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Ukraine war briefing: Russia makes biggest battleground gains since first year of war, analysis shows

Russia’s battlefield gains in Ukraine last year were the highest since 2022, an analysis showed, as Kyiv prepared to host security advisers from allied states despite Moscow’s unrelenting strikes. The Russian army captured more than 5,600 square kilometres, or nearly 1%, of Ukrainian territory in 2025, according to an AFP analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War. The land captured is more than in the previous two years combined, though far short of the more than 60,000 sq km Russia took in 2022. As Russia pressed its advantage against outgunned Ukrainian troops, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said about 15 countries would attend security talks in Kyiv on Saturday, the latest in a flurry of efforts to end the nearly four-year war. The meeting will include representatives from the EU and Nato, while a US delegation would join via video link. Zelenskyy named military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov as his new top aide on Friday, after the president’s previous chief of staff resigned in November over a corruption scandal. Budanov has built up a strong reputation in Ukraine, credited with a series of daring operations against Russia. When formally appointed, he will succeed Andriy Yermak, who resigned in November after investigators raided his house as part of a sweeping corruption probe. “Kyrylo has specialised experience in these areas and sufficient strength to achieve results,” Zelenskyy said. Budanov, 39, said on Telegram his new position was “both an honour and a responsibility – at a historic time for Ukraine – to focus on the critically important issues of the state’s strategic security”. Zelenskyy also said he wanted to replace defence minister Denys Shymhal, who was appointed only six months ago, with 34-year-old Mykhailo Fedorov, who is now minister of digital transformation. “Mykhailo is deeply involved in issues related to drones and is very effective in the digitalisation of state services and processes,” the president added. Moscow kept up its aerial barrage of Ukraine overnight, with the latest strike on a residential area of the city of Kharkiv reducing parts of multi-storey buildings to smouldering rubble. At least two people were killed in the attack, including a three-year-old child, and about 25 more were injured, officials said. Zelenskyy described the attack as “heinous”. “Unfortunately, this is how the Russians treat life and people – they continue killing, despite all efforts by the world, and especially by the United States, in the diplomatic process,” he said on social media. Russia denied the attack had taken place, suggesting that an explosion at the site was caused by Ukrainian ammunition. Ukrainian officials on Friday ordered the evacuation of more than 3,000 children and their parents from 44 frontline settlements in the Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions, where Russian troops have been advancing. More than 150,000 people have been evacuated from frontline areas since 1 June, said Ukraine’s restoration minister Oleksiy Kuleba.

‘Magical place’: tourists see another side of Papua New Guinea’s most troubled region

