The abbreviation of artificial intelligence (AI) has been named the Collins Word of the Year for 2023, the dictionary publisher said on Tuesday.

Lexicographers at Collins Dictionary said use of the term had “accelerated” and that it had become the dominant conversation of 2023.

“We know that AI has been a big focus this year in the way that it has developed and has quickly become as ubiquitous and embedded in our lives as email, streaming or any other once futuristic, now everyday technology,” Collins managing director Alex Beecroft said.

Collins said its wordsmiths analyzed the Collins Corpus, a database that contains more than 20 billion words with written material from websites, newspapers, magazines and books published around the world.

It also draws on spoken material from radio, TV and everyday conversations, while new data is fed into the Corpus every month, to help the Collins dictionary editors identify new words and meanings from the moment they are first used.

“Use of the word as monitored through our Collins Corpus is always interesting and there was no question that this has also been the talking point of 2023,” Beecroft said.

Other words on Collins list include “nepo baby,” which has become a popular phrase to describe the children of celebrities who have succeeded in industries similar to those of their parents.

“Greedflation,” meaning companies making profits during the cost-of-living crisis, and “Ulez,” the ultra-low emission zone that penalizes drivers of the most polluting cars in London, were also mentioned.

Social media terms such as “deinfluencing” or “de-influencing,” meaning to “warn followers to avoid certain commercial products.” were also on the Collins list.

This summer’s Ashes series between England and Australia had many people talking about a style of cricket dubbed “Bazball,” according to Collins.

The term refers to New Zealand cricketer and coach Brendon McCullum, known as Baz, who advocates a philosophy of relaxed minds, aggressive tactics and positive energy.

The word “permacrisis,” defined as “an extended period of instability and insecurity” was the Collins word of the year in 2022.

In 2020, it was “lockdown.” In 2016, it was “Brexi.t”

 
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U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres made an impassioned plea for peace on Tuesday from a Nepalese site venerated as Buddha’s birthplace, against a backdrop of conflict, including in the Middle East, Ukraine and Sudan.

While on his visit to Nepal, Guterres has spoken of the urgent need for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas to end the “nightmare” of bloodshed.

“In the Middle East, Ukraine, the Sahel, Sudan and many other places around the world, conflict is raging,” Guterres said.

“Global rules and institutions are being undermined as human rights and international law are trampled.”

Guterres held prayers at Lumbini in the south of the Himalayan nation, a site he called a place of “spirituality, serenity, and peace”.

The Buddha — who renounced material wealth to embrace and preach a life of non-attachment —founded a religion that now counts more than 500 million adherents.

“This is a place to reflect on the teachings of Lord Buddha. And to consider what his message of peace, interdependence, and compassion, means in today’s troubled world,” Guterres said.

“In these troubled times, my message to the world from the tranquil gardens of Lumbini is simple: Humanity has a choice. The path to peace is ours to take.”

Guterres on Monday visited the Everest region, which is struggling from rapidly melting glaciers, and on Tuesday warned that the “impacts of the climate crisis are mounting.”

“Humanity is at war with nature and at war with itself,” he said.

The Buddha’s birthplace was lost and overgrown by jungle before its rediscovery in 1896, when the presence of a third-century BC pillar bearing inscriptions allowed historians to identify it as Lumbini.

Since then, it has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage site and is visited by millions of Buddhists every year.
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Ukraine says a family of nine were shot and killed in their home in the Russian-occupied eastern town of Volnovakha.

Photographs of the home issued by authorities depict a gruesome crime scene, with the victims lying dead in their beds amid blood-splattered walls.

The Ukrainian-backed prosecutor’s office in Donetsk province, home to Volnovakha, says the murders occurred after the owner refused a demand by a group of men in military uniforms to vacate the house so Russians forces could stay there.  The office says the victims include two young children. 

Russian investigators say two soldiers from Russia’s Far East are being held in connection with the murders. The soldiers had signed contracts with Russia’s military to serve in Ukraine.  

