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At Least 10 Killed in Nursing Home Fire in Northern Spain

Members of the emergency services and relatives gather outside of a retirement home which caught fire, in Villafranca de Ebro, Zaragoza province, Spain, 15 November 2024. EPA/JAVIER CEBOLLADA
Members of the emergency services and relatives gather outside of a retirement home which caught fire, in Villafranca de Ebro, Zaragoza province, Spain, 15 November 2024. EPA/JAVIER CEBOLLADA
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At Least 10 Killed in Nursing Home Fire in Northern Spain

Members of the emergency services and relatives gather outside of a retirement home which caught fire, in Villafranca de Ebro, Zaragoza province, Spain, 15 November 2024. EPA/JAVIER CEBOLLADA
Members of the emergency services and relatives gather outside of a retirement home which caught fire, in Villafranca de Ebro, Zaragoza province, Spain, 15 November 2024. EPA/JAVIER CEBOLLADA

A fire ripped through a retirement home in the town of Villafranca del Ebro in northern Spain early on Friday, killing at least 10 people, the regional government of Aragon said.
The blaze started in a residence for elderly called "Jardines de Villafranca" around 5 a.m. and it took a couple of hours for firefighters to put it out, a spokesperson for the regional government said.
The spokesperson could not specify whether all the victims were residents of the retirement home, where 82 elderly people lived.
One person was in a critical condition, while several people are under care mainly for suffering from smoke inhalation.
Firefighters, who came from the area of Zaragoza, a city 35 km away, ambulances and police are on site, he said. The cause of the fire was still being investigated.
Jorge Azcon, head of the regional government of Aragon, whose capital city is Zaragoza, confirmed the deaths and said on X, formerly Twitter, that all government events in the region were cancelled for the day.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez also expressed shock over the fire and deaths.
The fire took place just weeks after devastating flash floods in Valencia killed more than 200 people and destroyed thousands of homes. The floods were the worst natural disaster in Spain's recent history.

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World

Iran President Says Any Attack on Supreme Leader Would Be Declaration of War

In this photo released by an official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei speaks in a meeting, in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)
In this photo released by an official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei speaks in a meeting, in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)
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Iran President Says Any Attack on Supreme Leader Would Be Declaration of War

In this photo released by an official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei speaks in a meeting, in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)
In this photo released by an official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei speaks in a meeting, in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian warned on Sunday that any attack on the country's supreme leader Ali Khamenei would mean a declaration of war.

"An attack on the great leader of our country is tantamount to a full-scale war with the Iranian nation," Pezeshkian said in a post on X in an apparent response to US President Donald Trump saying it was time to look for a new leader in Iran.

World

Quake Hits Northeast Sicily, No Damage Reported

A man feeds seagulls in Syracuse, Sicily, southern Italy on January 10, 2026. (AFP)
A man feeds seagulls in Syracuse, Sicily, southern Italy on January 10, 2026. (AFP)
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Quake Hits Northeast Sicily, No Damage Reported

A man feeds seagulls in Syracuse, Sicily, southern Italy on January 10, 2026. (AFP)
A man feeds seagulls in Syracuse, Sicily, southern Italy on January 10, 2026. (AFP)

A light earthquake hit the northeastern corner of Sicily on Sunday, authorities said, but no damage was immediately reported.

The quake registering 4.0 on the Richter and Moment Magnitude scales was centered two kilometers (just over a mile) from Militello Rosmarino in the northeastern province of Messina, according to the National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology (INGV).

It occurred at 2:54 pm local time (1354 GMT) and had a depth of eight kilometers, INGV said.

Il Mattino newspaper said the earthquake was felt throughout the Messina area but no damage to people or buildings had been reported.

The town of approximately 1,200 inhabitants is located just north of the Nebrodi park, Sicily's largest protected area.

Tremors occur frequently in the northeast of Sicily, with a 2.5 magnitude quake occurring at Piraino, to the east, on Saturday.