In the lush hills of Papua New Guinea’s highlands, Ambua Lodge sits in picturesque but troubled surrounds. From this region – one of the country’s poorest and most dangerous – the hotel is attempting to carve another path for Hela province, which has long been beset by tribal fighting. Despite a history of conflict in the area, the hotel has welcomed tens of thousands of visitors from all over the world, and the country’s leaders want to attract even more tourists to this hard-to-access location. In December, Papua New Guinea’s prime minister, James Marape, visited Ambua Lodge to highlight its four decades of “safe and successful investment” in the area. “I encourage other Papua New Guineans and potential investors, both local and international, not to be discouraged by negativity,” Marape said. Jayesh Naduvil from Trans Niugini Tours, which runs Ambua Lodge, says tensions and conflict in the region have not presented problems for visitors, many of whom come for the Huli Wigmen, birdwatching and nature trails. The lodge is made up of thatched-roof rooms overlooking lush valleys. “None of our clients ever had any law and order issues, as all our drivers, guides are from the community and are usually aware if there are any issues and avoid the areas,” Naduvil says. Tribal fighting is not unusual in parts of PNG, but in recent years conflict in the highlands region – including in Enga and Hela provinces – has become more deadly as more sophisticated weapons have become available. Trans Niugini also operates Rondon Ridge in the Western province of the highlands, a luxury hotel with connections to the local Melpa tribe. The tribe remains deeply connected to the land and cultures practised for thousands of years, but in more recent years have also embraced business. Naduvil says the Melpa tribe had seen the benefits of tourism in other places and “wanted us to build a tourist lodge in the area”. The industry is growing. Figures from the Pacific Tourism Organisation show a 9.3% increase in international visitors to PNG in the first half of 2025. Most people come from Australia, at 39%, followed by Asia, at 35%. Tourism minister Belden Namah told parliament in December the industry is a “sleeping giant” with deep potential. Namah says more funding is needed to grow the sector, and has described tourism as a “pot of gold that remains unexplored”. ‘Authentic’ culture and adventure About 250km east of Hela province is another of PNG’s attractions – the country’s highest peak, Mount Wilhelm. This part of PNG’s highlands region is closer to the coast, and while tribal fighting is not as significant, it grapples with violence and crime. Here lies a hotel in picturesque surroundings, known as Betty’s Place. The hotel is a resting spot for people seeking to take on Mt Wilhelm, and the hotel is one of several tourist operations that offer adventure and authentic cultural experiences, boosting the local economy. In the late 1980s, Betty and her Australian husband, Kenneth Higgins, bought land to settle and grow vegetables. For years they lived on the property with daughter Ruth, and in the mid-1990s a group of mountain climbers stopped by looking for a place to stay. Betty took them in and over time the place evolved into a hotel. Turning it into tourist accommodation had plenty of challenges – there was no water supply, no electricity and no roads. But two decades later it is a hub for people who visit to climb Mt Wilhelm. “We run generators and have wifi through a [satellite]. We do have solar, but it only powers LED lights – we cannot get the technology to sustain our operations in solar alone,” says Ruth, who now runs the hotel. Here, visitors experience Melanesian culture deeply rooted in the people and spirits of the land. “We promote authentic culture … the culture we still practice today. We have high altitude orchids, bird species endemic to our area,” Ruth says. Tourists have visited from all over the world. Among them is Robert Mads Anderson, who visited from the US in July, and described the lodge as a “magical place in the midst of a whole lot of wilderness”. “Exceptionally warm and welcoming atmosphere, fresh food and local trout in a phenomenal setting,” Anderson said. Higgins says law and order in the small village where Betty’s Place is located is not an issue, and in addition local residents can earn good money working as tourist guides. Still, she calls on PNG authorities to provide more support for the industry to deal with its challenges such as simply keeping the lights on and the water flowing for visitors. Ruth says she is pushing for people “to see the benefits of tourism … and the importance of keeping what we have as pristine as possible. We are so passionate about it.”

