Putin foe Alexei Navalny is buried in Moscow as thousands attend funeral

(AP) — Under a heavy police presence, thousands of people bade farewell to Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny at his funeral in Moscow. It came two weeks after his still-unexplained death in an Arctic penal colony. The crowds who thronged to honor Navalny outside a church and cemetery in a snowy southeastern suburb of the capital chanted slogans for the late opposition leader and against Russian President Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine, turning the event into one of the largest recent displays of dissent. But police did not act against them. Elsewhere in Russia, at least 67 people were reported detained at events in Navalny’s memory.

South Korea’s Yoon calls for unification, on holiday marking 1919 uprising

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol lambasted North Korea Friday, for what he called its repressive rule and vowed to achieve a free, unified Korean Peninsula. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol spoke on March 1 Independence Movement Day, a holiday marking a 1919 Korean uprising against Japanese colonial rule. Yoon’s comments came after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in January rejected the idea of peaceful unification and threatened to occupy with South in the event of war.

Fire at shopping mall in Bangladesh’s capital kills at least 43 people

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Officials say a fire at a shopping mall in Bangladesh’s capital killed at least 43 people and injured dozens of others. The fire began late Thursday in a restaurant on the first floor of the six-story mall in downtown Dhaka, and more than a dozen firefighting units were deployed to douse it. Health Minister Samanta Lal Sen said early Friday that 43 people had died and 18 people were in critical condition. Firefighters also rescued dozens of survivors. The cause of the fire at the Green Cozy Cottage Shopping Mall was not immediately determined.

Pope asks an aide to read a speech aloud for him, raising further concerns

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis, who has been suffering from the flu, asked an aide to read out his prepared speech at a conference in the Vatican Friday, saying he was not yet well and becomes fatigued. The 87-year-old Pontiff was taken to a Roman hospital on Wednesday for diagnostic testing after having to cancel some public audiences. He spoke off the cuff at the start of the conference on the roles of men and women in the church, blasting what he called “gender ideology” as the “ugliest danger.” However, he passed his speech to an aid, saying that reading fatigues him.