony via video link, joined by his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin online.

Akkuyu nuclear power plant, Turkey's first nuclear power plant, is being built by Russia's state nuclear energy company Rosatom in Mersin province on the southern Mediterranean coastline.

Several thousand teachers marched in Brussels to express their dissatisfaction with the Belgian education system.

The demonstrators on Thursday denounced teaching conditions, such as an administrative overload and an unsustainable student-teacher ratio, causing classes to be overcrowded.

The trade unions organising the march also criticised a draft coalition agreement in French-speaking education, which they say will have a negative impact on the rights of teachers, while it will not solve the prevailing problems.

"We are so busy with administration, management and everything else that is not pedagogical, that it is no longer possible to do a proper job," said Nathalie Brousniche, a third-grade teacher at a primary school in the city of Charleroi.

Leaks in gas pipelines in parts of Dhaka left a strong odour, creating panic among city residents, an official said on Tuesday.

Rafi Al Faruk, a duty officer of the fire service and civil defence headquarters, told that they received numerous complaints of gas leaks from a number of areas of the Bangladeshi capital late Monday night.

According to the officer, leaks in pipelines mostly in eastern part of Dhaka were responsible for the smell.
Leaks in gas pipelines in parts of Dhaka left a strong odour, creating panic among city residents, an official said on Tuesday.

Rafi Al Faruk, a duty officer of the fire service and civil defence headquarters, told that they received numerous complaints of gas leaks from a number of areas of the Bangladeshi capital late Monday night.

According to the officer, leaks in pipelines mostly in eastern part of Dhaka were responsible for the smell.

No casualty has been reported so far, said the officer, adding that there was no danger to the public.

"We've already reported this matter to Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Ltd. which is responsible for gas distribution in Dhaka," the officer said.

According to a statement from the ministry of power, energy and mineral resources, Titas has advised residents not to panic about the spread of the odour.

There was a shutdown of gas supply in industrial factories during Eid, and the smell is coming out due to increase in gas pressure in transmission and distribution lines, which gave rise to an overflow.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said the country has discovered natural gas reserves valued at $1 billion in Gabar Mountain in southeastern Sirnak province.

Erdogan made the remarks at the opening ceremony of a sports complex in Sakarya province.

The Philippines' Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Monday said that it is preparing to evacuate up to 50 Filipinos from Sudan as the violent unrest in the north African country continues unabated.

Foreign Undersecretary Eduardo de Vega said the first batch will likely leave Sudan's capital Khartoum "within 24 hours", reports Xinhua news agency

A bus will take the Filipinos from Khartoum to northern Sudan at the border with Egypt, a distance of about 1,000 km, de Vega said, adding that the Filipinos will take a bus ride from the border to Aswan City in southern Egypt, where there is an international airport.

A new survey has revealed that the average hotel price in Japan during the latest quarter rose 15 per cent from the same period in 2019, before the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

The survey conducted by STR, a research firm that provides market data on the hotel industry worldwide, shows that the average price for a hotel room in Japan during the January-March quarter was 16,125 yen ($120), up by around $15.7 from the same period in 2019.

A series of lightning strikes in Bangladesh killed nine people in less than two hours amidst heavy rain, officials said on Monday.

The deaths were reported in different areas of Sunamganj, Moulvibazar and Sylhet districts between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. on Sunday, reports Xinhua news agency.

The majority of the fatalities occurred in rural areas where people were working on their farmlands.

South Korea confirmed 10 more cases of mpox on Monday, bringing the country's total to 30, health authorities said.

Six of them are living in Seoul, three in Gyeonggi province and one in North Chungcheong province, while one of the 10 patients is a foreigner, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).

All have not recently travelled abroad, Yonhap News Agency quoted the health body as saying.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has held a phone conversation with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud on expanding bilateral relations in trade, economic cooperation, investment and energy.

The leaders discussed several key topics on Friday, and expressed satisfaction with the level of coordination at the OPEC Plus mechanism aimed at ensuring the global oil market stability.

