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Near Bakhmut (Ukraine) (AFP) – In the early morning, three attack helicopters take off from a secret base in Ukraine, flying low towards the eastern city of Bahkmut. As they approach their target, they suddenly rise, firing a hail of rockets, before taking a sharp turn and returning to their base, all at a dangerously low altitude. Since the beginning of the Russian invasion a little over a year ago, Ukrainian helicopter pilots have been flying dangerous combat missions every day at the controls of their old Mi-8 and Mi-24 aircraft.

Kuala Lumpur (AFP) – Michelle Yeoh’s mother, Janet Yeoh, gathered with some 200 people including family members and friends at an Oscars watch party in Kuala Lumpur on Monday, as the Malaysian movie star won the Best Actress prize at the Oscars. Her daughter became the first Asian woman to win the Academy Award for best actress.

Salzburg (Austria) (AFP) – At the Salzburg Marionette Theatre, artists bring puppets to life as they perform for crowds using the theatre’s signature ‘cross’, played with one hand. It takes the puppeteers years to master their craft, and the practice has been recognised with UNESCO World Heritage status.

Kuala Lumpur (AFP) – Michelle Yeoh’s mother Janet Yeoh cheers while wiping tears at a watch party as the Hollywood veteran made history by becoming the first Asian woman to win the best actress Oscar for her exuberant portrayal of an immigrant business owner thrust into a zany multiverse in the sci-fi trip “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”

Yogyakarta (Indonesia) (AFP) – Tourists flee from the foot of Indonesia’s Mount Merapi on four-wheel drive vehicles as the volcano, one of the most active ones in the archipelago, erupts. The eruption spewed out smoke and ash that blanketed villages near the crater, but no casualties have immediately been reported, according to the country’s disaster mitigation agency.

Copenhagen (AFP) – In the Scandinavian country, former home of the Vikings, people can use their detectors almost anywhere, provided they have the permission of the landowner and do not dig beyond the top layer of soil. Any finds which seem old must be handed over to the local museum, which will offer an initial evaluation before possibly passing it on to the national museum, which determines the finder’s reward on a case-by-case basis.

Tokyo (AFP) – Tokyo residents offer prayers and observe a minute of silence on the anniversary of the deadly tsunami that triggered the Fukushima nuclear disaster. The 9.0-magnitude quake — the fourth strongest in Earth’s recorded history — devastated northeastern Japan 12 years ago. The undersea quake unleashed a tsunami that left around 18,500 people dead or missing and overwhelmed cooling systems at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, leading to the worst nuclear catastrophe since Chernobyl. IMAGES

Chone (Ecuador) (AFP) – Farms and streets are flooded in Chone, Ecuador’s Manabi province, after heavy rains caused rivers to break their banks. Ecuador’s risk Management Secretary reported three dead and around 2,000 families affected.

London (AFP) – In the heart of London’s Covent Garden, 130 members of a Ukrainian choir file into St Paul’s Church, ready for their latest rehearsal. Some are professionals while others are relative novices. The collective is due to perform on March 16 in a sold-out concert at the Royal Opera House, dedicated to Ukraine.

The Hague (AFP) – “It’s such a difficult question, what is art, and what is not art?” asks Boris de Munnick, spokesperson of the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, as he responds to controversy surrounding the AI version of 1665 original by Vermeer “Girl with a Pearl Earring”. The work — one of several fan recreations replacing the 1665 original while it’s on loan for a huge Vermeer show at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum — was made using artificial intelligence (AI), and has sparked fierce debate over whether it belongs in the gallery.

Hamburg (AFP) – A shooting at a Jehovah’s Witness centre in the German city of Hamburg has left eight people dead, including the suspected gunman, police said, as the motive for the attack remained unclear.

Bangkok (AFP) – Thai capital Bangkok, home to an estimated 11 million people and one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations, has been blanketed for days by an unpleasant yellow-grey mix of vehicle fumes, industrial emissions and smoke from agricultural burning. More than 1.3 million people have fallen sick in Thailand since the start of the year as a result of air pollution, with nearly 200,000 admitted to hospital this week alone, according to the public health ministry. +COMPLETES VIDI33AT97N_EN+