Migrants welcomed in Tunisia’s impoverished south

 MEDENINE (Tunisia), July 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — In the front row of a small classroom, three women, all different nationalities, avidly learn French in southern Tunisia’s stifling summer heat — grateful for support from an umbrella of charities. Based in the city of Medenine, it’s a rare locally driven opportunity for…

Covid-19: WHO’s Covid weapons fight still $16.8 bn short

  GENEVA, July 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The World Health Organization’s global appeal for funding for coronavirus vaccines, treatments, diagnostics and equipment is still $16.8-billion short — almost half its total needs, the WHO said.    The funding shortfall comes amid a widening gap between rich and poor nations in their…

UPDATE: Wreckage found in Russia after plane went missing

MOSCOW, July 6 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Russia’s state aviation agency says that wreckage from a plane that went missing in the Far East region of Kamchatka has been found around five kilometers away from a runway in an airport on the Okhotsk Sea coast where it was supposed to land. An…

Covid-19: South Africa hits new record in coronavirus numbers

PRETORIA, July 6 (NNN-AGENCIES) — South Africa’s health authorities announced a new record high at the weekend following an unusually sharp rise in Covid-19 infection figures.The continent’s most severely affected country in terms of numbers recorded the most coronavirus cases since the beginning of the year on Saturday, with a…

Macron, Merkel hold video talks with China’s Xi

  PARIS, July 6 (NNN-AGENCIES) — French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed issues ranging from climate change to human rights in video talks with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Monday, France said.   The talks were meant to calibrate positions ahead of several global meetings in the…

Honduran hydroelectric executive convicted of environmentalist murder

TEGUCIGALPA, July 6 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The general manager of a hydroelectric company in Honduras on Monday became the eighth person convicted in the 2016 murder of a renowned environmentalist. A judge said Roberto David Castillo, a former member of the armed forces who graduated from the West Point military academy…

US Pres Biden reaffirms support for Venezuela opposition leader

 CARACAS, July 6 (NNN-AGENCIES) — President Joe Biden reaffirmed US support for Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido in a letter Monday even in the midst of efforts to resume negotiations with President Nicolas Maduro’s government. “Under your leadership and in coalition with civil society leaders you are preserving those ideals…

Contact lost with plane in Russia’s Far East, 28 on board: reports

 MOSCOW, July 6 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Contact has been lost with a passenger plane carrying 28 people in Russia’s Far East, news agencies cited emergency services as saying on Tuesday. The An-26 was flying from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to Palana in the Kamchatka Peninsula when it did not make a scheduled call-in, the…

Toll hits 28 as work resumes at collapsed Florida apartment

SURFSIDE (Florida, US), July 6 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The death toll climbed to 28 in the collapse of a Florida condo tower, where search work resumed after the dangerously unstable remaining portion of the building was brought down with explosives ahead of a coming tropical storm, officials said.  Some 117 people…

Covid-19: Delta variant spooking European leaders, vaccines seen as key weapon

Russia is among the countries fighting a surge in cases caused by the Delta variant BRUSSELS, July 6 (NNN-Xinhua) — European countries were speeding up and adjusting their vaccine programs in hopes of stemming the spread of the new Delta variant of the coronavirus and preventing a new wave of…