NATO troops are killed in a chopper crash in an area where Aussies are stationed, Oscar Pistorius’ family denies suicide claims, and the European Union is concerned about a member nation sliding backwards into right-wing authoritarianism.  That and a lot more in Your World News update.

Five U.S. troops are dead after a helicopter crash in Afghanistan.  It happened in the south part of the country near Kandahar, where Americans, Australians, and British troops are battling an Islamist insurgency.  The cause of the crash is under investigation.  

The family of Olympic Track star Oscar Pistorius is denying reports he’s suicidal.  A family friend told reporters that Pistorius is “on the verge of suicide” and facing legal fees that have him selling off properties.  Prosecutors say he deliberately shot and killed his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, Pistorius says it was an accident.

Hungary’s parliament defied growing concerns about eroding freedoms and approved constitutional changes that critics say enshrine the ruling ultra-rightist Fidesz party and severely undermine Democracy.  Washington and the EU have expressed concerns about Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s consolidation of power.

Two groups of physicians are blasting the World Health Organization (WHO) for allegedly downplaying the health risks caused by radiation from the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster.  On the 2 year anniversary of the Great East Japan earthquake, Physicians for Social Responsibility and the Helen Caldicott Foundation say the WHO report is ignoring the true extent of radiation in northern Japan, among other shortcomings.

Voters of the Falkland Islands voted to remain British.  The referendum is a rebuke to Argentina which has been pressing its claims on the islands it calls the Malvinas.  Argentina dismisses the vote as a “publicity stunt” by an “implanted population” on Argentine “sovereign soil”.

Please don’t sell your children on Facebook.  Police in Oklahoma, U.S.A. have arrested 22-year old Misty VanHorn for allegedly offering her 10-month old and 2-year old children for $5,000, which is a paltry enough sum to add insult to the kids’ misery once they’re old enough to know what mommy did.  Cops say she was apparently trying bail her boyfriend out of jail.