The US Supreme Court has preserved access to a widely used abortion pill, ruling the drug can remain available in the market while a lawsuit in a lower court continues.

The future of the drug was questioned after a federal judge in Texas, on April 7, ruled to suspend FDA-approved mifepristone used in more than half of abortions in the country.

In a split decision, it also rejected restrictions on mifepristone implemented by a lower court, essentially maintaining the status quo.

Finland's registered 1.32 births per woman in 2022, the lowest level since record keeping started in 1776, according to official data.

Statistics Finland said the figure in 2021 was 1.46.

In 2022, 44,951 children were born in Finland.

Statistics Finland said the main reason for the drop was that families chose not to have a second or third child.

In recent years, the proportion of first-born babies among newborns has increased slightly.

While just under 41 per cent of those born in 2018 were first-born children, this proportion rose to 43 per cent in 2022.

However, the number of second and third-born children decreased more than that of first-borns.

A new Omicron subvariant is spreading in the United States, and has accounted for nearly 10 per cent of new weekly Covid-19 cases reported across the country, according to data updated by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The subvariant XBB.1.16, referred to as "arcturus", has been added by the CDC to its variant tracker.

The percentage is expected to increase in the coming weeks, and it may become the next dominant coronavirus strain in the country, experts warned.

Hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders living in Australia will be able to claim citizenship under a policy shift, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced on Saturday.

He announced that from July, hurdles to citizenship will be removed, allowing New Zealanders on Special Category Visa to apply directly for Australian citizenship without becoming permanent residents first, as long as they meet a four-year residence and other eligibility requirements.

US President Joe Bidens decree to forego loans under the government-funded PELTs scheme is in danger of being shelved by the GOP as Speaker Kevin McCarthy backed by the Republican members introduced a bill to nullify it on grounds of depleting the government's treasury.

Biden had planned to cancel up to $20,000 of debt per student borrower, but McCarthy's bill seeks to cancel this and end the freeze on monthly repayments with interest on the borrowings, media reports said.

Thousands of students in the US who had borrowed money for their higher education are on tenterhooks.

Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari confirmed on Thursday that he would represent Pakistan in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting scheduled to be held in Goa on May 4-5, media reports said.

Bilawal also announced to consult with all the political parties for their inputs on his visit to India.

He said all members of the regional body have realised the importance of SCO and it would yield positive results.

The global trend towards multipolarity will intensify, and those who choose to resist this shift will "ultimately lose and face new challenges", Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.

"The global trend ... towards multipolarity is inevitable, and will only intensify," Putin said during a videoconference of the Council for Local Self-Government Development on Thursday.

The National Mining Agency of Colombia has confirmed that three of the seven missing miners were found dead after the coal mine explosion in the municipality of Cucunuba. At least seven miners had been missing after the explosion in the Colombian municipality in the department of Cundinamarca, Governor Nicolas Garcia was quoted. "We have a report from the rescue team stating that they pulled out alive four trapped miners, who are being taken to the hospital, while we continue the search and rescue for seven other miners," Garcia said on Thursday in a video posted on Twitter. The explosion occurred at about 1:00 a.m. local time on Thursday in interconnected mines in an area of Pueblo Viejo. Minister of Mines and Energy Irene Velez detailed on social media that teams from the National Mining Agency, the Civil Defense, the Public Force and the fire department were working on the rescue mission.

Turkey has started the delivery of natural gas from its Black Sea field, as part of its flagship project aiming at reducing the country's dependence on energy imports.

The gas, shipped from a depth of 2,200 meters at the offshore Sakarya field via a 170-km-long subsea pipeline and through various compression plants, was delivered to the newly constructed Filyos land facility located in the northern Zonguldak province on Thursday.

