The U.S. Army identified on Saturday the three soldiers who were killed when two helicopters collided in Alaska while returning from a training mission. The helicopters were headed to Fort Wainwright from a mission in the Donnelly Training Area when they crashed at 1:39 p.m. Thursday, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of Healy. The U.S. Army announced Friday that it has grounded aviation units for training after 12 soldiers died within the last month in helicopter crashes in Alaska and Kentucky. “The move grounds all Army aviators, except those participating in critical missions, until they complete the required training,” the Army said in a statement. Killed in Thursday's crash were Chief Warrant Officer 3 Christopher Robert Eramo, 39, of Oneonta, New York; Chief Warrant Officer 2 Kyle D. McKenna, 28, of Colorado Springs, Colorado; and Warrant Officer 1 Stewart Duane Wayment, 32, of North Logan, Utah. A fourth soldier was injured and was taken to Fairbanks Memorial Hospital and was listed in stable condition. He was not identified Saturday. “The battalion is devastated and mourning the loss of three of our best,” said Lt. Col. Matthew C. Carlsen, the 1-25th AB commander. Their loss can't be compared to the suffering felt by the soldiers' families, he said. “The entire team has come together to focus our thoughts, prayers, and actions to provide and sustain them with whatever comfort and support they need at this time, and I promise that this will continue long into the future,” he said. A Safety Investigation Team from the U.S. Army Combat Readiness Center, based at Fort Novosel, Alabama, is leading the safety investigation, officials said in an email. Department of Defense instructions and Army regulations prohibit the investigators from releasing any information to the public concerning the causes, analysis or internal recommendations, the statement said. “The loss of these Soldiers is devastating and is being felt by family, friends and military communities across Alaska,” said Maj. Gen. Brian Eifler, commanding general of the 11th Airborne Division. “The families of Fort Wainwright and 1-25 are as strong a team as I’ve ever seen. Our hearts are heavy, and our thoughts and prayers are with the families, friends and loved ones of the fallen.”

As Vitalii Khroniuk lay facedown on the ground taking cover from Russian artillery fire, the Ukrainian solider had just one regret: He had never had a child. Aware that he could die at any moment, the 29-year-old decided to try cryopreservation — the process of freezing sperm or eggs that some Ukrainian soldiers are turning to as they face the possibility that they might never go home. “It’s not scary to die, but it’s scary when you don’t leave anyone behind,” said Khroniuk, who had quickly joined the war effort, without a thought about his future, when Russia invaded Ukraine nearly a year ago. During a vacation home in January, he and his partner went to a private clinic in Kyiv, IVMED, that is waiving the $55 cost of cryopreservation for soldiers. The clinic has had about 100 soldiers freeze sperm since the invasion, says its chief doctor, Halyna Strelko. Assisted conception services to get pregnant currently cost $800 to $3,500. “We don’t know how else to help. We can only make children or help make them. We don’t have weapons, we can’t fight, but what we do is also important,” said Strelko, whose clinic had to close during the first months of the war as Kyiv was under attack but reopened after the Russian military retreated from the area. When Khroniuk told his partner, Anna Sokurenko, 24, what he wanted to do, she initially was unsure. “It was very painful to realize that there is a possibility that he will not return,” said Sokurenko, adding that it took her a night of reflection to agree. She and Khroniuk spoke to The Associated Press while sitting at the clinic, where posters of smiling babies, including one that reads, “Your future is securely protected,” hang in the corridor. The clinic’s lab has its own backup power supply that kicks in during frequent outages from Russian missile strikes damaging the electric infrastructure. Dr. Strelko, who has been in the fertility business since 1998, said the service she is offering soldiers is particularly important now, pointing to "a very aggressive part of this war with massive losses.” Russian forces have been pushing their advance on the eastern city of Bakhmut with heavy shelling and attacks that are believed to have produced massive troop losses for both Ukraine and Russia. Neither side is saying how many have died. Sokurenko and Khroniuk married a few days after their clinic visit, and he is now fighting in the Chernihiv region near the border. She believes that a chance to have a child, even after a partner is killed at war, could smooth the deep pain of loss. “I think it’s a very important opportunity in the future if a woman loses her loved one," she said. “I understand that it will be difficult to recover from this, but it will give the sense to continue to fight, to continue to live." Nataliia Kyrkach-Antonenko, 37, got pregnant while visiting her husband in a front-line town a few months before he was killed in battle. Her husband, Vitalii, came home to Kyiv for a short vacation 10 days before his November death and got to see an ultrasound of his unborn baby girl. He also visited a fertility clinic to freeze his sperm. Kyrkach-Antonenko hopes to eventually have another child using that sperm. She said being able to have her late husband’s children “is an incredible support.” “We have loved each other incredibly strong for 18 years,” she said. She also sees cryopreservation as a fight for the country's future. “Their dads did everything possible to make this future happen. Now it is our turn, as women, to fight for the future of Ukraine as well, raising people with dignity. People who can continue to change the country for the better,” she said. Another couple who went to the IVMED clinic in December, Oles and Iryna, asked that only their first names be used because of privacy concerns. Oles is in the Donetsk region, where some cities were turned into hellscapes due to fierce battles over the past months, and sees cryopreservation as an assurance. Iryna spends her nights alone in their apartment on the outskirts of Kyiv, tossing between anxiety for her husband as he fights on the most intensive and deadly part of the eastern frontline and the numerous visits to the clinic where she is trying to get pregnant. “Yes, it is a difficult life, with worries, bombardment, with constant anxiety for relatives. But at the same time, it is what it is,” she says. “It’s better to be a parent now than to put it off until you can no longer have children." “Family is what will hold our country, and children are our future," she said. “We fight for them."

