At least 17 die, 60 missing in Madagascar shipwreck

  ANTANANARIVO, Dec 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) — At least 17 people died and around 60 were missing after a boat sank off the northeast coast of Madagascar early Monday, maritime authorities said.    Port authority chief Jean Edmond Randrianantenaina said 45 of the 130 passengers aboard the vessel were rescued and searches…

Peru: Las Bambas says not mulling legal action for now as blockade continues

General view of a mine operated by MMG Las Bambas LIMA, Dec 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) — MMG’s Las Bambas copper mine does not plan to initiate legal action against Peru “for the time being” over a nearly month-long road blockade that has prompted the miner to suspend operations, a company executive…

Death toll from Haiti truck explosion rises to 90: Official

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Dec 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) — More than a dozen people severely injured in a gas truck explosion last week have died, raising the total number of deaths to 90, the deputy mayor of Cap-Haitien, the city in Haiti where the tragedy occurred, said. The count is “still unfortunately incomplete” due…

Covid-19: US considers easing travel restrictions with Southern African countries – Dr Fauci

WASHINGTON, Dec 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The Biden administration is considering easing travel restrictions to Southern African countries as US infection rates of the fast-spreading Omicron variant of the coronavirus rise, top infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci said. “We likely are going to pull back on that pretty soon because we have…

Covid-19: Morocco bans New Year’s Eve celebrations

RABAT, Dec 21 (NNN-Xinhua) — Morocco banned all New Year’s Eve celebrations as part of measures to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a statement by the Moroccan government, the ban also includes parties and special events organized in hotels, restaurants and tourist establishments. A night curfew…

Security Council renews mandate of UN peacekeeping mission in DRC

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 21 (NNN-Xinhua) — The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution to renew the mandate of the UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) for another year, till Dec 20, 2022. Resolution 2612 decides to reduce slightly the authorized troop ceiling of the…

Covid-19: US Pres Biden tests negative after staff tested positive

WASHINGTON, Dec 21 (NNN-Xinhua) — US President Joe Biden tested negative for COVID-19 after one of his staffers who spent half an hour with him on Air Force One on Friday tested positive on Monday morning, the White House said. Biden’s regular antigen test on Sunday and the PCR test…

US expands guest worker programme for Haiti, Central America

WASHINGTON, Dec 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United States is expanding its guest worker programme with an additional 20,000 visas available for seasonal, non-agricultural guest workers, as the number of migrants hoping to enter the country spikes at its southern border.The extra H-2B visas would be in addition to the annual…

US: Indigenous groups seek justice for 19th-century California Gold Rush massacre

Indigenous groups and media reporting about the historical injustice LOS ANGELES, Dec 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) — During the 19th-century Gold Rush era, state-sanctioned groups of settlers massacred thousands of Indigenous people in northern California, in what both historians and Indigenous descendants of the victims have labelled a genocide.Last month, following years…

Indigenous Greenlanders shipped to Denmark as children seek compensation

NUUK (Greenland, Denmark), Dec 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) — In May 1951, 22 Indigenous Greenlandic children were put on a ship to Denmark, then the colonial power, as part of a social experiment aimed at modernizing the Arctic island.Greenlandic teachers and priests, at the request of Danish authorities, had identified the nine…