Indian climber Anurag Maloo, who went missing after falling into a deep crevasse on Mt. Annapurna, was been rescued alive, an official confirmed on Thursday. A team of rescuers found the 34-year-old in the crevasse below Camp III of the world's 10th highest peak, Thaneshwor Guragain of Seven Summit Treks, told. But Maloo's health is critical and is currently undergoing treatment at Manipal Hospital in Pokhara, Guragain added. His brother Sudhir posted a video on social media after meeting Anurag. Anurag was reported missing on Monday after he fell into the crevasse from 5,800m while descending from Camp II. A team of six Sherpa climbers led by Chhang Dawa conducted a ground search and found him in some 300m deep crevasse on Wednesday and he was airlifted to Pokhara. Anurag's family and friends had also written a letter to External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, asking him to intervene for the climber's safe return.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol will pay a state visit to the US from April 24-29 to hold a summit with his American counterpart Joe Biden and mark the 70th anniversary of the bilateral alliance, an official said here on Thursday. The summit will be held at the White House on April 26 following an official welcoming ceremony, Principal Deputy National Security Adviser Kim Tae-hyo. In the evening, Yoon and First Lady Kim Keon-hee will attend a state dinner. On April 27, he will deliver an address before a joint session of Congress before having lunch with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Vice President Kamala Harris.

A strong cold front will sweep many parts of China in the coming days, bringing strong winds and low temperatures, the country's national observatory said on Thursday. Affected by the cold air, many regions in China will experience temperature drops of 6 to 10 degrees Celsius from Thursday to Sunday, according to the National Meteorological Centre. From 8 a.m. Thursday to 8 a.m. Saturday, temperatures are expected to fall by over 12 degrees Celsius in parts of Jilin, Gansu, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei, Henan and Hubei, accompanied by strong winds. The centre also forecast that rainfall will hit central and eastern parts of the country from Thursday to April 24.

The New Zealand government is working with industries to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and slash carbon emissions, Minister of Energy and Resources Megan Woods said on Thursday.Efforts have been made to stop burning fossil fuels, resulting in the equivalent of taking 14,200 cars off the road.Industrial energy such as coal boilers makes up about a quarter of all New Zealand's energy-related emissions. Working with businesses to slash their emissions is a pragmatic policy that is delivering results, Woods said.The government is partnering with 15 more businesses that are high energy users to help reduce their reliance on fossil fuels and accelerate carbon reduction, Woods said while announcing Auckland's latest round of the Government Investment in Decarbonizing Industry (GIDI) Fund, which is the first emissions reduction plan rolled out by the New Zealand government.

Malaysia's inflation, as measured by the consumer price index (CPI), eased to 3.4 per cent in March from 3.7 per cent in February, official data showed on Thursday. The Department of Statistics said in a statement that the slower increase was mainly driven by the decrease in petrol price, which eased the inflation of the transport group to 2.4 per cent. This was in line with the downward trend of Brent crude oil price, which was at $78.53 per barrel during March, as compared to $115.59 a year ago. Nevertheless, inflation for food and non-alcoholic beverages as well as that for restaurants and hotels remained high at 6.9 per cent and 7.2 per cent respectively, even though it was lower than February's figure.For the first quarter, the CPI rose 3.6 per cent as compared to the same quarter of the preceding year.On a quarterly basis, CPI grew at 0.6 per cent at the same rate as recorded in the fourth quarter of 2022.

At least 44 people were killed a when a bus they were travelling in fell into a ravine in Pakistan's Lasbela district on Sunday.The vehicle carrying 48 passengers was proceeding towards Karachi from Quetta, Lasbela Assistant Commissioner Hamza Anjum, was quoted as saying by Dawn.The speeding vehicle rammed into pillar of a bridge while taking a U-turn near Lasbela and caught fire, Anjum added.

Among the many startups founded and operating in South Korea, TagHive, an education technology company launched in 2017, is distinguished for its founder and CEO Pankaj Agarwal.

A 48 year-old Sikh man has been fined and banned from driving for multiple offences, including smashing a window in a UK residential colony with a hockey stick.