BRATISLAVA, April 17. /TASS/. Donbass and Crimea will remain part of Russia forever, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico told members of the European Affairs Committee of the country’s National Council (parliament).

GUIYANG, April 17 (Xinhua) -- China's Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), the world's largest single-dish radio telescope, has identified more than 900 new pulsars since its launch in 2016.

The number of new pulsars discovered by FAST is more than three times the total number of pulsars found by foreign telescopes during the same period, Han Jinlin, a scientist with the National Astronomical Observatories under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC), said on Wednesday.

ANCIENT OLYMPIA /Greece/, April 16. /TASS/. The ceremonial lighting of the Olympic flame for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris has taken place in Ancient Olympia, a TASS correspondent reports from the scene.

In attendance at the ceremony were Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Thomas Bach, President of the Greek National Olympic Committee Spyros Capralos and other officials.

KIEV, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday agreed to hold an urgent meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Council.

"The Secretary General of the Alliance confirmed the convening of an extraordinary meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Council at Ukraine's request," Zelensky said in a post on Telegram after a phone conversation with Stoltenberg.

The meeting at the defense ministers level will take place on Friday, Zelensky said.

TOKYO, Apr 18 (NNN-NHK) – Toyota Motor Corp. said, it is recalling 135,305 units of its Prius hybrid car in Japan, due to a risk of doors opening during driving.

Three cases of complaints related to the rear door handle glitch have been reported so far, while no accident has been confirmed, according to the automaker’s recall filing with Japan’s transport ministry yesterday.

KUALA LUMPUR, April 17 (Bernama) — The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has revised the outlook for Malaysia’s real gross domestic product (GDP) by a notch to 4.4 per cent this year from its earlier prediction of 4.3 per cent.

Malaysia’s economy expanded by 3.7 per cent in 2023.

In its latest World Economic Outlook (WEO) entitled “Steady but slow, resilience amid divergence”, IMF predicted the GDP growth to remain at 4.4 per cent in 2025.

It projected Malaysia’s current account balance at 2.4 per cent in 2024 and 2.7 per cent in 2025.

SINGAPORE, April 16 (Bernama) — Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong will remain in the new Cabinet as a senior minister, local media reported, quoting Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on Tuesday.

The Straits Times reported that Wong, who is set to assume the role of Singapore’s Prime Minister from Lee on May 15, will announce details of his new Cabinet in a press conference a few days before the swearing-in ceremony.

NEW DELHI: Delhi Cabinet minister Atishi on Thursday claimed there was a "huge conspiracy" to kill Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who has been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in the Delhi excise policy case, by denying him home-cooked food in the jail.

Her charge came hours after the ED claimed before a court that Kejriwal is eating high sugar foods like mangoes and sweets every day despite having type 2 diabetes to create grounds for medical bail.

KABUL, Apr 18 (NNN-ANA) – The number of flood-related casualties in Afghanistan in the past few days has increased, as 70 people have been confirmed dead and more than 50 others sustained injuries, spokesman for the national disaster authority, Mullah Janan Saeq, said.

“The death toll from the floods over the past six days has risen to 70, while another 56 are injured,” Saeq told media, last night.

Earlier, the official confirmed 33 dead and 27 injured a couple of days ago.

COLOMBO: Police have arrested a retired Sri Lankan Army officer for being behind a scam to send former military personnel to serve in the Russian army amidst the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.

The former major and a civilian were arrested by the police’s criminal investigation department for taking money from individuals to send them to Russia for military service.

It was reported last month that over a hundred former military men from Sri Lanka were serving on both sides of the Russia-Ukraine war.

Damascus; 01 April 2024 (UMMN): Suspected Israeli air strike that flattened the Iranian consulate in Damascus on Monday killing seven military advisers including three senior commanders in a marked escalation in a war pitting Israel against its regional adversaries.

INDIANAPOLIS, April 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Seven minors between the ages of 12 and 17 were injured in a shooting late Saturday night in downtown Indianapolis, where a large group was gathered near a mall, authorities said.

Police officers were on patrol when they heard shots fired near the Circle Centre Mall shortly after 11:30 p.m., Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Deputy Chief Tanya Terry told reporters early Sunday. Responding officers discovered “a large group of juveniles,” including six with gunshot wounds, at the scene, Terry added.