Volnovakha has been occupied by Russian forces shortly after they launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.  Pro-Russian separatists in the Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk regions took over government buildings in 2014 and proclaimed the regions as independent “people’s republics.”

The move followed Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

The murders come as Ukrainian and Russian troops are engaged in a fierce standoff in eastern Ukraine as the war stretches into its second year.

Russian forces have launched a new offensive campaign around the city of Bakhmut, especially near the strategic town of Avdiivka.

A Ukrainian counteroffensive begun in June has made slow progress, recapturing several hundred square kilometers of territory.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters. 

 
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Kyiv military officials said on Monday that Russia has bulked up its forces around the devastated city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine and has switched its troops from defense to offense, but Ukraine has been preparing to repel the attacks.

Russia captured Bakhmut, theater of some of the bloodiest fighting of the 20-month-old war, in May. Ukraine launched a counteroffensive in June aimed at retaking occupied land in the country’s south and east, including Bakhmut.

“In the Bakhmut area, the enemy has significantly strengthened its grouping and switched from defense to active actions,” General Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine’s commander of ground forces, wrote on Telegram.

Volodymyr Fityo, head of communications for Ukraine’s ground forces command, said Russian forces had been preparing since early this month to retake positions around Bakhmut lost during the Ukrainian counteroffensive.

“We saw this, the intelligence reported everything. We had been preparing, strengthening our defensive positions, engineering fortifications and pulling up reserves,” Fityo told Reuters by telephone. “This does not come as a surprise for us.”

Both men said Russian forces were particularly active near the Ukrainian-held town of Kupiansk in the northeast, where Fityo said Russia had numerical superiority.

Reuters could not independently verify accounts on the battlefield.

In its nightly report, the Ukrainian General Staff said Kyiv’s forces remained on the offensive near Bakhmut.

“The enemy unsuccessfully tried to restore lost positions near Klishchiivka,” it said, referring to a village south of Bakhmut recaptured by Ukraine in September.

Russian troops also tried to advance in Synkivka, north of Kupiansk, but made no headway, it added.

Russia has also been concentrating much of its efforts in recent weeks on a bid to encircle and capture Avdiivka, a strategic town southwest of Bakhmut.
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is ramping up his support of Hamas, prompting Israel to withdraw its diplomats. In a move analysts say is aimed at mitigating criticism by Western allies, Erdogan has taken a step to ratify Sweden’s NATO membership. But experts warn Erdogan may have miscalculated. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
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Chinese and Russian military chiefs targeted the United States for criticism at a security forum in Beijing on Monday, even as China’s second most senior military commander vowed to boost defense ties with Washington.

The lack of regular communications between the U.S. and Chinese militaries has been a worry for Washington as tensions rise over various issues and given the risks of an accidental clash in the South China Sea or near Taiwan.

The Xiangshan Forum, China’s biggest annual show of military diplomacy, began on Sunday without a Chinese defense minister, who typically hosts the event, but including a U.S. delegation.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu warned the West that its involvement in the Ukraine war created grave danger.

“The Western line of steady escalation of the conflict with Russia carries the threat of a direct military clash between nuclear powers, which is fraught with catastrophic consequences,” Russia’s TASS state news agency cited Shoigu as saying at the forum.

Shoigu said the West intended to inflict “strategic defeat” on Russia in what he called a “hybrid war,” and praised Russia-China relations as “exemplary,” Russian state media reported.

Zhang Youxia, vice chairman, under President Xi Jinping, of China’s Central Military Commission, delivered veiled criticism of the United States and its allies, accusing “some countries” of trying to undermine China’s government.

But Zhang also stressed the need for improving military ties with the United States.

“We will deepen strategic cooperation and coordination with Russia and are willing to, on the basis of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation, develop military ties with the U.S.,” Zhang said in an address closely watched by military attaches and diplomats.

Zhang held talks with Shoigu on the sidelines of the forum, China’s Xinhua state media reported.

China’s defense minister has in previous years delivered the forum’s keynote speech but Li Shangfu was sacked as defense minister last week without explanation and a replacement has not been named.