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday said soldiers have been prepared for making Bangladesh a developed country by 2041 as the young generation is availing of the opportunities to flourish their talents in this Digital Bangladesh. “Now, I don’t have to worry any more. Of course, Bangladesh would be a developed Bangladesh in 1941. The biggest thing is that our soldiers for building Bangladesh as a developed country are ready,” she said. The Prime Minister was addressing the celebration of Digital Bangladesh Day-2021 and Digital Bangladesh Award Distribution Ceremony at the city’s Bangabandhu International Conference Centre, joining it virtually from her official residence Ganobhaban. A total of 24 individuals, teams and organisations -- 12 from the national level and 12 from the district level-- received the Digital Bangladesh Award-2021 in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the digital sector. On behalf of the Prime Minister, State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak handed over the awards to the recipients.  Also read: Assess situation before reopening educational institutions: PM Pointing at the award recipients, Hasina said she is no longer worried about the fulfilment of her Vision 2041 of turning Bangladesh into a developed and prosperous country since many youths received the awards and now got the scope to flourish their talents. “I can say from today I don’t have to worry anymore …we’ve already advanced far in the way to build a technology and knowledge-based society. Inshallah, Bangladesh will move forward,” she said. The Prime Minister congratulated the youths and other award recipients. The Digital Bangladesh is being observed with the theme of 'Digital Bangladesh-er Arjan, Upokrito Sokol Jonogon' (The Achievement of Digital Bangladesh: Beneficiaries are All People). Digital device export    The Prime Minister said if digital devices can be produced and exported properly, it may exceed all other sectors, including RMG, in earning foreign currency. Also read: PM puts emphasis on properly learning mother tongue Noting that now the garment export is the biggest source of foreign currency, she said her government has a target to promote production and export of digital devices and create scope for the meritorious students to flourish their talents in this sector. “I think if we can produce and export these digital devices, it’ll surpass all sectors,” she said, adding that the government has a target to increase the export earnings to US$ 5 billion in the digital device sector by 2025. Talking about the Awami League’s electoral pledge to build Digital Bangladesh, Hasina said they had a goal to create jobs so that the youth, staying home, can flourish their talents, become solvent and develop them as well as simultaneously take Bangladesh forward.   “Soldiers are being created to take the country forward,” she said, extending her sincere thanks to her ICT Affairs Adviser Sajeeb Wazed Joy, State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak and all other concerned in this regard. Hasina said the services that her government wanted to provide the people with the help of technology are rendered in Bangladesh.  “It has been possible to reach this service from our city corporation to the very grassroots level of a village,” she said. The PM said her government reduced the price of internet bandwidth to less than Tk 400, which was Tk 78,000 during the BNP government. “We’re going to introduce 5G,” she said. Mentioning that some 18.13 crore mobile SIM are used in Bangladesh alongside 13 crore internet users, Hasina said internet services are available in almost every house. Besides, the prizes were conferred among the winners of the online quiz and other competitions arranged on the occasion of the Digital Bangladesh-2021. At the function, the Prime Minister also unveiled the cover of a book titled ‘Prodhanmontri Sheikh Hasinar Netritte Digital Bangladesh-er Swapna Purun’ (Fulfillment of Dream of Digital Bangladesh under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina), which is featured with achievements and successes in the country’s digital sector. Hasina also virtually inaugurated some projects, including Freedom Fighter Lieutenant Sheikh Jamal Software Technology Park, Chattogram; Bangabandhu Smriti Ongan and IT Business Centre; Bangabandhu Hi-Tech Park, Sylhet; Sheikh Kamal IT Incubation  and Training Centre, KUET, Khulna; and High Speed Internet Broadband Connectivity in 2,600 Union Parishads under the Info Sarkar Scheme (Phase-III).   PM’s Principal Secretary Dr Ahmad Kaikaus spoke at the function, while ICT Senior Secretary NM Zeaul Alam delivered the welcome speech.

Four soldiers and 63 jihadists have been killed in fighting between Niger's army and heavily armed extremists in the nation's west, the government said Friday.

Lebanese Armed Forces Commander Joseph Aoun urged Lebanese soldiers not to allow political turmoil to prevent them from executing their missions, a statement by the army reported on Thursday.

The death toll from a "terrorist attack" on a military post in northeast Mali Friday has risen to 53, Communication Minister Yaya Sangare said on Saturday.