US Senate to vote Thursday in bid to avert government shutdown

  WASHINGTON, Sept 30 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The US Senate announced it would vote on a stopgap funding bill Thursday to prevent a government shutdown with just hours to spare, as lawmakers stare down a number of deadlines with massive stakes for the economy and President Joe Biden’s sweeping domestic agenda.…

US says ‘no hostile intent’ towards NKorea, still ready for talks

  WASHINGTON, Sept 30 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United States said it bears “no hostile intent” towards North Korea and remains open to the idea of negotiations, after Kim Jong Un called the offer “no more than a petty trick.”   Kim has accused the administration of US President Joe Biden…

More than 100 dead in Ecuador’s latest prison violence

   GUAYAQUIL (Ecuador), Sept 30 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The death toll from bloody clashes between rival gangs in an Ecuador prison has surpassed 100, with 52 more wounded, the government prison authority said, as soldierssurrounded the facility — one of the country’s many overburdened and understaffed jails.    Inmates went to…

South Africa tells Western envoys it needs funds to shift from coal

PRETORIA, Sept 30 (NNN-AGENCIES) — South Africa told visiting climate envoys from the United States, Britain, Germany and France that it needs major financial support to move away from coal, the environment department said. South Africa is the world’s 12th biggest carbon emitter, according to the Global Carbon Atlas, emitting…

Covid-19: Brazil medical institute to sell vaccines abroad

SAO PAULO, Sept 30 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Brazil’s Butantan biomedical institute is in talks to sell a locally manufactured COVID-19 vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac to other countries in South America and Africa, as the federal government has not ordered more of the shots. Butantan Director Dimas Covas said that the…

Extreme poverty in Venezuela rises to 76.6%: Study

CARACAS, Sept 30 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Around three-fourths of Venezuelans now live in extreme poverty as the once-prosperous OPEC nation’s hyperinflationary economic collapse continued for a seventh straight year, according to a new study published on Wednesday. The 2020-2021 National Survey of Living Conditions (ENCOVI), conducted by researchers at Andres Bello…

Romanian truckers, hit by taxes at home, tempted by British jobs

Romanian truckers protest pay cuts in front of the government headquarters in Bucharest BUCHAREST, Sept 30 (NNN-AGENCIES) — For 32-year-old Romanian international trucker Nicolae, Britain’s driver crisis could be just what he needs to keep his small business afloat. Britain’s shortage of about 100,000 truck drivers, the result of workers…

WHO horrified over sexual exploitation by aid workers in DR Congo

Dozens of women accused WHO and other aid agency staff of sexual abuse and exploitation  KINSHASA, Sept 30 (NNN-AGENCIES) — World Health Organization (WHO) staff were among 83 aid workers who sexually abused women and girls while tackling the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a report finds.…

Post-Brexit: UK risks French anger over fishing permits

PARIS, Sept 30 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Fresh tensions have surfaced between Britain and France over post-Brexit fishing rights. In the latest round of applications, the UK granted just 12 licences from 47 bids for smaller vessels to fish in its territorial waters. French sea minister Annick Girardin reportedly said: “French fishing…

Spain: Canaries volcano lava reaches sea, raising toxic gas fears

  MADRID, Sept 30 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Lava from an erupting volcano in the Canary Islands has reached the ocean, volcanologists said, raising fear of toxic gases being released as the lava hits the sea water.    The regional government of the Spanish archipelago had already declared an exclusion zone of…