France-Italy spat triggers EU migration crisis talks

BRUSSELS, Nov 26 (NNN-AGENCIES) — European interior ministers gathered for crisis talks as an ugly row between France and Italy over how to handle would-be refugees forced EU migration reform back onto their agenda. New arrival numbers haven’t yet hit the levels of 2015 and 2016, but European capitals are…

Scotland blocked from holding independence vote by UK’s Supreme Court

Scottish voters rejected independence in a 2014 referendum LONDON, Nov 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Britain’s Supreme Court has ruled that Scotland’s government cannot unilaterally hold a second referendum on whether to secede from the United Kingdom, in a blow to independence campaigners that will be welcomed by Westminster’s pro-union establishment.The court…

Sources identify the Walmart manager who shot and killed 6 people at his store in Virginia

CHESAPEAKE (Virginia, US), Nov 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The gunman who killed six people at a Walmart in Virginia on Tuesday was himself the store manager identified as 31-year-old Andre Bing. He then committed suicide. Bing was a “team lead” for the Chesapeake, Virginia, Walmart’s overnight shift, sources said. However, police…

Zanzibar to pay Thai company $69m for rice bought in 1988

A rice field in Chiang Mai ,Thailand ZANZIBAR, Nov 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A court has ordered the government of Zanzibar to pay a Thai company $69 million (about TSh159 billion) for rice bought in 1988.If Zanzibar had settled the payment in time, it would have paid $12.9 million (about TSh30…

Malawi ex-president’s stepson arrested over mass graves of suspected migrants

LILONGWE, Nov 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The stepson of Malawi’s ex-President Peter Mutharika has been arrested after 30 bodies were found in graves in a forest in October, police have said. Police said there was strong evidence linking Tadikira Mafubza to the graves, and a vehicle suspected to have been used to…

Gold coins worth €1.6m stolen in nine-minute heist from German museum

The stolen gold coins are thought to date back to the first century BC  MANCHING (Bavaria, Germany), Nov 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Thieves have stolen a hoard of Celtic gold coins worth about €1.6m from a museum in Germany. Hundreds of coins were taken from the museum in Manching, Bavaria, in…

European Space Agency names new astronauts, agrees record budget

PARIS, Nov 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The European Space Agency announced five new career astronauts as well as history’s first astronaut recruit with a disability on Wednesday after adopting a record budget to fund its projects. The two female and three male career astronauts “will start working immediately,” ESA director-general Josef…

Air pollution killed 238,000 Europeans prematurely in 2020: EEA

COPENHAGEN, Nov 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Fine particle air pollution led to 238,000 premature deaths in the European Union in 2020, the bloc’s environmental watchdog said, a slight rise from the previous year. Across the 27-nation bloc that year, “exposure to concentrations of fine particulate matter above the 2021 World Health…

UN chief discusses Western Sahara with Moroccan king

RABAT, Nov 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres held a rare meeting with Morocco’s King Mohammed VI on Wednesday, where the pair discussed the disputed Western Sahara region. The low-intensity conflict in Western Sahara has pitted Morocco against the Sahrawi independence fighters of the Polisario Front, supported by Algeria,…

Venezuela: Pres Maduro to resume talks with opposition Friday

CARACAS, Nov 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government will resume talks with the opposition Friday after more than a year in a bid to resolve a political crisis that has gripped the country since a contested 2018 election. Negotiations between the two sides last took place in October…