Reuters reported last month that Li, who has been missing for two months, was being investigated over corruption.

China and the U.S. have had no high-level military-to-military communications since the Washington-sanctioned Li was appointed in March.

‘Here and listening’

The U.S. defense department has sent a delegation led by Cynthia Xanthi Carras, China country director in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense.

Carras had a brief exchange with defense ministry spokesperson Wu Qian at the forum, a social media account affiliated with state broadcaster CCTV reported.

Chad Spragia, a former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for China, stressed the importance of U.S. participation.

“It’s important for the U.S. to be here and not cede the space to others. We’re here and we’re listening,” said Sbragia, who said he was attending there in a research capacity.

The participation of the U.S. delegation comes as the United States and China ramp up exchanges ahead of an expected summit between U.S. President Joe Biden and China’s Xi next month.

Last week, China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, met Biden for an hour in talks the White House described as a “good opportunity” to keep open lines of communication between the two rivals.

Despite the conciliatory remarks about improving China-U.S. military ties, Zhang and some Chinese military officers gave no sign of a softer stance on issues such as Taiwan, which Beijing’s regards as its territory.

Chinese Lieutenant-General He Lei, speaking at a panel on Sunday, said that if China were to have to use force against Taiwan, “it will be a war for reunification, a just and legitimate war.”

In his speech, Zhang said that countries “should not deliberately provoke other countries on major and sensitive issues,” he said, adding that Taiwan was “a core interest” for China.

Many Western countries have either shunned the forum or are only sending low-level delegations.
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Hundreds of people on Sunday stormed into the main airport in Russia’s Dagestan region and onto the landing field to protest the arrival of an airliner coming from Tel Aviv, Russian news agencies and social media reported.

Authorities closed the airport in Makhachkala, capital of the predominantly Muslim region, and police converged on the facility.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or arrests.

Russian news reports said people in the crowd were shouting antisemitic slogans and tried to storm the airliner belonging to Russian carrier Red Wings that had landed from Tel Aviv.

Video on social media showed some in the crowd on the landing field waving Palestinian flags.

In a statement released Sunday night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel “expects the Russian law enforcement authorities to protect the safety of all Israeli citizens and Jews wherever they may be and to act resolutely against the rioters and against the wild incitement directed against Jews and Israelis.”  

Netanyahu’s office added that the Israeli ambassador to Russia was working with Russia to keep Israelis and Jews safe.
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Russia said Sunday that it shot down 36 drones overnight over the Black Sea and the Crimean Peninsula. Ukraine, which has stepped up its campaign against Russia, has not commented on the overnight attack.

From their meeting in Japan Sunday, the G7 trade ministers issued a joint statement about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, calling it “brutal, unprovoked, unjustifiable and illegal war of aggression.”

Russian universities have reportedly been instructed to stop any negative discussions during academic activities about any Russian political, economic and social trends, the British Defense Ministry said Sunday.

This move marks yet another “restriction of the information space in wartime Russia,” the ministry said, “making it more difficult to openly discuss policy issues.”

This restriction, the ministry said, will likely further add to “the trend of Russian policy-making taking place in an echo-chamber of politically acceptable, pro-Kremlin perspectives” in the runup to President Vladimir Putin’s anticipated bid for reelection in March, the British ministry said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his daily address Saturday that it was “very symbolic” that the Malta summit was being held that day because that is also the day Ukraine commemorates World War II and the anniversary of the expulsion of the Nazis from its territory.

The summit in Malta is the third round of the Ukrainian-backed peace talks in which more than 60 countries are meeting to consider Zelenskyy’s 10-point plan to end the war. Similar meetings were held earlier this year in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and Copenhagen, Denmark.

In his daily address, Zelenskyy also thanked Ukraine’s border guards who are now “fighting on the front lines” along with the nation’s defense and security forces “to bring a time of peace closer to Ukraine.”

