SWITZERLAND: The inventor of a “suicide capsule” has rejected allegations that the US woman who was said to be its first user may in reality have been strangled.

Philip Nitschke of advocacy group Exit International said today that he wasn’t present at the woman’s death in a forest in northern Switzerland on September 23, but he had seen the event involving the capsule live by video transmission.

The head of a Swiss affiliate group, Florian Willet, was present at the woman’s death and was immediately taken into police custody, where he remains.

UNITED NATIONS: The World Health Organisation has authorised the first mpox vaccine for children, which experts hope will help make immunisations more available during the ongoing outbreaks in Congo and elsewhere in Africa.

The UN health agency said on Tuesday that it had approved the vaccine for use in children over one year old as a single dose.

Save the Children warned earlier this month that cases among under-18s has increased by more than 130 per cent in Congo.

SPAIN: Migration Minister Elma Saiz said today that the government would allow about 300,000 undocumented people a year to settle in the country from next May to 2027.

The policy aims to expand the ageing workforce and allow foreigners living in Spain without proper documentation to obtain work permits and residency.

Spain needs around 250,000 registered workers a year to maintain its welfare state, Ms Saiz said, adding that the policy was not aimed solely at “cultural wealth and respect for human rights” but was also “for prosperity.”

VATICAN: Pope Francis will canonise Carlo Acutis on April 27, making the late teenager the Catholic church’s first millennial saint.

Mr Acutis was a web designer who died of leukaemia in Italy in 2006 at the age of 15. Francis beatified him in 2020 in Assisi, where his tomb draws a steady stream of pilgrims.

Touted as the “patron saint of the internet,” Mr Acutis created a website for cataloguing miracles and took care of sites for some local Catholic organisations.