Earthquake Death Toll in Türkiye Rises above 45,000

A man stand in front of a collapsed building after a powerful earthquake in Adiyaman, Türkiye, 28 February 2023. (EPA)
A man stand in front of a collapsed building after a powerful earthquake in Adiyaman, Türkiye, 28 February 2023. (EPA)
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Earthquake Death Toll in Türkiye Rises above 45,000

A man stand in front of a collapsed building after a powerful earthquake in Adiyaman, Türkiye, 28 February 2023. (EPA)
A man stand in front of a collapsed building after a powerful earthquake in Adiyaman, Türkiye, 28 February 2023. (EPA)

The death toll in Türkiye from last month's devastating earthquake has risen to 45,089, the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) said on Wednesday, bringing the total toll including Syria to about 51,000.

The earthquake and subsequent powerful tremors injured more than 108,000 in Türkiye and left millions sheltering in tents or seeking to move to other cities.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has pledged to rebuild homes within a year but it will be many months before thousands can leave tents or container housing, and daily queues for food, and move into permanent housing.

He is due to give a speech to his ruling AK Party deputies in parliament at 0900 GMT, with the focus on the quake and presidential and parliamentary elections. They are set to be held by June and present the largest political challenge Erdogan has faced in his two-decade rule.

More than 160,000 Turkish buildings containing 520,000 apartments collapsed or were severely damaged in the disaster, the worst in the country's modern history.

Some two million people were registered as having fled the region, which has been hit by more than 11,000 aftershocks since the initial quake, AFAD said in a statement.

It said it had put up more than 350,000 tents, with tent cities established at 332 places across the region. Container housing settlements were being established in 162 places.

On Tuesday, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that it would support Ankara in its response to the quake.

Türkiye is "doing its best" but still needed international support to help victims, Tedros said.



Italian PM Calls Threatened US Tariffs Over Greenland a ‘Mistake’

 Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni speaks during a press conference with Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi at the prime minister's official residence in Tokyo on January 16, 2026. (AFP)
Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni speaks during a press conference with Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi at the prime minister's official residence in Tokyo on January 16, 2026. (AFP)
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Italian PM Calls Threatened US Tariffs Over Greenland a ‘Mistake’

 Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni speaks during a press conference with Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi at the prime minister's official residence in Tokyo on January 16, 2026. (AFP)
Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni speaks during a press conference with Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi at the prime minister's official residence in Tokyo on January 16, 2026. (AFP)

Italy's prime minister called US President Donald Trump's threat to slap tariffs on opponents of his plan to seize Greenland a "mistake" on Sunday, adding she had told him her views.

"I believe that imposing new sanctions today would be a mistake," Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni told journalists during a trip to Seoul.

"I spoke to Donald Trump a few hours ago and told him what I think, and I spoke to the NATO secretary general, who confirmed that NATO is beginning to work on this issue."

However, the far-right prime minister -- a Trump ally in Europe -- sought to downplay the conflict, telling journalists "there has been a problem of understanding and communication" between Europe and the United States related to the Arctic island, an autonomous territory of Denmark.

Trump has threatened to impose tariffs of up to 25 percent on all goods sent to the United States from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland over their objections to his moves.

Meloni said it was up to NATO to take an active role in the growing crisis.

"NATO is the place where we must try to organize together deterrents against interference that may be hostile in a territory that is clearly strategic, and I believe that the fact that NATO has begun to work on this is a good initiative," she told reporters.

Meloni said that "from the American point of view, the message that had come from this side of the Atlantic was not clear".

"It seems to me that the risk is that the initiatives of some European countries were interpreted as anti-American, which was clearly not the intention."

Meloni did not specify to what exactly she was referring.

Trump claims the United States needs Greenland for its national security.


Drone Strike Cuts Power Supply in Russia-Held Parts of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Region

 This photo, provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, shows a regional border stele decorated with national flags and military unit emblems in Orikhiv district in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)
This photo, provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, shows a regional border stele decorated with national flags and military unit emblems in Orikhiv district in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)
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Drone Strike Cuts Power Supply in Russia-Held Parts of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Region

 This photo, provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, shows a regional border stele decorated with national flags and military unit emblems in Orikhiv district in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)
This photo, provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, shows a regional border stele decorated with national flags and military unit emblems in Orikhiv district in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)

More than 200,000 consumers in the Russian-held part of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region were left without electricity on Sunday, the ‌Moscow-installed regional governor ‌said, after a ‌Ukrainian ⁠drone strike ‌on Saturday.

In a statement posted on Telegram, Yevgeny Balitsky said that work was ongoing to restore the power supply, but that almost 400 settlements remain without electricity.

Temperatures are well below freezing ⁠throughout the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, around 75% of ‌which is controlled by Russia.

Russia ‍has frequently bombarded ‍Ukraine's power infrastructure throughout its nearly ‍four-year war, causing rolling daily blackouts, and has also targeted heating systems this winter.

Separately, the governor of the Russian border region of Belgorod, which has come under regular Ukrainian attack since 2022, ⁠said that one person had been killed and another wounded by a drone strike on the border village of Nechaevka.

Further south, in the Caucasus mountains region of North Ossetia, two children and one adult were injured when a Ukrainian drone struck a residential building in the town ‌of Beslan, the region's governor said.


Danish Foreign Minister to Visit NATO Allies Over Greenland

Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen reacts, following his and Greenland's Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt meeting with US Senators Angus King (I-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and a press conference, in Washington DC, US, January 14, 2026. (Reuters)
Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen reacts, following his and Greenland's Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt meeting with US Senators Angus King (I-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and a press conference, in Washington DC, US, January 14, 2026. (Reuters)
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Danish Foreign Minister to Visit NATO Allies Over Greenland

Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen reacts, following his and Greenland's Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt meeting with US Senators Angus King (I-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and a press conference, in Washington DC, US, January 14, 2026. (Reuters)
Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen reacts, following his and Greenland's Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt meeting with US Senators Angus King (I-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and a press conference, in Washington DC, US, January 14, 2026. (Reuters)

Denmark's foreign minister is to visit fellow NATO members Norway, the UK and Sweden to discuss the alliance's Arctic security strategy, his ministry announced Sunday.

Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen will visit Oslo on Sunday, travel to London on Monday and then to Stockholm on Thursday.

The diplomatic tour follows US President Donald Trump's threat to punish eight countries -- including the three Rasmussen is visiting -- with tariffs over their opposition to his plan to seize control of Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory.

Trump has accused Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and Finland of playing a "very dangerous game" after they sent a few dozen troops to the island as part of a military drill.

"In an unstable and unpredictable world, Denmark needs close friends and allies," Rasmussen stated in a press release.

"Our countries share the view that we all agree on the need to strengthen NATO's role in the Arctic, and I look forward to discussing how to achieve this," he said.

An extraordinary meeting of EU ambassadors has been called in Brussels for Sunday afternoon.

Denmark, "in cooperation with several European allies", recently joined a declaration on Greenland stating that the mineral-rich island is part of NATO and that its security is a "shared responsibility" of alliance members, the ministry statement added.

Since his return to the White House for a second term, Trump has made no secret of his desire to annex Greenland, defending the strategy as necessary for national security and to ward off supposed Russian and Chinese advances in the Arctic.