UN says 1,800 dead as malaria ‘epidemic’ rages in Burundi

NAIROBI, Aug 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Malaria has killed more than 1,800 people in Burundi this year, the UN’s humanitarian agency says, a death toll rivalling a deadly Ebola outbreak in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo. In its latest situation report, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs…

Cuba to defend itself in US court over ExxonMobil lawsuit

HAVANA, Aug 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Cuba said it will defend itself in US court against oil giant ExxonMobil, which has accused two companies on the island nation of “unlawful trafficking” of its assets after Fidel Castro’s 1959 communist revolution. The US giant filed a suit in May in a Washington…

Russia: Siberian wildfires started on purpose by illegal loggers – prosecutors

MOSCOW, Aug 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Russian prosecutors said that some of the vast Siberian wildfires that environmentalists have dubbed a climate emergency were started on purpose by arsonists trying to conceal illegal logging activity. President Vladimir Putin called in the army last week to help firefighters battle fires raging in…

Ukraine calls on France, Germany and Russia to urgently hold Normandy Four meeting

KIEV, Aug 7 (NNN-Xinhua) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on the leaders of the Normandy Four participating countries to hold talks on the deaths of four Ukrainian soldiers who were killed during the shelling on Tuesday. “I urge the leaders of the Normandy negotiation format countries – Emmanuel Macron,…

Brazilian gov’t to present tax reform bill

BRASILIA, Aug 7 (NNN-Xinhua) — The Brazilian administration will present a bill of tax reform for congressional deliberation, said the government’s spokesperson Otavio Rego Barros. “The economic team is finishing a bill integrated with those existent in the House and Senate,” Rego Barros said in a Tuesday press conference. According…

Mexico seeks role in El Paso mass shooting probe

MEXICO CITY, Aug 7 (NNN-Xinhua) — The Mexican government seeks an active role in the investigation of the mass shooting in the U.S. city of El Paso that claimed the lives of 22 people, eight of them Mexican. “We want the national prosecutor general’s office to have access to the…

Rwanda, DR Congo to tighten common border control to prevent Ebola spread

KIGALI, Aug 7 (NNN-Xinhua) — Rwandan Minister of Health Diane Gashumba and her counterpart from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Pierre Kangudia met on Tuesday, agreeing to tighten border control to deal with cross-border movement, in a bid to prevent the spread of Ebola. The two countries were…

Venezuela calls US Pres Trump executive order “new, serious attack”

CARACAS, Aug 7 (NNN-Xinhua) — Venezuela called a White House decision to freeze all Venezuelan state assets in the United States “a new and serious attack.” The new sanction imposed by the Donald Trump administration is the latest in a series of “arbitrary measures of economic terrorism against the Venezuelan…

Mali: Four dead in attacks, Red Cross suspends Timbuktu ops

BAMAKO, Aug 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Twin attacks in Mali have killed fourpeople, including two Malian soldiers, security sources said, as theInternational Committee of the Red Cross suspended activities in Timbuktu due to “growing insecurity”. A gendarme was killed in an ambush in the Segou region, east of the capitalBamako on…

Zimbabwe: Ousted former pres Robert Mugabe in hospital in Singapore

HARARE, Aug 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Zimbabwe’s former leader Robert Mugabe, 95, has been in hospital in Singapore since April, his successor Emmerson Mnangagwa has said. Mugabe was making “good progress” and could be discharged soon, Mnangagwa added. He did not disclose Mugabe’s illness. In November, he said the ex-president was…