Russia accused Ukraine of damaging a nuclear waste storage warehouse in a drone attack on the Kursk nuclear power plant and claimed its air defenses shot down eight Ukrainian drones.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that three explosive-laden drones targeted the power plant on Thursday night, striking its administration building and a facility storing nuclear waste. The press service for the Kursk nuclear power plant confirmed the strike Friday, but told journalists there was no significant damage or casualties and that operations were continuing as normal.

Intense fighting has continued around the key city of Avdiivka in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine’s air force said it destroyed three of four Iskander cruise missiles over the country’s Dnipropetrovsk region Saturday night.

A dearth of reported aerial attacks this weekend follows several weeks of fierce fighting close to Avdiivka. Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov told his U.S. counterpart Lloyd Austin on Saturday that Russia had lost about 4,000 troops in Avdiivka, according to Kyiv’s Defense Ministry.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his daily address Saturday that it was “very symbolic” that the Malta summit was being held that day because that is also the day Ukraine commemorates World War II and the anniversary of the expulsion of the Nazis from its territory. 

The summit in Malta is the third round of the Ukrainian-backed peace talks in which more than 60 countries are meeting to consider Zelenskyy’s 10-point plan to end the war. Similar meetings were held earlier this year in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and Copenhagen, Denmark. 

In his daily address, Zelenskyy also thanked Ukraine”s border guards who are now “fighting on the front lines” along with the nation’s defense and security forces “to bring a time of peace closer to Ukraine.” 

Russia blames Ukraine for damage

Russia accused Ukraine of damaging a nuclear waste storage warehouse in a drone attack on the Kursk nuclear power plant and claimed its air defenses shot down eight Ukrainian drones. 

The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that three explosive-laden drones targeted the power plant on Thursday night, striking its administration building and a facility storing nuclear waste. The press service for the Kursk nuclear power plant confirmed the strike Friday, but told journalists there was no significant damage or casualties and that operations were continuing as normal. 

Fighting around Avdiivka 

Intense fighting has continued around the key city of Avdiivka in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. 

Ukraine’s air force said it destroyed three of four Iskander cruise missiles over the country”s Dnipropetrovsk region Saturday night. 

A dearth of reported aerial attacks this weekend follows several weeks of fierce fighting close to Avdiivka. Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov told his U.S. counterpart Lloyd Austin on Saturday that Russia had lost about 4,000 troops in Avdiivka, according to Kyiv”s Defense Ministry. 
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A third round of Ukrainian-backed peace talks opened in Malta on Saturday with representatives from more than 60 countries but without Moscow, which condemned it as a “blatantly anti-Russian event.” 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the first of two days of closed-door talks among national security and policy advisers, which he hopes will drum up support for his 10-point plan to end the war. 

In a statement on social media, he said 66 countries had taken part in the talks, proof that his plan “has gradually become global.” 

It follows similar meetings in Jeddah and Copenhagen this summer, with the Ukrainians hoping to eventually hold a summit at the level of heads of state. 

“The meeting confirmed the broad interest and increasing support for the key elements of Ukraine’s Peace Formula,” an EU official said Saturday. 

Against the backdrop of the Hamas-Israel war, it also showed “that restoration of just peace is important beyond Ukraine, it is about a global plea for respect of international law,” the official said. 

Russian spokesperson calls event ‘anti-Russian’

Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova, however, has dismissed the Malta talks as a “blatantly anti-Russian event.”  

They had “nothing to do with the search for a peaceful resolution,” she said on Thursday. 

Participants in Malta included the United States, the EU and Britain, staunch supporters of Kyiv following Russia’s February 2022 invasion. 

Turkey, which has offered itself as a mediator between Ukraine and Russia, was also represented, according to a list seen by AFP before the talks opened. 

So too were South Africa, Brazil and India, all members of the influential BRICS bloc, which also includes Russia. 

South Africa and India have not condemned Russia’s invasion, while Brazil has refused to join Western nations in sending arms to Ukraine or imposing sanctions on Moscow. 

China, which insists it is neutral and refuses to criticize the invasion, did not attend, despite being present in Jeddah in August, according to the EU official. 

