The Vice President of Uganda, H.E. Jessica Alupo, arrived in Moscow, Russia earlier to begin a four-day official visit aimed at strengthening bilateral relations between Uganda and the Russian Federation.

Seven people have died in a helicopter crash in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, officials have said. According to local media reports, the aircraft was flying from Kedarnath along a popular Hindu pilgrimage route in the Himalayan mountains. It is understood that rescue teams were immediately dispatched and an operation to retrieve the bodies has been carried out with local police. The pilot and a two-year-old child were among those killed, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said.

President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has held a strategic meeting with the German Ambassador to Uganda, His Excellency Matthias Schauer, at State Lodge, Nakasero.

At least 49 people have been killed in the floods that have swept through South Africa's Eastern Cape province as torrential rain and snow have hit parts of the country.

Among the bodies recovered are those of four children, a driver and a conductor who were on a bus that was carried away in flood waters as it was crossing a bridge in the town of Mthatha on Tuesday morning.

The rescue efforts were continuing to find four more children who had been in the vehicle that has since been found on a riverbank with no-one inside.

Three children were rescued alive, found clinging to trees. It is now known that there were 13 people on the bus, 11 of them school children.