Crans-Montana fire: families face agonising wait for victims’ identification

The group of 15 young people had travelled from Milan to Crans-Montana, some of them crossing the border by car, others by train, to celebrate New Year’s Eve. The Swiss ski resort was well known to them, having spent summers here with their families, and a big draw was marking the new year in the bar that in recent years had become known as the place to be. Eight from the group managed to escape the inferno that ripped through Le Constellation, killing about 40 people, while three are among the 80 who were critically injured. Two of the eldest, Marco, 20, and Gabriele, 18, had planned to join their friends in the venue – appreciated by young people for being an affordable place to party in a resort popular with celebrities and wealthy skiers – shortly after midnight but by a last-minute twist of fate decided not to. Now they are searching for the four among them who were still missing as of Friday evening, including Achille Barosi and Chiara Costanzo, both 16. “Sometimes that is how destiny plays out,” said Gabriele, standing beside a floral and candle tribute at the scene. “It is devastating.” Another Italian who was not with them, Emanuele Galeppini, a 17-year-old international golfer who lived in Dubai, was the first of the victims to be identified publicly. His uncle, Sebastiano Galeppini, told the Italian news agency Ansa that the family was awaiting DNA checks, but the Italian Golf Federation announced on its website that he had died. A British-educated teenager, Charlotte Niddam, believed to be 15, was also reported missing. A spokesperson for Immanuel College in Bushey, Hertfordshire, said: “We are reaching out with an urgent request for our school community to come together in support of Charlotte Niddam. Charlotte was a student at Immanuel College and her family have now moved back to France. The families have asked that we all keep them in our thoughts and prayers during this extremely difficult time. We are all praying for a miracle for Charlotte and the others.” Swiss prosecutors said the fire appeared to have been started by sparklers placed in the tops of champagne bottles that were moved too close to the venue’s ceiling. “From that a blaze began very quickly,” Beatrice Pilloud, the attorney general for Valais canton, said during a press conference. “There are videos that have been analysed, there are several people who have been interviewed and reports have been made.” Pilloud said the investigation was looking at acoustic foam pictured on the ceiling to see whether it complied with regulations and whether it spread the fire. The Valais police chief, Frédéric Gisler, said that of the 119 people injured, 113 had been formally identified. Among the injured are 71 Swiss, 14 French citizens, 11 Italians, four Serbs, as well as one individual each from Bosnia, Belgium, Luxembourg, Poland and Portugal. The nationalities of 14 of the injured have not yet been confirmed. Officials said identifying the dead and the remaining injured could take days owing to their burns. One thing most of the victims appear to have in common is how desperately young they were. An account on Instagram has filled up with photos of the youthful faces of those who remain unaccounted for, with their friends and relatives desperately seeking information about their whereabouts. A 16-year-old Swiss national, Arthur Brodard, was reported missing by his mother, Laetitia Brodard-Sitre, who appealed for information on social media and to the Swiss newspaper Le Temps. She said she and his father had looked in hospitals in Lausanne and Berne but could not find him. The grandfather of a 22-year-old French woman, Emilie Pralong, told BFMTV she was thought to have been at Le Constellation with several friends and described an “agonising” wait for information. Hospital workers in Berne have advised those who know the missing to inform the authorities of any tattoos or types of jewellery they may have been wearing. Ludovico, whose parents have a holiday home in Crans-Montana, was among a group of five friends who had driven to the resort from Rome. They had spent Tuesday night in the bar and planned to go again after seeing in the new year elsewhere. “We were on our way when we saw people running away screaming, and flames behind them,” he said. “We are so, so lucky.” Ludovico often goes to nightclubs in Rome and said it was common to see candles put on the top of champagne bottles, to celebrate birthdays or other occasions. “The difference in those places is that the ceilings are much higher,” he said. A collective grief could be felt in Crans-Montana on Friday where residents, many of whom knew victims, have been stunned by the disaster. “I’m still trying to digest it,” said Jacques, who was born in Crans, as he drank coffee with his friend in a bar. “It’s the grief, as if we have all lost a loved one.” Many had fond memories of Le Constellation. Dalia Gubbay, a school council member in Milan for schools of the Jewish community, said: “I’ve had a holiday home here for more than 30 years and used to go there to play with the pinball machine.” Gubbay, a mother of six, said her son, 27, and his wife celebrated the new year in an apartment behind the bar and as they walked home they saw people leaving the venue crying, some with burns. “But at that point they didn’t understand the gravity of it. We initially thought it was another attack against the Jewish community but this was completely ruled out.” Two of her other children, aged 15 and 17, had planned to celebrate New Year’s Eve in Crans-Montana before deciding to go to Florence. “When they got back last night, I cried and hugged them hard,” she said. “If they’d stayed, they might have gone to the party in Le Constellation. What has happened is unthinkable.”

Teenage girl educated in Britain among the missing after Crans-Montana fire

A teenager educated in Britain is among those missing after a deadly fire in a Swiss ski resort. Charlotte Niddam, 15, lived in Bushey, Hertfordshire, until recently and attended Immanuel college, a private Jewish secondary school in the town. The school issued a statement on Friday saying it was “praying for a miracle for Charlotte”. It is understood her family have not heard from her since disaster unfolded in a crowded bar in Crans-Montana in the early hours of New Year’s Day. Many of those celebrating at Le Constellation bar when the fire took hold were teenagers. Swiss authorities said on Friday that 40 people had died and more than 100 had been injured. Some casualties have yet to be identified. The Niddam family sold their British home in March. Charlotte’s former school confirmed they had moved back to their native France. Charlotte appears to have regularly spent time in Crans-Montana, which is about 62 miles from the French border. She has advertised her services as a babysitter on the ski resort’s website, saying she is often in the town and able to work at weekends and during school holidays. A spokesperson for Immanuel college said: “We are reaching out with an urgent request for our school community to come together in support of Charlotte Niddam. “Charlotte was a student at Immanuel college, and her family have now moved back to France. “The families have asked that we all keep them in our thoughts and prayers during this extremely difficult time. “We are all praying for a miracle for Charlotte and the others, and want the families to feel the full strength of the Immanuel college community’s support.” Swiss authorities said on Friday that the fire was likely to have been started when fountain sparklers mounted on champagne bottles set the ceiling alight about 1.30am local time on Thursday. Families of many of those missing have used social media to appeal for information. The resort is popular with tourists from mainland Europe and most of those affected are Swiss, French and Italian.

