2 killed, 3 injured in NYC helicopter crash — A helicopter crashed into New York City’s East River on Sunday night and flipped upside down in the water, killing two of the six people aboard and leaving three others in critical condition, officials said. Video taken by a bystander and posted on Twitter shows the red helicopter land hard in the river and then capsize, its rotors slapping at the water. The helicopter, a private charter hired for a photo shoot, went down near Gracie Mansion, the mayoral residence. One person, the pilot, freed himself and was rescued by a tugboat, officials said. The passengers were recovered by police and fire department divers, who had to remove them from tight harnesses while they were upside down, Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said. “It took awhile for the drivers to get these people out. They worked very quickly as fast as they could,” Nigro said. “It was a great tragedy that we had here.”

Critics of peace deal dominate Colombia election — Colombia’s fragile peace deal looked increasingly under threat Sunday as right-wing parties critical of the accord performed well in congressional elections seen as a dry run for a hotly contested presidential ballot in May, while the current president’s party slumped. The vote was the first time former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, were competing after disarming as part of the 2016 peace deal for ending a half century of guerrilla war. As expected, support for their radical agenda was soundly defeated, with FARC candidates getting less than 0.5 percent of the overall vote. That means their political party, also called FARC, will get only the 10 seats guaranteed them by the peace accord. “The FARC are in a tough spot,” said Leon Valencia, a former combatant who now runs the Peace and Reconciliation Foundation, a think tank. “A long war has generated lots of fear and rancor towards them.” By contrast, many of the accord’s critics picked up seats, with the Democratic Center party led by former President Alvaro Uribe headed to being the biggest bloc in the Senate.

In Britain, letters call for ‘Punish a Muslim Day’ — The anonymous letters arrived this weekend in plain white envelopes, and were sent to people in at least six communities in England. Inside was a message so hateful that it sent ripples of alarm across the country and prompted a national counterterrorism investigation. The message said April 3 would be “Punish a Muslim Day,” and that points would be awarded for acts of violence: 25 points for pulling a woman’s head scarf, 500 points for murdering a Muslim and 1,000 for bombing a mosque. Police and other officials have warned Britons to be vigilant, and counterterrorism officials are investigating.

U.S. sends mixed signals on Africa policy — On the outskirts of a sprawling reserve of Kenyan grasslands where endangered animals roam wild, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson lavished praise on an American-funded forensics lab that tracks down elephant-poachers for prosecution, and urged aggressive action in Africa on conservation. Yet earlier this month, the Trump administration quietly lifted the U.S. ban on importing African elephant trophies, to the dismay of environmental groups who said it sends precisely the wrong message. U.S. words and deeds are colliding as Tillerson travels across Africa. On trade policy, HIV/AIDS and humanitarian aid, the United States at times seems at odds with itself, muddying efforts to show it wants the continent to flourish and is here to help. In the case of the elephants, conservationists appeared to have a powerful ally in President Donald Trump, who intervened personally last year to stop the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from lifting the Obama-era ban on tusks imported from Zambia and Zimbabwe. Trump took to Twitter to call the practice a “horror show.” At the forensics lab at Nairobi National Park, the only such lab in east and central Africa, Tillerson agreed Sunday when famed conservationist Richard Leakey warned that the “huge interest” in wildlife products such as elephant and rhinoceros parts was fueling the international trafficking trade.

U.S. pans Iran deal and courts Kim — The Iranian and North Korean nuclear programs, often spoken of in the same breath, are now being thrust together, as President Donald Trump’s determination to kill the accord limiting Tehran’s capabilities is colliding with his scramble to reach a far more complex deal with Pyongyang. The North will be watching closely in May, when Trump will face another deadline on deciding whether to abandon the Iran deal. The same month, Trump plans to head into a negotiation with North Korea’s dictator, Kim Jong Un — the first time an American president has ever spoken with the leader of that country.

Turkish business jet crashes in Iran — A Turkish business jet carrying eight passengers and three crew members crashed into a mountain in central Iran on Sunday, killing all on board, the Iranian authorities said. The plane was carrying the daughter of a Turkish tycoon and seven of her friends on their way back to Turkey, the Turkish news media reported, just days after the jet took them to her bachelorette party in Dubai. Turkey’s Transport Ministry said the plane belonged to Basaran Holding, which is led by Huseyin Basaran. His daughter, Mina, 28, had traveled to the United Arab Emirates to celebrate her coming wedding.