15 killed in landslide in southern Morocco

RABAT, July 26 (NNN-AGENCIES) —  Moroccan emergency crews pulled 15 bodies from the mud after a rare summer downpour triggered a landslide that buried a minibus, the authorities said on Friday. The victims – eleven women, three men and one child – were found in the bus buried about 20m…

Tunisia prepares for polls after death of president

TUNIS, July 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Tunisia has less than two months to organise snap elections following the death of president Beji Caid Essebsi, amid uncertainty over who could step forward to run the North African country. Essebsi, the country’s first head of state elected in nationwide polls, died Thursday at…

South Africa: Johannesburg court approves US$353 million silicosis settlement

JOHANNESBURG, July 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A Johannesburg High Court approved a 5 billion rand (US$353 million) class action settlement between gold mining companies and law firms representing thousands of miners who contracted the fatal lung diseases silicosis and tuberculosis. The settlement follows a long legal battle by miners to win…

Greece bans pork imports from Bulgaria due to African swine fever

SOFIA, July 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Greece has banned imports of pork from its northern Balkan neighbor Bulgaria due to outbreaks of African swine fever, Bulgarian Agriculture Minister Desislava Taneva said. European Union member Bulgaria has detected more than 20 outbreaks of African swine fever in pigs in industrial farms or…

Spain’s Sanchez seeks to avoid election, Podemos coalition offer off

MADRID, July 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Spain’s Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez will keep working with all parties to avoid a repeat election, but is no longer prepared to offer a coalition government to far-left Podemos after it blocked his attempt to be confirmed as prime minister. Deputy prime minister Carmen Calvo…

WHO says it could use more US experts help on the ground in Ebola fight

GENEVA, July 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United States could bolster the battle against the Ebola virus in Democratic Republic of Congo by allowing more of its experts to travel to the outbreak zone, a senior World Health Organization (WHO) official said. The virus has killed more than 1,700 people in…

EU partners warn Johnson against Brexit ‘provocations’

PARIS, July 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Britain’s European partners warned British Prime Minister Boris Johnson that his hardline Brexit stance was putting the UK on a “collision course” with the EU and called on the new premier to avoid “provocations”. Johnson is planning meetings with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor…

Brazil calls on BRICS to heed ‘cries’ of Venezuelans

RIO DE JANEIRO, July 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Brazil’s Foreign Minister Ernesto Araujo pleaded with the country’s partners in the BRICS group of emerging economies to heed the “cries” of Venezuelans and work together to end the crisis. The group is deeply divided over how to respond to a situation that…

Italy: Interior Minister Salvini blocks own coastguard ship with migrants on board from docking

ROME, July 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said he would not let an Italian coastguard boat carrying 135 migrants dock until European Union countries agreed to take them in. The Gregoretti coastguard vessel rescued the migrants on Thursday from two boats off Malta, but was awaiting orders on…

Libya rescuers recover 62 bodies at sea after ‘worst’ wreck of year

TRIPOLI, July 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Rescue workers said they had plucked the bodies of 62 migrants from waters off the Libyan coast a day after one of the deadliest shipwrecks in the Mediterranean this year. About 145 migrants were rescued by the Libyan coastguard Thursday after their overloaded boat went down…