Sparklers held near ceiling started Swiss ski resort fire, investigators believe

Investigators believe fountain sparklers mounted on champagne bottles and held too close to the ceiling sparked the deadly fire that tore through a crowded bar in the ski resort of Crans-Montana, killing about 40 people and injuring more than 100. “Everything suggests the fire started from the burning candles or ‘Bengal lights’ that had been attached to champagne bottles,” the prosecutor Béatrice Pilloud said on Friday. “These went too close to the ceiling.” Pilloud told a press conference in the town of Sion, about 16 miles (25km) from the mountain resort, that mobile phone footage and witness statements showed that “a rapid, very rapid and widespread conflagration ensued”. The fire broke out at about 1.30am on Thursday and engulfed Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana, which was packed with mostly young people celebrating the new year. Pilloud said the investigation would examine the bar’s compliance with safety regulations. As efforts to identify the victims continued, Pilloud said investigators would focus on the materials used in the renovation of the bar and its basement, its operating licence, the availability of fire extinguishers and emergency exits, as well as the number of people in the venue when the fire began. One image circulating online on Friday appeared to show the ceiling of the basement where the new year’s party was being held, apparently clad with foam soundproofing panels, catching fire as the sparklers were held aloft. Mathias Reynard, the president of the Valais regional government, said authorities were working as fast as possible to identify the victims, many of whom had been severely burned, a process that officials said earlier could take several days. Reynard said experts were using dental records, DNA samples and clothing descriptions in the “terrible and sensitive” task of identifying the badly burned bodies. “Nothing can be told to the families unless we are 100% sure,” he said. Emanuele Galeppini, a 16-year-old international golfer from Italy who lived in Dubai, was named on Friday as the first of several possible Italian victims of the disaster to be identified. Pope Leo expressed his “compassion and solicitude” and said he was praying that “the Lord will welcome the deceased into His abode of peace and light, and sustain the courage of those who suffer in their hearts or in their bodies”. The Valais police chief, Frédéric Gisler, said 119 people had been injured, 113 of whom had been identified. Among the injured are 71 Swiss, 14 French, 11 Italians, four Serbs, and one person each from Bosnia, Belgium, Luxembourg, Poland and Portugal. Eric Bonvin, the director of the regional hospital in Sion, told the press conference that the type of injuries received by most of the wounded “will need to be treated for a very long time”. The EU said it had contacted Swiss authorities about providing medical assistance. France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, said some of the injured were being cared for in French hospitals. Others were being treated in Germany and Poland. Gisler said the death toll still stood at 40, with formal identification continuing. A ceremony will be held on 9 January in Crans-Montana to give the shellshocked, close-knit community in the mountain resort a chance to remember the victims. Stéphane Ganzer, a regional health and safety official, told RTL radio earlier on Friday that “a large number” of the injured were in a critical condition. “When 15% or more of an adult’s body has third-degree burns, there is a risk of death,” he said. Ganzer told the press conference the families of the victims would receive psychological support from the police, describing the tragedy as “unprecedented in the history of our canton”. About 40 police officers were still on the scene, he said. Pilloud said no criminal liability had yet been established, adding that it was “essential that we do not make any assumptions”. It was not clear when the last fire checks at the bar were carried out, but no irregularities were reported. The prosecutor said the owners of the bar had been questioned, but not under caution. If there were grounds to suspect their liability, “an investigation will be opened for negligent arson, negligent homicide, and negligent bodily injury”. French media, citing property records, have said the bar is owned by two French nationals, Jacques and Jessica Moretti, who bought it in 2015 and also owned two other establishments in the area including a hamburger restaurant in the town. A friend of the couple, who are originally from Corsica and arrived in the area in the early 2000s, said Jessica Moretti, who was in the bar when the fire broke out, had been burned on the arm. Both have since been unreachable. Several witness accounts reported by the Swiss, French and Italian media said restaurant staff had held sparklers mounted on champagne bottles high as part of a regular show for patrons, who made special orders to their tables. There were “waitresses with champagne bottles and little sparklers”, one witness, Axel, told the Italian media outlet Local Team. “They got too close to the ceiling, and suddenly it all caught fire.” A Swiss fire expert, Markus Knorr, told the Swiss outlet 20 Minutes that the type of soundproofing panels apparently used “burn fast and burst into flames” unless fireproofed, and fire could “spread extremely fast since they are mounted horizontally”. Concerns have also been raised about the number of exits from the bar’s basement, which was used for special events and reportedly accessible from the ground floor only by a single staircase that several survivors described as narrow. According to its website, Le Constellation can host up to 300 people. Residents of Crans-Montana, many of whom knew victims, have been stunned by the disaster. Hundreds of people stood in silence near the scene as they came to pay their respects to the dead and injured on Thursday night. The mound of floral tributes outside Le Constellation continued to grow on Friday. “Rest in peace among the stars,” one of the messages read. François, who did not want to give his surname, said: “I woke up to a loud bang at about 1.30am but then it went silent. I fell back to sleep and then saw the news in the morning. It seems that so many young people have lost their lives. We’ve never experienced anything like this.” Arlino Marchese and his friend Sacha Dimic, from the nearby town of Sierre, were in Crans-Montana to ski on Friday. “We used to go to Le Constellation a lot when we were younger,” said Dimic. “It was a good bar, with a good atmosphere and really popular. All those lives gone, it’s terrible.” Piermarco Pani, an 18-year-old who, like many others in the town, knew the bar well, said: “They were people like us.” Dozens of people left flowers or lit candles on a makeshift altar at the top of the road leading to the bar, which police had cordoned off. Elisa Sousa, 17, told Reuters she was meant to have been at Le Constellation on Thursday night but had spent the evening at a family gathering instead. “I’ll need to thank my mother a hundred times for not letting me go,” she said at the vigil. The Swiss president, Guy Parmelin, who visited the mountain resort on Thursday, said the country would hold five days of mourning to mark what he described as one of the most traumatic events in its history. The UK foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, said on X: “Our thoughts are with all the victims and their families. The FCDO stand ready to support any British nationals affected.”