Organizers were hoping for a joint statement from the Malta summit, after both previous meetings ended without a final declaration. 

Talks address territorial integrity

Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, said on Telegram that the discussions on Saturday were lively and focused on five key areas, notably the issue of Ukraine’s territorial integrity. 

Zelensky’s peace plan calls for Russia to withdraw all its troops from Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders, including from the territory of Crimea, which it annexed in 2014. 

Russia, which claimed last year to have annexed the four Ukrainian regions of Lugansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, has rejected any settlement that would involve giving up land. 

The Malta talks are also looking at nuclear security, notably the need to ensure the safety of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, and how to protect Ukraine’s energy infrastructure as winter approaches. 

The issue of food security was also on the agenda, as Russia blocks grain exports from Ukraine, as well as humanitarian issues, including the release of prisoners and the return of Ukrainian children taken to Russia. 
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As many as 400,000 people are estimated to have suffered sexual abuse from Spain’s Catholic clergy and lay people, according to an independent commission.

At least half of the victims may have been children, said the nearly 800-page report released to the speaker of the Spanish parliament’s lower house Friday and then to reporters.

Conducted by Spain’s ombudsman, Angel Gabilondo, who said the Church had often minimized or denied people’s reports of abuse, Spain’s first official probe of sex abuse by clergy members or others connected to the Catholic Church in the country was drawn from a survey based on 8,000 valid phone and online responses.

According to The Associated Press, the poll said 1.13% of the Spanish adults questioned said they were abused as children by either priests or lay members of the church, including teachers at religious schools. Of those, 0.6% identified their abusers as clergy members.

By those estimates, more than 1 in 200 Spaniards may have been sexually abused by Catholic Church priests, the survey suggested.

“What has happened has been possible because of that silence,” the ombudsman said.

Gabilondo has suggested the creation of a state fund to compensate victims.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said the probe’s findings represent a “milestone” for Spain’s democracy.

“Today we are a little better as a country,” Sánchez said Friday from Brussels, “because a reality has been made known that everyone has known for many years, but which no one spoke of.”

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press.
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Ukrainian pro-Russian entrepreneur Oleg Tsaryov was shot twice and seriously wounded late Thursday in Russian-annexed Crimea where he lives, his family and Russian officials said Friday.

Russia’s top investigative body said it had opened a criminal inquiry into the attempt on his life, the latest incident in a series of attacks since the start of the war on several prominent pro-Moscow figures.

Tsaryov was found unconscious and bleeding. A Russian-installed official in southern Ukraine, Vladimir Rogov, said he is in intensive care. The former Ukrainian lawmaker was lined up to lead a puppet administration in Kyiv if Russia succeeded in occupying Kyiv, Reuters reported, citing sources in Moscow.

The shooting of Tsaryov was a special operation conducted by the Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, a source in the Ukrainian intelligence agency said Friday.

Tsaryov, a wealthy hotel businessman in Crimea, was previously a member of the Ukrainian parliament and then speaker of the parliament of “Novorossiya” — an entity formed after Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine broke away in 2014 and began fighting Ukrainian forces.

Ukraine, the United States and several other Western countries have imposed sanctions on him. He is listed as a “traitor to the motherland” by Myrotvorets, “Peacemaker” in Ukrainian, a vast unofficial database of people considered to be enemies of the country. The website lists personal information about Tsaryov, including an email address, a passport number and an address in Yalta.

Several pro-war Russian figures in the Myrotvorets database have been assassinated since the start of the war, including journalist Darya Dugina, war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky and former submarine commander Stanislav Rzhitsky.

Dugina and Tatarsky died in bombings, while Rzhitsky was shot while out on an early morning run.

No comment was immediately available from Ukrainian intelligence.

War commitment

Ukrainians remain deeply committed to keeping up their country’s defensive fight against Russia, despite some weariness with their country’s 20-month struggle against Russia’s invasion.

According to a recent Gallup survey, Ukrainians remain steadfast in their desire to win the war that Russia started in February 2022, but less so than a year ago.

