Twenty-one-year-old Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili was killed when he crashed on the final bend during training. He was thrown from the track at more than 100 kilometres an hour and collided with a steel pillar. Test athletes in all three of the sliding sports, bobsleigh, skeleton and luge say they told organizers the track was too fast, too difficult and that less experienced athletes would be the most vulnerable to accidents. A spokesman for the International Bobsleigh Federation told the BBC that some changes were made in response to concerns and that safety of athletes was absolutely paramount.
Italy says two of its citizens who were kidnapped last year in Mauritania by al-Qaeda have been freed. The Italian government said the hostages were released after intense diplomacy and were being taken to a safe place.
Reports from Iran say the former President Mohammad Khatami has been barred from leaving the country to attend a nuclear disarmament conference in the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Mr Khatami's lawyer has told the BBC that there'd been no legal order, but Mr Khatami had decided not to travel after receiving what he called “official advice” to cancel his trip.
And finally, while volcanic ash from Iceland is causing unprecedented disruption to air travel across Europe, a taxi driver in Moscow has seen it as a business opportunity. He's offering to drive people to any location in Europe for a fare of 1,300 dollars. He said that for a person who really wanted to get somewhere, then that was a reasonable price to ask.