What happened in the Crans-Montana bar fire in Switzerland – visual guide

Switzerland is reeling from one of its worst tragedies after a fire ripped through an Alpine bar during a New Year’s Eve celebration, leaving more than 40 people dead and dozens of others with serious burn injuries. The prosecutor in charge of the case said on Friday that initial investigations suggested the most likely cause of the fire was sparkling flares being carried too close to the ceiling. The undated photo below shows the bar with what could be soundproofing or insulation covering the ceiling. The blaze at Le Constellation appears to have started at about 1.30am (00.30 GMT) as revellers were ringing in the new year. Video, photos and reports from witnesses suggest the flames spread quickly across the packed club, and that people had trouble escaping. The basement venue served many local people, and some tourists. With no entrance fee, it attracted a young crowd and many of the victims are teenagers. In Switzerland, 16-year-olds are allowed to buy wine and beer but not spirits. One image posted online showed the low ceiling alight as sparklers attached to champagne bottles are held by partygoers below. This image may have been subjected to some digital enhancement and subsequently the Guardian has blurred some identifying personal details. Another image shows a woman in what appears to be the same room holding a sparkler while sitting on someone’s shoulders. These two photos have been widely reported to have shown the moment the ceiling caught fire. According to officials, the fire may have also triggered the release of combustible gases that could then ignite violently, explaining the rapid spread. The speed of the flames is evident in this video, which shows a young man attempting to put out a small fire that licks at the roof. Music still plays in the bar. Witnesses described a crowd surge as people frantically tried to escape from the basement nightclub up a narrow flight of stairs and through a small doorway. This video shows people rushing up the stairs. Le Constellation had a maximum capacity of about 300 people. People broke windows to escape the conflagration, and ambulances arrived at the scene after reports of smoke. Firefighters smashed windows at a nearby apartment block to enter. Panicked parents rushed to the scene in cars to see whether their children were trapped inside. By daylight on New Year’s Day, red-and-white caution tape, flowers and candles were in the street where the disaster happened. Police shielded the site with white screens as forensics teams got to work. Many of the victims could not be identified immediately because of the severity of their burns. The intensive care unit and operating room at the regional hospital quickly hit full capacity. Authorities later said about 50 people had been sent or would be transferred to other European countries for treatment in specialised burn units. Switzerland ordered the national flag to be flown at half-mast for five days as a sign of mourning. Citizens of nearby France and Italy were among the 113 people identified as injured, authorities said.

