WASHINGTON (AFP) -- Seven bodies were found in the U.S. state of Oklahoma during a police search for two missing teenagers, U.S. media reported. The victims were not identified and authorities did not say whether they included the missing 14-year-old and 16-year-old girls, who were said to have been seen with a convicted sex offender, The New York Times reported. But authorities had called off their search for the teens after the bodies were found in the city of Henryetta, Okmulgee County Sheriff Eddy Rice told the newspaper. The Tulsa World reported Rice as saying officials believed two of the seven bodies found were those of the missing girls. The bodies were found on a property where registered sex offender and convicted rapist Jesse L. McFadden resided, according to the newspaper. The state highway patrol had issued a missing persons notice earlier Monday saying the two girls were last seen at 1:22 am (0622 GMT) in Henryetta and were both possibly traveling in a white Chevrolet Avalanche with McFadden, 39. 

 

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BRUSSELS (AFP) -- The eurozone annual inflation rate rose to seven percent in April, the EU’s statistics agency said Tuesday, the first increase after five consecutive months of declines. Consumer prices edged up from 6.9 percent in March, which could further encourage the European Central Bank to raise interest rates on Thursday. Analysts for FactSet and Bloomberg had predicted the rate would remain stable.

 

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LONDON (Reuters) -- The leader of Britain’s main opposition Labour Party Keir Starmer said on Tuesday he is likely to scrap his pledge to provide free university tuition, blaming economic circumstances for the probable u-turn. Labour pledged to ditch university fees as part of its campaign in the run up to the last two national elections in 2017 and 2019, and Starmer stuck with the policy after becoming leader of the party in 2020. Abolishing the fees is estimated to come at a cost to the government of billions of pounds a year. “We are likely to move on from that commitment because we do find ourselves in a different financial situation,” Starmer told BBC Radio. Starmer is looking to prove his electoral credentials at local polls on Thursday, ahead of a national election expected next year. Scrapping the pledge to abandon tuition fees, which currently stand at a maximum 9,250 pounds ($11,569.90) a year for British students studying in England, could damage his standing with those on the left of the party.

 

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The White House estimated that Russia’s military has suffered 100,000 casualties in the last five months in fighting in the Bakhmut region and other areas of Ukraine. White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters the figure, based on U.S. intelligence estimates, included more than 20,000 dead, half of them from the Wagner mercenary group, which includes convicts released from prison to join the fighting. “Russia’s attempt at a winter offensive in the Donbas largely through Bakhmut has failed,” Kirby said. “Last December, Russia initiated a broad offensive across multiple lines of advance, including toward Vuhledar, Avdiivka, Bakhmut, and Kreminna. Most of these efforts stalled and failed. Russia has been unable to seize any strategically significant territory.”

 

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SYDNEY (Reuters) -- Australian police searched the home of a British former test pilot for documents related to China’s J-16 strike fighter, Australia’s intelligence partners, and China’s biggest aviation company, a court judgment shows. The search in November was part of an investigation into Western military pilots training China’s military at a time of growing tension between China and the United States and its allies. Britain and Australia have announced crackdowns on former military pilots working to train Chinese fliers, and Britain vowed to change its national security law to stop them working for intermediaries including a South African flying school, which was alleged to be helping China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) recruit pilots. Keith Hartley, chief operating officer of the Test Flying Academy of South Africa (TFASA), has not been charged. He challenged the validity of the search warrant in Australia’s Federal Court, questioning its wording and seeking the return of seized material.

 

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ASUNCION (Reuters) -- Supporters of a right-wing candidate who came third in Paraguay’s presidential election clashed with police outside the electoral court, amid complaints of fraud in a vote that the ruling Colorado Party won comfortably. Police put up fences around the court’s headquarters and fired rubber bullets at young protesters who were throwing stones, authorities said, after hundreds of supporters of Paraguayo Cubas gathered. Elsewhere, demonstrators blocked roads with burning tires and destroying billboards with the photo of President-elect Santiago Pena, a 44-year-old economist who won 43% of the vote on Sunday compared with 27% for runner-up Efrain Alegre.  Cubas, who surprised observers by winning nearly 23% of the vote, called in a post on Instagram for a recount and asked his supporters to protest.