TOKYO (AP) — About 1,500 trees were cut down to build the $1.4 billion National Stadium for the Tokyo Olympics.

Almost two years after the Games ended, the graceful stadium sits largely unused, has no major tenant, and could cost taxpayers a reported $15 million annually in upkeep. In the interim, the Tokyo Games have been sullied by a string of bribery scandals and insider deals.

NEW DELHI, May 17 (NNN-PTI) – At least seven people were killed and five others injured, some of them critically, yesterday, from a firecracker factory blast, in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal, police said.

The blast took place in Egra area of East Medinipur district, about 130 km south of Kolkata, the capital city of West Bengal.

According to police, the factory was being illegally run, in a residential building, and the injured were immediately removed to the nearest health facility.

Police said, the building completely collapsed in the blast.

17 May 2023; MEMO: The Palestinian Housing and Works Ministry in Gaza said on Tuesday that the latest Israeli military offensive has displaced 1,000 people due to the partial or total destruction of their homes. The initial estimate of the cost of repair and reconstruction stands at $10 million.

BEIJING, May 17 (Reuters) - China has notified foreign embassies and international organisations not to exhibit "politicised propaganda" on their buildings, an instruction diplomats say is aimed at missions that have displayed Ukrainian flags since Russia's invasion.

Several foreign missions in China raised the Ukrainian flag, or displayed its image in posters and lights, following the February 2022 invasion that sparked international condemnation of Russia, a close ally of China.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — San Francisco resident Pia Harris hopes for reparations in her lifetime. But the nonprofit program director is not confident that California lawmakers will turn the recommendations of a first-in-the-nation task force into concrete legislation given pushback from opponents who say slavery was a thing of the past.

ROME, May 17 (Reuters) - At least eight people died and thousands were evacuated from their homes as torrential rain battered Italy's northern Emilia-Romagna region, triggering widespread floods, officials said on Wednesday.

Civil Protection Minister Nello Musumeci said some areas had received half their average annual rainfall in just 36 hours, causing rivers to burst their banks, sending water cascading through towns and submerging thousands of acres of farmland.

MOSCOW, May 17. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Kazakh counterpart Kassym-Jomart Tokayev have held a phone call, reaffirming their determination to boost relations between the two countries, the Kremlin press service said in a statement on Wednesday.

"The parties reaffirmed their determination to further boost allied Russian-Kazakh relations and expand mutually beneficial cooperation in all areas," the statement reads.

According to the Kremlin, Putin also wished Tokayev a happy 70th birthday.

TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares were trading mixed Wednesday as Japan’s benchmark jumped on the news of solid economic growth data, while the rest of the region was mired in uncertainty.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 gained nearly 0.7% in early trading to 30,039.41. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dipped 0.5% to 7,198.90, after a better-than-expected wage increase report. The wage price index rose 3.7% year on year. But that could mean an interest rate hike in coming months, according to some analysts.

UNITED NATIONS, May 16 (Xinhua) -- The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on Tuesday to designate Nov. 26 every year as World Sustainable Transport Day.

NEW DELHI, May 17 (NNN-PTI) – India yesterday described the U.S. report on international religious freedom as, one “based on misinformation and flawed understanding.”

The report talked about attacks on members of religious minority communities in India, in 2022, according to local media reports.

In response to media queries, regarding the U.S. report, spokesperson of India’s External Affairs Ministry, Arindam Bagchi, said that, it was “motivated.”

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentine Vice President Cristina Fernández made it official Tuesday that she will not be running for president again, putting the brakes on an effort by members of her party to push her to become a candidate in October elections.

Fernández, who was president 2007-2015, made her decision public through a statement on her website in which she slammed the judiciary, accusing the courts of trying to forbid her from running for office again as part of an alliance with the opposition.

BERLIN (AP) — A top official at the German economy and climate ministry resigned Wednesday following accusations that he was involved in choosing his best man to head the federally owned German Energy Agency and signed off on financial support for a project in which his sister was involved

Patrick Graichen was one of Economy Minister Robert Habeck’s closest aides and had been in charge of developing and implementing the government’s energy policies with the goal of achieving net zero emissions in Germany in 2045.