While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Feb 28, 2026
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Emergency personnel working at the scene of a deadly tram derailment in Milan, Italy, on Feb 27.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Two killed, dozens injured as Milan tram derails
A tram derailed and smashed into a building in Milan on Feb 27, killing two people and injuring 38 others, police told AFP.
One of the dead was hit by the tram as it derailed and the second victim was a passenger, the city’s mayor, Mr Giuseppe Sala, told reporters at the scene.
Firemen wrapped shocked passengers in emergency blankets while ambulances took the more seriously injured to hospital.
The accident came only days after Milan finished hosting the 2026 Winter Olympics. It is preparing to host the Paralympics and is currently staging Milan Fashion Week.
Trump raises prospect of ‘friendly takeover’ of Cuba
PHOTO: ANNA ROSE LAYDEN/NYTIMES
US President Donald Trump on Feb 27 raised the prospect of a “friendly takeover” of Cuba, telling reporters at the White House that Secretary of State Marco Rubio was dealing with the issue at a “very high level”.
“The Cuban government is talking with us, and they’re in a big deal of trouble,” Mr Trump said, as he left the White House for a trip to Texas.
“They have no money. They have no anything right now, but they’re talking with us, and maybe we’ll have a friendly takeover of Cuba.”
‘I saw nothing,’ Bill Clinton tells lawmakers on Epstein
PHOTO: REUTERS
Bill Clinton told lawmakers on Feb 27 that he “saw nothing that gave me pause” when he spent time with Jeffrey Epstein, as the former president gave closed-door testimony about his relationship with the late sex offender.
In a prepared statement, Mr Clinton told the House of Representatives Oversight Committee that he would not have flown on the late financier’s plane if he had known about his alleged sex trafficking of underage girls, and would have reported him if he did.
“We are only here because he hid it from everyone so well for so long,” Mr Clinton said.
EU provisionally implements contested trade deal
The European Commission announced on Feb 27 it will provisionally implement a mammoth trade deal with the South American bloc Mercosur, prompting a public split between its two largest member states France and Germany.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen announced the bloc would go forward - with agreement pending the EU top court’s ruling on its legality - after Argentina and Uruguay ratified the agreement on Feb 26.
She hailed the ratification by the two South American countries as “good news”.
55 citizens of Ghana killed after being lured into war
Some 55 Ghanaians have been killed while fighting in Ukraine, the country’s foreign minister said on Feb 27, promising a crackdown on illicit recruitment schemes luring citizens to Russia under false pretences.
A growing number of African countries have in recent months begun to discover that their citizens have been duped into fighting for the Russian army, and either killed or captured on the battlefield.
Ghana’s Foreign Minister, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, travelled to Kyiv this week to discuss the fate of two Ghanaians taken prisoner on the front line.
