World

ACCRA,  (Reuters) – An explosion in Ghana’s rural Western Region yesterday razed hundreds of buildings and killed an unknown number of residents when a truck carrying explosives to a gold mine collided with a motorcycle.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats suffered twin legislative defeats late yesterday in their push to toughen voting rights protections in the run-up to this November’s mid-term elections that will determine control of Congress in 2023.

BELGRADE,  (Reuters) – Serbia revoked Rio Tinto’s lithium exploration licences yesterday, bowing to protesters who opposed the development of the project by the Anglo-Australian mining giant on environmental grounds.

LIMA,  (Reuters) – Peruvian President Pedro Castillo declared an environmental emergency yesterday as clean-up teams struggled to contain a huge oil spill at the country’s biggest refinery, after rogue waves rocked a ship unloading crude there.

BRUSSELS,  (Reuters) – A U.N.-backed agency has struck a deal for nearly 30 generic drugmakers to make low-cost versions of Merck & Co’s COVID-19 pill molnupiravir for poorer nations, widening access to a drug seen as a weapon in fighting the pandemic.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats suffered twin legislative defeats late yesterday in their push to toughen voting rights protections in the run-up to this November’s mid-term elections that will determine control of Congress in 2023.

SAO PAULO,  (Reuters) – Former leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is leading opinion polls ahead of an October election, said yesterday that reducing poverty and inequality must be Brazil’s priority over fiscal discipline.

(Reuters) – When Tonga’s Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano violently erupted, sending shockwaves and tsunami across the Pacific, the blast in the small island nation was so deafening that fleeing families could only wave at their loved ones to run.

LIMA,  (Reuters) – An oil spill at a refinery in Peru during high waves caused by the explosion last weekend of a volcano in Tonga is an “ecological disaster,” the Peruvian government said yesterday.

LONDON,  (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the end of COVID-19 measures including mandatory face masks in England as he looks to live with the virus after a peak in cases caused by the rapid spread of the Omicron variant.

BRASILIA,  (Reuters) – COVID-19 infections are reaching new peaks in the Americas with 7.2 million new cases and more than 15,000 COVID-related deaths in the last week, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said yesterday.

(Reuters) – Two New Zealand navy vessels will arrive in Tonga tomorrow carrying critical water supplies for the Pacific island nation reeling from a volcanic eruption and tsunami and largely cut off from the outside world.

(Reuters) – New York Attorney General Letitia James said late yesterday that former U.S.

(Reuters) – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is on the brink of facing a leadership challenge, according to reports, after an angry backlash over claims parties were held at his residence during coronavirus lockdowns.

LIMA, (Reuters) – Peruvian prosecutors opened an investigation yesterday into a unit of Spanish energy firm Repsol after an oil spill at a local refinery blamed on unusually large waves from the weekend volcano eruption and tsunami in Tonga 10,000 kilometers (6,213 miles) away.

(Reuters) – Major international airlines rushed yesterday to rejig or cancel flights to the United States on the eve of a 5G wireless rollout that triggered safety concerns, despite two wireless carriers saying they will delay parts of the deployment.

GUATEMALA CITY,  (Reuters) – Taiwan has paid for a lobbying contract to promote Guatemala with U.S.

SYDNEY/WELLINGTON, (Reuters) – All the homes on one of Tonga’s small outer islands were destroyed in the massive volcanic eruption and tsunami, with three people so far confirmed dead, the government said today in its first update since the disaster hit.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The chief executives of major U.S. passenger and cargo carriers yesterday warned of an impending “catastrophic” aviation crisis in less than 36 hours, when AT&T and Verizon are set to deploy new 5G service.

DUBAI,  (Reuters) – Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi group attacked the United Arab Emirates in what it said was an operation using missiles and drones, setting off explosions in fuel trucks that killed three people and causing a fire near the airport of Abu Dhabi, capital of the region’s commercial and tourism hub.