Crans-Montana fire survivors treated in burns units across Europe

Survivors of the catastrophic bar fire in the upmarket Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana are being cared for in special burns units across Europe, while investigators say many of the dead were so badly burned that it could take days or weeks to identify them. About 40 people were killed and 119 injured when the blaze ripped through a New Year’s Eve celebration in the packed Le Constellation bar and basement nightclub. Investigators believe sparkling candles or sparklers that were put on bottles of champagne and moved too close to the ceiling started the fire. Crans-Montana’s mayor, Nicolas Féraud, said: “The first objective is to assign names to all the bodies.” The Swiss president, Guy Parmelin, called the fire “a calamity of unprecedented, terrifying proportions” as he described the devastating toll. “Behind these figures are faces, names, families, lives brutally cut short, completely interrupted or for ever changed,” Parmelin said at a news conference. So severe were the victims’ burns that Swiss officials said identification work was particularly gruelling. Parents of missing youths issued pleas for news of their loved ones and foreign embassies scrambled to work out if their nationals were among those caught up in one of the worst tragedies to strike modern Switzerland. Mathias Reynard, the head of government of the canton of Valais, said experts were using dental records and DNA samples for the task. “All this work needs to be done because the information is so terrible and sensitive that nothing can be told to the families unless we are 100% sure,” he said. Despite having one of the world’s most advanced medical systems, Switzerland’s regional clinics quickly reached capacity in the hours after the blaze. More than 30 people were taken to hospitals with specialised burns units in Zurich and Lausanne and six were taken to Geneva, according to a Swiss news agency. Many more of the injured were transported to other countries including Belgium, France, Poland and Germany, while the EU said it had been in contact with Swiss authorities about providing medical assistance. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said on X he had offered his country’s help as clinics in Paris and Lyon took in patients, while Sweden and North Macedonia also said they had hospital beds available. The Valais police chief, Frédéric Gisler, said that of the 119 injured people, 113 had been formally identified while six others were as yet unknown. Among the injured are 71 Swiss, 14 French citizens, 11 Italians, four Serbs, as well as one person each from Bosnia, Belgium, Luxembourg, Poland and Portugal. The nationalities of 14 of the injured have not yet been confirmed. Italy and France are among the countries that have said some of their nationals are missing. Australia has said one of its nationals was injured. An Instagram account provided a central resource for families and friends to seek information about the whereabouts of those not heard from since Thursday. By Friday afternoon more than 40 pictures had been posted. Paulo Martins, a French citizen who has lived in the area around Crans-Montana for 24 years, said his son and his girlfriend narrowly missed being in the bar at the time of the fire. “When he came home he was really in shock,” Martins told Agence France-Presse. A friend of his 17-year-old son had been transferred for treatment in Germany with his body 30% covered in burns, Martins said. Eleonore, 17, started the year with a frantic search for friends who have been missing since the fire. Standing outside the bar, now shielded by white tarpaulins and a wall of temporary barriers, she said she had not had contact with them since New Year’s Eve. “We took loads of photos [and] we put them on Instagram, Facebook, every social network possible to try to find them,” she told AFP. “But there’s nothing. No response. We called the parents. Nothing. Even the parents don’t know.” She and a friend managed to get news that one friend was in a coma in a hospital in Lausanne. The head of the city’s university hospital, Claire Charmet, said it was treating 22 badly burned patients, most ranging in age from 16 to 26. “Patients are being stabilised and transferred to the operating theatre or to specialised beds,” she told the local newspaper 24 heures on Thursday. “We need to be aware that the treatment will be long and intense, lasting several weeks or even months.” Eric Bonvin, the general director of the regional hospital in Sion, said it took in several dozen injured people whose average age was about 20. He recounted how staff were aided by colleagues who had not been scheduled to work but rushed in to lend a hand. He expressed hope that the survivors’ youth would speed their recovery: “They are young and that means they still have a lot of vitality,” he told the Associated Press. Agence France-Presse, Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.