World

EU States Condemn Trump Tariff Threats, Consider Countermeasures

Military personnel from the German armed Forces Bundeswehr board Icelandair flight leaving Nuuk airport for Reykjavik on January 18, 2026 in Nuuk, Greenland. (AFP)
Military personnel from the German armed Forces Bundeswehr board Icelandair flight leaving Nuuk airport for Reykjavik on January 18, 2026 in Nuuk, Greenland. (AFP)
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EU States Condemn Trump Tariff Threats, Consider Countermeasures

Military personnel from the German armed Forces Bundeswehr board Icelandair flight leaving Nuuk airport for Reykjavik on January 18, 2026 in Nuuk, Greenland. (AFP)
Military personnel from the German armed Forces Bundeswehr board Icelandair flight leaving Nuuk airport for Reykjavik on January 18, 2026 in Nuuk, Greenland. (AFP)

Major European Union states decried US President Donald Trump's tariff threats against European allies over Greenland as blackmail on Sunday, as France proposed responding with a range of previously untested economic countermeasures.

Trump vowed on Saturday to implement a wave of increasing tariffs on EU members Denmark, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Finland, along with Britain and Norway, until the US is allowed to buy Greenland.

All eight countries, already subject to US tariffs of 10% and 15%, have sent small numbers of military personnel to Greenland, as a row with the United States over the future of Denmark's vast Arctic island escalates.

"Tariff threats undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral," the eight-nations said in a joint statement published on Sunday.

They said the Danish exercise was ‌designed to strengthen Arctic ‌security and posed no threat to anyone. They said they were ready to ‌engage ⁠in dialogue, based ‌on principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a written statement that she was pleased with the consistent messages from the rest of the continent, adding: "Europe will not be blackmailed", a view echoed by Germany's finance minister and Sweden's prime minister.

"It's blackmail what he's doing," Dutch Foreign Minister David van Weel said on Dutch television of Trump's threat.

COORDINATED EUROPEAN RESPONSE

Cyprus, holder of the rotating six-month EU presidency, summoned ambassadors to an emergency meeting in Brussels on Sunday, which diplomats said was due to start at 5 p.m. (1600 GMT) as EU leaders stepped up contacts.

A source close to French President Emmanuel Macron said he was pushing for ⁠activation of the "Anti-Coercion Instrument", which could limit access to public tenders, investments or banking activity or restrict trade in services, in which the US has a surplus with ‌the bloc, including digital services.

Bernd Lange, the German Social Democrat who ‍chairs the European Parliament's trade committee, and Valerie Hayer, head of ‍the centrist Renew Europe group, echoed Macron's call, as did Germany's engineering association.

Meanwhile, Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin said ‍that while there should be no doubt that the EU would retaliate, it was "a bit premature" to activate the anti-coercion instrument.

And Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who is closer to the US President than some other EU leaders, described the tariff threat on Sunday as "a mistake", adding she had spoken to Trump a few hours earlier and told him what she thought.

"He seemed interested in listening," she told a briefing with reporters during a trip to Korea, adding she planned to call other European leaders later on Sunday.

Italy has not sent troops to Greenland.

BRITAIN'S POSITION 'NON-NEGOTIABLE'

Asked how Britain would respond to new ⁠tariffs, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said allies needed to work with the United States to resolve the dispute.

"Our position on Greenland is non-negotiable ... It is in our collective interest to work together and not to start a war of words," she told Sky News on Sunday.

The tariff threats do though call into question trade deals the US struck with Britain in May and the EU in July.

The limited agreements have already faced criticism about their lopsided nature, with the US maintaining broad tariffs, while their partners are required to remove import duties.

The European Parliament looks likely now to suspend its work on the EU-US trade deal. It had been due to vote on removing many EU import duties on January 26-27, but Manfred Weber, head of the European People's Party, the largest group in parliament, said late on Saturday that approval was not possible for now.

German Christian Democrat lawmaker Juergen Hardt also mooted what he told Bild newspaper could be a last resort "to bring President Trump to his senses on the Greenland issue", ‌a boycott of the soccer World Cup that the US is hosting this year.