WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A dangerous combination of record-setting cold temperatures and powerful winds buffeted the northeastern United States on Saturday, creating life-threatening conditions and causing the death of an infant in Massachusetts. New Hampshire’s Mount Washington overnight recorded a wind chill – a measure of how the combined effect of air and wind feels to the skin – of minus 108 degrees Fahrenheit (-78°Celsius), which appeared to be the lowest ever in the United States. The air temperature at the peak reached minus 47 degrees F (-44 C), with winds gusting near 100 miles per hour (160 kilometers per hour), according to the Mount Washington Observatory. The high winds brought a tree down onto a car in Southwick, Massachusetts, the Hampden district attorney said in a statement, crushing the vehicle and killing an infant passenger. The driver was transported to a hospital with serious injuries. In Boston, where officials closed down the public school system on Friday due to the impending freeze, the low temperature hit minus 10 degrees F (-23 C), shattering the day’s record set more than a century ago, the NWS said.

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BERLIN (Dispatches) – Germany is considering using funds intended for phasing out coal-fired power plants to help arms manufacturers produce more weapons, a new report has revealed. Citing sources familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported that discussions are underway between Berlin and regional states about providing the country’s armed forces with more weapons and ammunition and creating jobs in regions affected by the shift away from coal. Germany’s armed forces, the report said, have been suffering from outdated and partly dysfunctional equipment for years. Since the onset of the war in Ukraine last February, Berlin earmarked 100 billion euros ($109 billion) in military spending to expand and modernize its armed forces. As part of the move, German defense contractor Rheinmetall AG said it plans to produce ammunition for the 30 “Gepard” self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, which Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition agreed to supply to Ukraine. Separately, the facility is looking into the construction of an additional factory to produce basic materials and components for ammunition in the eastern state of Saxony which is affected by the coal-exit, according to Bloomberg.

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SANTIAGO (Reuters) – Chile’s government has called for international help to fight the devastating forest fires ravaging thousands of hectares and killing nearly two dozen people. Interior Minister Carolina Toha said they are asking for support from Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay after reporting 22 deaths from the severe forest fires that have destroyed some 40,000 hectares (99,000 acres) in central and southern Chile. “Through the Foreign Ministry, we have requested international support. We have spoken to several governments to reinforce the efforts that were previously being made with the companies that provide the services,” the minister said. Toha added, “These requests include the search for equipment to bolster the fleet and brigades that can reinforce the work on the ground. We are in contact with several countries in the region, such as Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay.” Dozens of wildfires blazing though Chile caused the government to extend an emergency order to another region on Saturday, as a scorching summer heatwave complicates efforts to control fires.

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NICOSIA (Reuters) – Cyprus went to the polls on Sunday to elect a new president whose challenges will include breaking a deadlock in reunification talks, tackling irregular migration, and repairing the country’s image tarnished by corruption scandals. Barring a major upset, the Sunday vote is unlikely to produce a clear winner, setting the stage for a runoff on Feb. 12. Fourteen candidates are running, though the vote is likely to be a tight race between former foreign minister Nikos Christodouldes, who is leading the polls, right-wing DISY party leader Averof Neophytou, and career diplomat Andreas Mavroyiannis backed by the leftist AKEL party. All three main contenders have been close associates of incumbent right-wing President Nicos Anastasiades, who by law cannot contest a third five-year term. Polls have suggested turnout will be low. Some 28% of voters abstained in the last election in 2018. Anastasiades’s administration was hit by a corruption scandal in 2020 over its lucrative citizenship-for-investment scheme. A government commission of inquiry found that hundreds of passports had been issued illegally, and that the system ran without adequate oversight for years.

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VIENNA (AFP) – Austrian police said Sunday that five people had been killed in avalanches in the west of the country, after three deaths were reported Saturday despite pleas for caution on ski slopes. The eight deaths came as resorts are filled during the February school holidays in Vienna, with the avalanche alert level at four on a scale of five after several days of intense snowfall and wind. On Sunday, the body of a 59-year-old man buried while helping the snow removal effort in his tractor was recovered, police in Austria’s western Tyrol region said. Two skiers aged 29 and 33, including a guide, who were carried off-piste on Saturday morning were found dead in Sankt Anton am Arlberg. And a 62-year-old man, who had not returned after cross-country skiing around the summit of Hohe Aifner, was recovered by rescuers and could not be revived, a police spokesman told AFP. The authorities declined to give information on the nationality of the four victims recovered Sunday.