DUBAI (Reuters) -At least 73 migrants were reported missing and presumed dead following a shipwreck off the Libyan coast on Tuesday, the official Twitter account of International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Libya said on Wednesday. Seven survivors made it to shore from the boat, which was carrying around 80 people, who had reportedly departed from Qasr Alkayar, east of Tripoli, to head to Europe, the IOM added. So far, 11 bodies have been retrieved by the Libyan red Crescent and the local police, while the seven survivors are in hospital, the IOM said. Libya has become a major launching point for migrants seeking to reach Europe via a dangerous route across the desert and over the Mediterranean.

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MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines and the United States will this year carry out their biggest joint military drills since 2015, Manila’s army chief said on Wednesday, against a backdrop of growing tensions with China in the South China Sea. The annual ‘Balikatan’ exercises will be conducted in the second quarter and involve more than the previous year’s 8,900 troops, army chief Romeo Brawner told reporters. “All of these exercises that we are doing are in response to all types of threats that we may be facing in the future, both man-made and natural,” Brawner said. President Marcos on Tuesday summoned China’s ambassador to express “serious concern” over the intensity and frequency of China’s activities in the South China Sea, most of which China claims as its territory.

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BERLIN (AP) — A German labor union has called on workers at seven of the country’s airports to go on strike Friday to press demands for inflation-busting pay increases. Verdi said Wednesday that the one-day walkout by civil aviation security and ground staff would affect the airports in Frankfurt, Munich, Stuttgart, Hamburg, Dortmund, Hannover and Bremen. Frankfurt is Germany’s biggest airport and a major hub for intercontinental travel. The strike in Munich could affect arrivals at the annual Munich Security Conference that runs from Friday to Sunday. The union is demanding a pay rise of 10.5%, or at least 500 euros ($536), to counter the effects of high inflation that their members have endured.

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NEW DELHI (Reuters) - In two months, India is projected to become the world’s most populous country with over 1.4 billion people. But for at least a year, and possibly longer, the country won’t know how many people it has because it hasn’t been able to count them. India’s once in a decade census, due in 2021 and delayed due to the pandemic, has now got bogged down by technical and logistical hurdles and there are no signs the mammoth exercise is likely to begin soon. Experts say the delay in updating data like employment, housing, literacy levels, migration patterns and infant mortality, which are captured by the census, affects social and economic planning and policy making in the huge Asian economy. Calling census data “indispensable”, Rachna Sharma, a fellow at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, said studies like the consumption expenditure survey and the periodic labor force survey are estimations based on information from the census.

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WELLINGTON (Al-Jazeera) - Four people have been confirmed dead and thousands displaced in New Zealand after Cyclone Gabrielle brought widespread flooding and landslides to the northern part of the country. Gabrielle, which reached New Zealand on Sunday before making its way down the east coast of the North Island, cut off entire towns, washed away farms, bridges and livestock, and inundated homes, stranding people on rooftops. It was weakening and moving away on Wednesday.