Three in five (60%) Ukrainians interviewed in July and August said they want Ukraine to keep fighting until it wins, twice as many as those who want Ukraine to negotiate to end the war as soon as possible (31%). Ukrainians’ commitment is slightly muted from what it was in September 2022, when 70% of Ukrainians said they wanted their country to keep fighting, but the majority still staunchly support the war, the survey shows.

The fighting is expected to drag on into the winter as both sides remain deadlocked in fierce battles.

War-weary mothers, wives and children gathered on the streets of Ukrainian cities Friday, demanding an 18-month limit on mandatory military service.

Chanting “Demobilize the soldiers,” about 100 wives, mothers, children and relatives of Ukrainian soldiers attended a demonstration in the capital, Kyiv.

“I live in constant fear for his life,” Valeriia Koliada, 35, said of her husband, who volunteered for the military.

“It’s nerve-wracking for me. He is tired as well,” she said. “We are a young family. I also want to have a child and sleep calm at night.”

Protesters gathered in at least six other Ukrainian cities.

Ukraine ordered a general mobilization of the male population between the ages of 25 and 60 when Russia launched its invasion on February 24, 2022. The vast majority joined as volunteers.

In Russia meanwhile, forces are experiencing morale problems as another winter campaign looms, the White House said.

“We have information that the Russian military has been actually executing soldiers who refuse to follow orders,” White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told a press conference on Thursday.

“We also have information that Russian commanders are threatening to execute entire units if they seek to retreat from Ukrainian artillery fire,” Kirby said, calling the practice “barbaric.”

“Russia’s mobilized forces remain undertrained, underequipped and unprepared for combat, as was the case during their failed winter offensive last year,” Kirby said, adding that Russia appears to be employing “human wave” tactics.

“No proper equipment, no leadership, no resourcing, no support. It is unsurprising that Russian forces are suffering from poor morale,” Kirby said.

Russia’s Washington Embassy did not immediately reply to VOA’s email requesting comment.

Some of the recent casualties of Russian soldiers near the Ukrainian town of Avdiivka were on the orders of their own leaders, the White House said.

Ukrainian and Russian troops have been fighting for Avdiivka, a frontline town in the Donetsk region, since mid-October. The town had essentially been reduced to rubble because of Russian bombing, the Ukrainian military said.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that Russian forces have lost at least a brigade worth of troops trying to advance on Ukraine’s eastern town.

“The invaders made several attempts to surround Avdiivka, but each time our soldiers stopped them and threw them back, causing painful losses. In these cases, the enemy lost at least a brigade,” Zelenskyy told British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in a phone call, the president’s office said in a statement.

Ukraine aid

Meanwhile, the United States said Thursday it will be providing Ukraine with $150 million in additional military assistance. The package will include artillery and small-arms ammunition, as well as anti-tank weapons.

To date, Washington has provided Kyiv with $43.9 billion in security aid since Russia invaded, meaning the United States is Ukraine’s biggest security donor. However, future U.S. aid for Ukraine may be in jeopardy due to rising Republican opposition.

President Joe Biden met with new House Speaker Mike Johnson and Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries at the White House on Thursday to discuss his request for nearly $106 billion lumping together funding for Israel and Ukraine, as well as for bolstering security at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Johnson, a staunch conservative allied with Donald Trump, said Congress is “not going to abandon” Ukraine. He said House Republicans would first bring a separate bill to provide $14.5 billion in aid to Israel, adding that they need more information about the Biden administration’s Ukraine strategy.

“We can’t allow Vladimir Putin to prevail in Ukraine because I don’t believe it would stop there,” Johnson said on Fox News’ “Hannity,” referring to the Russian president. But he added, “We must stand with our important ally in the Middle East, and that’s Israel.”

Germany has stepped up efforts to supply air defense systems to Ukraine ahead of the impending winter to help protect critical infrastructure there from Russian attacks. The defense ministry in Berlin said Friday it delivered a third IRIS-T SLM air defense system to Kyiv.

Some information in this report came from Reuters, Agence France-Presse and The Associated Press.
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