EUROPEAN COMMISSION: Lawmakers at the European Parliament voted today to re-elect Ursula von der Leyen to a second five-year term as president of the European Commission.

Ms Von der Leyen has been a key cheerleader on behalf of the 27-nation bloc for supplying the war in Ukraine.

INDIA: A passenger train derailed today in northern India, killing at least two passengers and injuring 20 others, a railroad official has said. The cause of the accident is being investigated.

The train was on its way to Dibrugarh, a town in north-eastern Assam, from the northern city of Chandigarh when it derailed near the town of Gonda, causing six coaches to derail and two to overturn, Kumar said. Gonda is about 70 miles north-east of Lucknow, the state capital.

CHINA: Chinese investigators said today they suspect construction work sparked a fire that caused 16 deaths in a shopping centre in the south west city of Zigong.  

The fire broke out on Wednesday evening and took almost 10 hours to extinguish, local media reported.

The 14-storey commercial building was evacuated, with 75 people led to safety, according to the official news agency Xinhua. 

SYRIA: The results of Syria’s parliamentary elections, announced today, showed that President Bashar Assad’s Baath Party has won a majority of seats.

The results showed that all 185 candidates from the Baath Party and its allies won seats as expected, an increase from the 177 won by the coalition in 2020.

The elections for 250 parliamentary seats were held on Monday at 8,151 centres in government-held areas of the country.