UK: Teenager charged after English Channel migrant boat sinking

LONDON, Dec 19 (NNN-AGENCIES) — UK police said a teenager has been charged over a deadly incident in the English Channel in which a boat packed with migrants capsized with the loss of four lives. Ibrahima Bah, 19, had been remanded in custody and will appear before magistrates in the…

Sweden: 3 escaped chimpanzees recaptured; 4 shot dead

STOCKHOLM, Dec 19 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Officials at a Swedish zoo managed to get three chimpanzees who had broken out of their enclosure back into a secure space, but four others were shot dead. The zoo’s chief said the animals were killed as a last resort. The Furuvik zoo said in…

Tunisia gets loan to boost food security, electricity supply

TUNIS, Dec 19 (NNN-Xinhua) — The European Investment Bank (EIB) has approved 220 million euro loans for Tunisia to boost its food security and electricity supply, the Tunisian Ministry of Economy and Planning said in a statement. Two financing agreements were signed in the capital Tunis between Samir Saied, Tunisian…

Cholera outbreak kills 20 in south Nigeria

ABUJA, Dec 19 (NNN-Xinhua) — At least 20 people have been killed so far in an outbreak of cholera in Nigeria’s southern Cross River state, a local official said. Janet Ekpeyong, head of the Cross River Primary Healthcare Development Agency, told reporters in Calabar, the state capital, that the local…

UN draft deal on biodiversity calls for increasing aid for developing countries

MONTREAL (Canada), Dec 19 (NNN-Xinhua) — A UN draft deal on biodiversity protection calls for increasing international financial aid from developed countries to developing countries to at least US$20 billion per year by 2025, and to at least US$30 billion per year by 2030, according to documents released on Sunday.…

Update: As Peru unrest ebbs, stranded tourists make way to safety

LIMA, Dec 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Protests dwindled in intensity in Peru and thousands of tourists trapped in the interior boarded planes to escape unrest as President Dina Boluarte again vowed that she would not step down. Some 4,500 tourists, many of them European and North American, rushed to the international…

Haiti’s cholera vaccination campaign complicated by gang control

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Dec 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Haiti on Sunday is launching a campaign to vaccinate more than 10 percent of its population against cholera, but gang control of large swaths of territory will complicate the effort.The Caribbean country has 1.17 million doses of oral vaccine on hand, with nearly 500,000 more…

Update: Tunisian Pres Saied urged to resign after ‘fiasco’ parliamentary election

 TUNIS, Dec 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) —Tunisia’s main opposition coalition has said President Kais Saied must resign after fewer than 9% of eligible voters took part in parliamentary elections. The National Salvation Front head, Nejib Chebbi, said Saturday’s poll was a “fiasco”, calling for mass protests to demand snap presidential elections. The…

Germany: Dresden Green Vault robbery jewels recovered after 2019 heist

REUTERS | A large diamond-encrusted breast bow was among the items stolen in 2019  BERLIN, Dec 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — German police say they have recovered a number of 18th-Century treasures stolen from a Dresden museum during a €113m heist in 2019. Authorities returned 31 objects to the Green Vault museum…

Greek PM pledges 10-percent food subsidy for families

ATHENS, Dec 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Saturday announced a 10-percent subsidy for every household’s food purchases to help counter the burden of inflation. “From next February, the state will cover 10 percent of each household’s purchases for six months in supermarkets and food businesses (bakeries, pastry…