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3 killed as high winds topple a tree on an Easter egg hunt in Germany

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Three people, including a 10-month-old girl, were killed Sunday when high winds toppled a tree in northern Germany during an Easter egg hunt, police said.

Around 50 people from a nearby residential facility for new mothers, pregnant women and children were attending the event in woods near the town of Satrupholm at about 11 a.m. when a 30-meter (100-foot) tree fell on the group, police said in a statement.

Four people were pinned under the tree. A 21-year-old woman and a 16-year-old girl were treated by first responders but died at the scene, while the woman’s 10-month old daughter died later in the hospital. An 18-year-old woman suffered serious injuries and was brought to the hospital by helicopter.

The facility is part of the state-funded child welfare system and supports pregnant women and new mothers who need help, according to its website. Grief counselors were sent to the scene.

Pictures from the scene published by the Bild news site showed several Easter eggs scattered on the ground and two of the victims covered in white sheets.

The area had been under a high winds warning from the German weather service.

Government officials from the Schleswig-Holstein region where the facility was located said they were “deeply shaken” by the accident.

“Our thoughts are with the family members of the dead, with the injured, and with everyone who had to experience this terrible occurrence,” regional Governor Daniel Günther, Interior Minister Magdalena Finke, and Youth and Families Minister Aminata Touré said in a joint statement carried by the dpa news agency.

Iran attacks Bahrain and Kuwait following US strikes, threatens to end talks to end the war

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard launched drone and missile attacks Sunday targeting Bahrain and Kuwait in response to U.S. airstrikes that hit the Islamic Republic, and threatened a “complete halt” could come to negotiations to end the war if Washington continues its attacks. Efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf that once carried a fifth of the world's oil and natural gas, without Iran's direct oversight sparked the crossfire now gripping the region. A multinational maritime body overseen by the U.S. Navy said Saturday that it would expand a route near Oman in the Strait of Hormuz to allow for both inbound and outbound traffic — setting up a new flashpoint with Tehran. Iran insists it alone must govern the strait after the war, upending decades of the world considering that the strait was international waters free for all, despite its sitting in Iran and Oman's territorial waters. Tehran has twice attacked vessels going through the Oman route, backed by a United Nations agency, in recent days. Early Sunday, the U.S. military’s Central Command said it struck Iranian military “surveillance infrastructure, communication systems, air defense sites, drone storage facilities and minelayer capabilities” following an attack on a ship at sea early Saturday morning. That ship, the Panamanian-flagged tanker Kiku, carried crude oil for the state-run energy company of Qatar, a key negotiator between Iran and the United States.
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