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SABANA DE LA MAR, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC (BNO NEWS) -- The death toll after a migrant boat capsized off the eastern coast of the Dominican Republic over the weekend has risen to at least 18, officials said on Monday.

The accident happened on early Saturday morning when the boat capsized off Sabana de la Mar, a municipality located in the country's Hato Mayor Province, about 154 kilometers (95 miles) from the capital Santo Domingo.

Regional Navy colonel Hector Ramon Mendez said emergency teams were deployed to the region after a survivor reached the coast. It remains unclear how many people were on board, but officials said the boat was carrying at least 70 people after picking up 40 passengers in the municipality of Sanchez and 30 others elsewhere.

As of early Monday morning, search and rescue crews had found 19 survivors while the bodies of 12 men and six women were pulled out from the sea. The death toll is expected to rise further as dozens more remain missing and are feared to have drowned.

According to one of the survivors, passengers paid around 50,000 pesos ($1,300) to board the migrant ship, which was heading toward the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico when it capsized on Saturday morning. Most of the passengers were Dominicans, although some of them may have been from Haiti and Cuba.

Other survivors told local media reporters that the ship may have also been carrying drugs and weapons. They said the captain of the ship had remained hooded during the trip.

MOSCOW (BNO NEWS) -- Tens of thousands of Russians on Saturday participated in rallies across the country both in support and against Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, local news agencies reported.

Protesters gathered in downtown Moscow to express their opposition to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's expected return to the Kremlin next month, despite the Artic-like cold that has gripped the capital. The protests came exactly a month before the March 4 presidential polls.

A crowd, estimated at approximately 120,000 by organizers but given as a little over 35,000 by police, chanted "Russia without Putin!" People of all ages and political affiliations protested against Putin, who was barred by the Constitution from standing for a third consecutive term in 2008 and handed over power to his hand-picked successor Dmitry Medvedev.

Rallies also took place in about 30 other Russian cities. Police estimated that 5,000 people rallied against Putin in St. Petersburg, but local organizers put the number at more than 20,000.

Opposition figurehead Alexei Navalny, the man who instigated the current protests, attended the rally but did not speak. No arrests were reported on Saturday amid a heavy police presence, RIA Novosti reported.

Meanwhile, Putin supporters rallied to urge an end to the protests and demanded political stability. Police said 140,000 people were at the pro-Putin rally in Moscow, but a RIA Novosti correspondent said attendance was far lower.

Reports on Friday said state employees were being coerced into attending the rally, and Putin acknowledged that this was possible. Russian news agencies said police figures of the number of protesters were believed to be false.

State-run pollster VTSIOM said on Friday that support for Putin is at 52 percent, with Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov and Liberal Democratic party head Vladimir Zhirinovsky tying for second with 8 percent. A poll by the independent Levada Center, however, said that a mere 49 percent of Russians believed the elections would be fair.

On December 4, Russia held parliamentary elections which many Russian voters and international observers said were marred by large-scale fraud. The ruling United Russia party won more votes than any of the other three parties, but it still suffered a significant drop from the two-thirds constitutional majority it has enjoyed for the past four years.

Throughout December, huge demonstrations took place across the country to criticize the elections which they claim were rigged in favor of Vladimir Putin's governing United Russia party. Some of the demonstrations were the largest since the fall of the Soviet Union.

SAN FRANCISCO (BNO NEWS) -- Users of the social networking website Twitter posted more than 12,000 tweets per second during the last moments of the Super Bowl XLVI on Sunday, the company said on Monday. It is one of the highest ever number of tweets per second.

Twitter said the highest number of tweets per second was recorded at the end of the game, during the last three minutes, when 12,233 tweets were posted within one second. But an earlier performance by Madonna during the halftime show also set records.

"Madonna's performance during the Super Bowl's halftime show saw an average of 8,000 Tweets per second for five minutes," Twitter said on its website. It said it recorded a peak of 10,245 tweets in one second during Madonna's performance, the second-highest number of the night.

The 12,233 tweets per second is a new record for sports-related events, and significantly higher than the 4,064 tweets per second during the Super Bowl XLV in 2011. The previous record for a sporting event was the 7,196 tweets per second when Japan equalized with three minutes of extra-time remaining and went on to win the Women's World Cup final in Frankfurt in July 2011.

But while Sunday's record is higher than the number of tweets per second during news events such as Steve Jobs' death (6,049 tweets), Bin Laden's death (5,106), the Royal Wedding in England (3,966 tweets), and the Japanese earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 (5,530 tweets), the premiere of the Japanese movie "Castles In The Sky" retains the all-time record.

According to Twitter, the television screening in Japan of Hayao Miyazaki's "Castle in the Sky" led to 25,088 tweets per second at its peak. The company says its users post approximately 250 million messages a day on average, or about 2,900 per second.

KABUL (BNO NEWS) -- A helicopter belonging to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) crashed in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, the alliance said. There were no reports of casualties.

ISAF said the accident happened in eastern Afghanistan but gave no specific details, including the exact location, the type of helicopter involved and how many people were on board. "There were no fatalities and the crew has been safely recovered to a nearby forward operating base," a spokesperson said.

The cause of the accident was also not immediately known, but ISAF ruled out enemy activity. "The site has been secured and initial reports indicate there was no enemy activity in the area," the spokesperson said. "ISAF is assessing the circumstances to determine the cause of the crash."

Earlier this year, on January 19, six U.S. Marines were killed when a CH-53 helicopter went down in Helmand province, which is located in southern Afghanistan. It followed the crash of a U.S.-owned helicopter just days earlier in the same province, killing three crew members who were not part of ISAF but were conducting operations for the U.S. Department of Defense.

And in August 2011, 30 U.S. and 8 Afghan service members were killed when a CH-47 Chinook helicopter crashed in the Tangi Valley of Wardak province. The incident represented the highest number of U.S. forces killed during a single event since the U.S.-led war began in late 2001.

There are currently more than 130,000 ISAF troops in Afghanistan, including some 90,000 U.S. troops and more than 9,500 British soldiers. U.S. President Barack Obama previously ordered a drawdown of 23,000 U.S. troops later this year, and foreign combat troops are due to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

BLAGNAC, FRANCE (BNO NEWS) -- Air Namibia on Monday announced it has placed an order for two Airbus aircraft to replace the two Boeing 737-500s currently in its fleet. The deal is valued at approximately $161 million at list prices.

Airbus said the Windhoek-based carrier, which serves as the national airline of Namibia, ordered two new Airbus A319 aircraft. The planes, which both have a seating capacity for 112 passengers in a two class layout, will be used on regional routes from Windhoek to other African cities.

"Our in-service experience with Airbus aircraft has confirmed that the A319 is the ideal aircraft for Air Namibia's regional routes," said Theo M. Namases, Acting CEO of Air Namibia. "The efficiency of our new aircraft, together with their commonality with our existing fleet will provide a strong basis for our continued growth and contribution to the Namibian tourist industry."

Airbus Chief Operating Officer at Customers, John Leahy, said Airbus is 'delighted' to welcome Air Namibia as a new customer. "Air Namibia's decision to invest in new A319s is a great endorsement for the efficiency of the aircraft and Airbus' family concept," he said.

Air Namibia currently operates two A319-100 aircraft on an international route to Germany and two Airbus A340-300 aircraft which it leased from German airline Lufthansa and uses for regional routes. The African airline also operates three Embraer ERJ 135 aircraft and two Boeing B737-500 aircraft, and the new Airbus aircraft are expected to replace the 737s.

The order announced on Monday is valued at approximately $161.4 million at Airbus list prices, but aircraft manufacturers usually provide significant discounts.

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