The world in brief | Ten dead in plane crash in Brazil; Trevi Fountain reopens after cleaning

Posted at 11:53 a.m.

Updated at 2:43 p.m.

Ten dead in Brazil plane crash

Ten members of the same family died Sunday when their small plane crashed in a commercial area in the tourist town of Gramado, in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul (south), Civil Defense reported.

The pilot was businessman Luiz Claudio Salgueiro Galeazzi and there are no survivors among the relatives who traveled with him. Seventeen other people were injured on the ground, two of them seriously, according to Civil Defense.

The device, a Piper Cheyenne 400, crashed in the morning “on the chimney of a building, then on the second floor of a house and then on a furniture store,” the secretariat detailed in a press release. at Public Security of Rio Grande do Sul. “An inn was also affected,” he added.

The plane took off from the neighboring municipality of Canela, another tourist destination in Rio Grande do Sul, then crashed minutes after takeoff.

The causes of the accident are under investigation.

Agence France-Presse

In Rome, the Trevi Fountain reopens after cleaning, contingent on tourists

The famous Trevi Fountain has officially reopened after several weeks of cleaning and the municipality has decided to limit the number of visitors to 400 at a time, Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri announced on Sunday.

In fact, “400 people at a time can be here […] and the objective is to allow everyone to make the most of the fountain, without the crowds or the confusion,” declared Mr. Gualtieri in front of this monument made famous by the film The Sweet Life.

He added that this number could possibly be modified at the end of a test phase, the duration of which he did not specify.

The mayor of the Italian capital also indicated that the municipality would study in the coming months the possibility of introducing “a small entry ticket” to finance, among other things, the maintenance of the fountain.

Traditionally, the many tourists, 10,000 to 12,000 per day so far, throw coins there, which is supposed to bring good luck.

Agence France-Presse

Seven Lebanese released by Israel on the border with Lebanon

Seven Lebanese who were detained by Israel were handed over to the UN force in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL) on Sunday, the Lebanese National News Agency (ANI) said.

According to this source, the “seven citizens” were arrested by the Israeli army after the entry into force on November 27 of a ceasefire putting an end to two months of open war between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah.

They were handed over to UNIFIL in Ras Naqoura, on the border with Israel, then transported to hospital by the Lebanese Red Cross for check-ups.

They were then transferred by the “military intelligence services” to a headquarters in the city of Saida, in the south of the country, ANI said.

Agence France-Presse

Putin meets with Slovak Prime Minister in Moscow

President Vladimir Putin received Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico at the Kremlin on Sunday, one of the only European leaders to have remained close to him, the Russian presidency announced, in the midst of uncertainty over the future of Russian gas transit to Russia. European Union.

This visit by a Western leader to Moscow, very rare, had not been officially announced.

“A meeting between Vladimir Putin and the Prime Minister of Slovakia, Robert Fico, on a working visit to Moscow, is taking place in the Kremlin,” wrote the Russian presidency on its Telegram channel.

The message is accompanied by a video in which the two men smile at each other and shake hands before sitting next to each other.

Robert Fico, who has again led the government of Slovakia, a member country of the European Union and NATO, since the fall of 2023, has decided to stop all military aid to Ukraine and is calling for peace talks. peace.

Agence France-Presse

At least 32 dead during two food distributions in Nigeria

Thirty-two people died in two crowd movements during food distributions on Saturday in Nigeria, at a time when the country is experiencing one of its worst economic crises leading to high food inflation.

In Okija, in Anambra State (South), the death toll announced by police on Sunday stood at 22 dead. Local authorities reported on Saturday that “several people” died during the incident. An investigation was opened to determine the exact circumstances of the stampede, according to the police.

Also on Saturday, in Abuja, Nigeria's capital, 10 people were killed and eight others injured in another stampede. The latter occurred near the Maitama Catholic church, during a distribution of food intended for “vulnerable and elderly people”, according to the police.

Manzo Ezekiel, a spokesperson for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), told AFP on Saturday: “This is becoming too widespread and it shows that precautionary measures are not being taken.”

“Anytime you distribute basic necessities to people, and there are no measures taken to control the crowd, it often results in situations like this,” he continued.

Agence France-Presse

In Vietnam, the Ho Chi Minh City metro inaugurated

Seventeen years after the project was launched, Ho Chi Minh City's metro was inaugurated on Sunday by thousands of residents of the southern Vietnamese city, who stormed the stations and celebrated by taking selfies .

Costing $1.7 billion, the metro follows a 20-kilometer route through the country's economic capital and has 14 stations.

Approved in 2007 and expected to cost $668 million, the project only came to fruition in 2012 with the start of construction. The authorities, who financed the project largely with loans from the Japanese government, then promised it would be operational within five years.

In the city of nine million inhabitants with monster traffic jams, the metro must “meet the growing needs of residents to travel and reduce congestion and pollution,” said the deputy mayor, Bui Xuan Cuong.

According to state media, the delay was due to “slow disbursement of funds, unforeseen technical problems, labor difficulties and the coronavirus pandemic.”

Agence France-Presse

Thousands of people demonstrate against power in Serbia

Thousands of people demonstrated in Belgrade on Sunday to demand accountability after the roof of a railway station in northern Serbia collapsed last month, killing 15 people.

For more than seven weeks, the Serbian government has been under pressure from demonstrations following this tragedy in the city of Novi Sad, with many protesters accusing the authorities of corruption and lack of control.

Sunday's rally in the Serbian capital, organized by students, began with 15 minutes of silence in tribute to the 15 dead, AFP noted.

Agence France-Presse