Mali escapes sanctions over detention of 46 Ivorian soldiers

Mali transitional President Colonel Assimi Goita BAMAKO, Jan 6 (NNN-GNA) — West African leaders will not go through with a threat to sanction Mali for jailing 46 Ivorian soldiers, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) said, preferring to give time for Togo’s mediation in the diplomatic spat to…

US: Heavy storm kills 2 in San Francisco Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 5 (NNN-Xinhua) — A heavy winter storm hit the U.S. San Francisco Bay Area with strong winds and downpours, killing at least two people and injuring several others, officials said. A 19-year-old woman died in Fairfield in the early hours of the storm when her car crashed…

Road accident kills 18 in NE Nigeria

ABUJA, Jan 5 (NNN-Xinhua) — Eighteen people were killed following a head-on collision between a bus and a trailer on a busy road in Nigeria’s northeastern state of Bauchi, a local official said. A total of 21 people were involved in the deadly road accident Wednesday evening near the Nabardo…

US shooting: 8 family members, including 5 children, found shot to death in Utah home

SALT LAKE CITY (Utah, US), Jan 5 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Eight people, including five children, were found dead from gunshot wounds in a southern Utah home Wednesday, according to authorities who did not provide details or a potential motive for the killings. The victims were found when police did a welfare…

Japan takes a turn toward the Americas in 2023

WASHINGTON/TOKYO, Jan 5 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is to meet with US President Joseph Biden on Jan\. 13 at the White House, while Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi has left on a South American tour seeking to strengthen ties with Mexico, Ecuador, Brazil, and Argentina. Kishida and Biden…

Brazil ended 2022 with a US$ 62bn surplus and overall trade turnover plus US$ 600bn

BRASILIA, Jan 5 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Brazil’s trade balance closed the year 2022 at a record surplus of US$ 62.3 billion. Compared with the previous year, when the positive balance totaled US$ 61.4 billion, there was an increase of 1.5%. A surplus happens when exports exceed imports. When the opposite happens,…

Peru hits Spanish energy giant Repsol with new oil spill fines

LIMA, Jan 5 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Peru’s environment authorities announced fines worth close to $6 million against Spanish energy giant Repsol over an oil spill that polluted beaches and cost thousands their livelihoods. Almost 12,000 barrels of crude spilled into the sea off Peru in January 2022 as a tanker unloaded…

Nigeria: Ten killed in boat accident; 10 missing, 80 rescued

KANO (Nigeria), Jan 5 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Ten bodies were recovered Wednesday after a boat carrying more than 100 women and children broke apart on a river in northern Nigeria, a local official said. The vessel, ferrying passengers returning from a farm on the River Niger, broke in half as it approached…

US Pres Biden announces first US-Mexico border visit

WASHINGTON, Jan 5 (NNN-AGENCIES) — President Joe Biden indicated he has finally decided to grasp the politically thorny issue of illegal immigration, announcing a speech on Thursday, followed by a visit to the troubled US-Mexico border itself likely next week. “I’m going to be making a speech tomorrow on border security,”…

British union leader calls for meeting to put an end to strikes

LONDON, Jan 5 (NNN-PRENSA LATINA) — The leader of the national organization of trade unions in the United Kingdom urged the government to dialogue with workers to put an end to strikes caused mainly by the cost of living crisis.     Paul Nowak, who took over as general secretary of the…