GENEVA (AFP) - Switzerland’s Italian-speaking region has moved a step closer to banning the full-face Muslim veil, after its parliament gave the proposed law the thumbs-up this week.
The canton of Ticino thus looks set to become the first region in Switzerland to introduce such a ban.
Following the green light from the regional parliament on Monday, the bill, which was backed by 65 percent of the electorate in a 2013 referendum, could take effect in April, a parliamentary spokeswoman told AFP.
The regional government still needs to give its approval before it can be signed into law, she said.
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 ISLAMABAD (Dispatches) - One of Pakistan's few female fighter jet pilots was killed in a training crash Tuesday, the air force said in a statement, adding that she was the first of its women pilots to "embrace martyrdom".
Flying Officer Marium Mukhtiar and Squadron Leader Saqib Abbasi were flying a training mission on an FT-7PG aircraft and encountered a "serious in-flight emergency" during the final stages, the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) said in a statement.
"Flying Officer Marium embraced martyrdom and became the first lady pilot from PAF to attain this great honor," it said.
The crash took place in Kundian, Mianwali district, about 175 kilometers (109 miles) southwest of Islamabad.
The male officer, Abbasi, sustained minor injuries, the air force added.
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 KIEV (Press TV) - Ukraine has banned all Russian planes from using its airspace and exports of Russian gas to Ukraine have been halted by state-controlled giant Gazprom.
The decision was announced by Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk at a televised government meeting.
Gazprom said it had halted gas deliveries to Ukraine because it had used up all the gas it had paid for.
But Ukraine said it had stopped buying from Gazprom because it could get cheaper gas from Europe.
The airspace ban applies to military planes as well as civil airliners.
"The Ukrainian government has decided to ban all transit flights for all Russian airlines in Ukraine's airspace," said Mr Yatsenyuk.
"The government is instructing [aviation authority] Ukraerorukh, in line with the norms of international law, to inform the Russian Federation that Russian airlines and Russian aircraft do not have the right to use Ukraine's airspace any longer."
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TUNISIA (Dispatches) - The death toll in an explosion targeting Tunisia's presidential guard has risen to 13 and the perpetrators remain unidentified, the interior ministry said.
Another body was discovered in the charred remains of a bus carrying presidential guards that exploded in central Tunis on Tuesday, spokesman Walid Louguini said. The body has not been identified yet.
Mr Louguini could not confirm or deny Tunisian media reports that the body could be that of a suicide bomber who jumped on the bus just before the bomb exploded.
Troops fanned out around the capital and the president declared a month-long state of emergency after Tuesday's attack.
The blast rattled the country after two major attacks by Islamic extremists that targeted tourist sites earlier this year.