One of Russia's richest women among five dead in small plane crash near Frankfurt

The burnt out debris of a small aircraft lies on a field near the small airport of Egelsbach near Frankfurt, Germany. Photo / AP

Germany: German police say a pilot and two passengers are believed to have died in the crash of a small airplane near Frankfurt and two more people died in a collision with a police vehicle responding to the scene. Police said the six-seater airplane took off in France and was on its way to the central German town of Egelsbach when it crashed and burned in a field near Erzhausen, 10km south of Frankfurt. Police said they believed three people were aboard but said they were still working on positive identification of the victims as well as confirming the number of occupants. Russian airline operator S7 Group says that co-owner Natalia Fileva, one of Russia's richest women, has died in the crash. The dpa news agency, citing police, reported that three people in a police vehicle were seriously injured in the traffic crash while the two people in the other car died.

Nepal: A rainstorm swept through southern Nepal, leaving at least 25 people dead and hundreds more injured. Nepal's Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli in a Twitter message said he received a report of 25 people killed and 400 injured. He said security forces have been alerted. Rescue and helicopters with night vision capabilities were waiting for the weather to clear to help bring the injured from the villages. Government administrator Rajesh Poudel said the number of deaths would likely increase as the storm had hit many villages in the Bara district, located about 120km south of the capital, Kathmandu. He said police and army rescuers were fanned around the district trying to reach the villages, but rescue efforts were difficult at night. The injured were being brought to a hospital by cars and ambulances, but roads in many villages had been blocked by fallen trees and electricity poles.

United States: White House counsellor Kellyanne Conway is criticising former Vice-President Joe Biden after a former Nevada state legislator alleged he inappropriately kissed her on the back of her head in 2014. Conway described the woman, Lucy Flores, as "quite bold" to "go against the highest levels of her political party" with the allegations and said Biden now has a "big problem." Biden, a Democrat, is considering running for president in 2020. Conway tells "Fox News Sunday" that quote, "He calls it affection and handshakes. His party calls it completely inappropriate." Conway suggested that Biden should consider apologising to Flores. Flores, who was Nevada's Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor in 2014, wrote in New York Magazine that she felt uncomfortable with her interactions with Biden. Biden says he doesn't believe he ever acted inappropriately toward women but will "listen respectfully" to suggestions he did.

Even more puzzling: Joe Biden has been on tape doing the exact same thing more than once. What’s new is not the conduct but someone speaking up about how it made her feel. https://t.co/LAYUtQdGm0

— Irin Carmon (@irin) March 31, 2019

Middle East: A rocket was launched from the Gaza Strip towards Israel, the Israeli Army said, just hours after Israel reopened its two main crossings with the territory in a sign that cease-fire talks were progressing between Israel and Hamas. The army said that a projectile launched from the Gaza Strip did not cross into Israeli territory, but did set off air-raid sirens in the country's south. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, and no immediate Israeli response. Egyptian mediators have been working in recent days to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. The talks have been repeatedly interrupted by Palestinian rocket attacks and Israeli military reprisals. The violence comes just over a week before Israeli national elections.

A man crosses the iconic rails leading to the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland. Photo / AP file

Poland: An American visitor to the former Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp attempted to steal a metal part of the historic rail tracks where prisoners were unloaded, officials said. The 37-year-old man has been charged with attempted theft of an item of cultural importance, according to Malgorzata Jurecka, a police spokeswoman in the southern Polish town of Oswiecim, which was under German occupation during World War II. The crime can be punished with up to 10 years in prison. Jurecka said the man admitted his guilt but has been released as he awaits further steps.

Mozambique: As Mozambique battles to control a fast-spreading cholera outbreak in the cyclone-hit central city of Beira, international assistance is arriving. The number of cholera cases jumped to 271 over the weekend although no deaths from the disease had been reported. More than 500 people have died in Mozambique from Cyclone Idai, which slammed into Beira more than two weeks ago. Another 259 people died in Zimbabwe and 56 in Malawi, bring the three-nation total to more than 815. The Chinese Government has sent doctors to fight the cholera outbreak in Beira and Chinese aid workers sprayed anti-cholera disinfectant in parts of the port city of 500,000. The World Health Organisation has said some 900,000 cholera vaccine doses are expected to arrive tomorrow, with a vaccination campaign to start later this week. The US military is airlifting food and relief supplies from South Africa. The first round-the-clock flights to deliver supplies from the UN World Food Programme started yesterday and continued today.

-AP