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Washington (AFP) – The United States calls for Iran to free a Panama-flagged oil tanker seized in the Strait of Hormuz, the second vessel Tehran’s forces have taken control of in a week. “Iran’s harassment of vessels and interference with navigational rights in regional and international waters are contrary to international law and disruptive to regional stability and security,” says State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel during a press briefing.

Washington (AFP) – US Fed Chair Jerome Powell says “in determining the extent to which additional policy may be appropriate to return inflation to two percent over time, the committee will take into account” the impact of existing interest rate hikes.

Gardena (United States) (AFP) – Nineteen years after Kurt Cobain died, a Fender electric guitar played and broken by the Nirvana lead singer is exhibited in California, before it goes on “Music Icons” auction sale in New York on May 20th.

Belgrade (AFP) – Eight students and a security guard were killed during a school shooting in Belgrade, with police accusing the detained 13-year-old suspect of plotting the attack for a month and making a kill list. The Balkan nation has not seen a school shooting of this magnitude for decades.

Belgrade (AFP) – The first candles are lit and flowers are laid by the scene of a deadly school shooting in Belgrade, Serbia. Eight students and a security guard died in “the biggest tragedy” to occur in the Serbian school system in recent history, according to a cabinet minister. The police have detained a 13-year-old suspect over the shooting. IMAGES

Nairobi (AFP) – UN chief Antonio Guterres says “we failed” to stop conflict from erupting in Sudan, as persistent fighting between rival generals has undermined efforts to firm up a truce. “The UN was taken by surprise” by the conflict, Guterres tells reporters in Nairobi, adding “to the extent that we and many others were not expecting this to happen, we can say we failed to avoid it to happen”.

Sydney (AFP) – A wax sculpture of King Charles III is unveiled in Sydney ahead of his coronation on Saturday, with a small group of press and onlookers gathering to see the eerily lifelike replica to promote a new display at Madame Tussauds Sydney.

Unknown (AFP) – Italian Carabinieri Police publish images of an anti-mafia operation against the Nirta-Strangio clans between the towns of San Luca and Morabito di Africo in Calabria. The raid is part of a “wide-scale” operation against the Italian ‘Ndrangheta mafia in several European countries including Germany, Belgium, France, Portugal and Spain. Police raided 150 addresses on Wednesday, according to Belgian prosecutors.

Kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – In Kyiv, a group of young men are trying to support the needs of the Ukrainian army by inventing new vehicles, many of which resemble props from the “Mad Max” films. Musa, 29, has started a business making buggies from metal piping to order for Ukrainian battalions. On another industrial site in Kyiv, a Romanian volunteer, Radu Hossu, has raised funds from Romanians and Moldovans via his Facebook page to create armoured vehicles for a medical battalion working in the eastern frontline Donetsk region, including a hybrid of a Ford truck and a Soviet Gaz chassis. “This is basically a Frankenstein vehicle. It doesn’t exist on the planet”, Radu Hossu explains.

Krasnodar (Russia) (AFP) – Russian emergency services extinguish a fire at a fuel depot with foam in a video posted on Telegram by the Krasnodar Krai governor, Veniamin Kondratyev. According to Kondratyev, the depot caught fire overnight in the Russian village of Volna, close to the Kerch Bridge, which connects the Crimean peninsula to mainland Russia. Kondratyev did not mention the cause of the blaze.