Pakistan to lodge U.N. complaint against India for 'eco-terrorism' forest bombing

Pakistan has planned to lodge a complaint against India at the United Nations, accusing it of “eco-terrorism” over air strikes that damaged pine trees and brought the nuclear-armed nations to blows, a government minister said on Friday.

Indian warplanes on Tuesday bombed a hilly forest area near the northern Pakistani town of Balakot, about 40 km (25 miles) from India’s border in the Himalayan region of Kashmir. New Delhi said it had destroyed a militant training camp and killed hundreds of “terrorists”.

Pakistan denied there were any such camps in the area and locals said only one elderly villager was hurt.

Bangladesh tells UN it will no longer accept Myanmar refugees

Bangladesh has told the UN Security Council that it will no longer be able to take in refugees from Myanmar. Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque told a council meeting that the crisis over the repatriation of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya sheltering in his country had gone from "bad to worse" and urged the council to take "decisive" action.

Around 740,000 Muslim Rohingya are living in camps in Bangladesh after they were driven out of Myanmar's northern Rakhine state during a military campaign in 2017 that the United Nations has described as ethnic cleansing.

US puts Hamza bin Laden, the US' newly minted Million Dollar Wanted Man

The US government is offering a $1m (£760,000) reward for information that helps trace the son of the late al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. The state department said it was seeking Hamza bin Laden, who is widely thought to be emerging as a leader within the extremist group. His exact whereabouts have been unknown for a number of years, although various reports have speculated that he may be living in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria or Iran.

Philippines to charge officials of Sanofi, gov't over deaths linked to vaccine

The Philippine Department of Justice said on Friday it has found probable cause to indict officials from French drugmaker Sanofi and former and current Philippine health officials over 10 deaths it said were linked to use of a dengue vaccine. It recommended charges be filed in court for multiple counts of reckless imprudence resulting in homicide, due to what it said were procedural lapses and irregularities in implementing a Philippine dengue immunization program using Sanofi’s Dengvaxia.

It recommended that six Sanofi officials, mostly country representatives of the firm, and 14 current and former Philippine health officials be charged, including former Health Minister Janette Garin

Senegal presidential election: Macky Sall wins second term

Sall has been chosen to serve another five years in the role after the country’s elections on Sunday. According to figures released by the National Vote Counting Commission, Sall won with 58 per cent of the vote. Opposition politicians have rejected the result of the election but have said they will not contest it, the BBC reported. Two prominent opposition candidates were prohibited from running in the election because of corruption convictions.

Battle rages after Mogadishu hotel attack, death toll nears 30

Heavy gunfire rang out across central Mogadishu on Friday as Somali special forces battled to dislodge insurgents holed up next to a hotel they bombed the previous evening, and as the death toll stemming from that attack neared 30. Islamist al Shabaab fighters set off a bomb outside the Hotel Maka Al-Mukarama on Thursday night before retreating to an adjacent building, from where they fired on soldiers who tried to enter. Another bomb exploded later about 1 kilometre (0.6 miles) away.

Powerful 7.1-magnitude quake strikes Peru

An earthquake measuring 7.1 has struck Peru. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) said it hit in the early hours of Friday morning around 40 miles north of the southern city of Juliaca at a depth of 150 miles.  Peru was struck less than a week after neighbouring Ecuador, was hit by 7.5-magnitude earthquake near their borders. There were no reported casualties.  Shortly afterwards Ecuador’s president Lenin Moreno the earthquakes “were felt all over the country” but there was no "major damage”.

UN launches $234 million aid appeal for struggling Zimbabwe

The United Nations has launched a $234 million appeal for humanitarian assistance for Zimbabwe as the country battles its worst economic crisis in a decade. Over 5 million people, close to a third of the population, are food insecure. This appeal will cover just over 2 million people who are the most vulnerable.

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• WORLD_NEWS
 
• pakistan
 
• un
 
• bagladesh
 
• rohingya
 
• myanmar
 
• hamza_bin_laden
 
• senegal
 
• macky_sall
 
• mogadishu
 
• peru_earthquake