Addis Ababa, Aug 9 (IANS) The death toll from Africa’s ongoing mpox outbreak has surpassed 1,900 since the start of 2024, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said. During an online media briefing, Ngashi Ngongo, chief of staff and head of the Africa CDC’s Executive Office, said that 27 mpox-affected African countries have reported 174,597 cases and 1,922 related deaths since the start of last year.”When we compare the data of last year and this year, we see that in…

Nairobi, Aug 9 (IANS) The World Health Organisation (WHO) certified Kenya as having eliminated human African trypanosomiasis, also known as sleeping sickness, as a public health challenge, making it the 10th country to reach this critical milestone.”I congratulate the government and people of Kenya on this landmark achievement,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a statement issued in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital.”Kenya joins the growing ranks of countries freeing their popul…

Los Angeles, Aug 9 (IANS) Thousands of people are under evacuation orders as a fast-moving wildfire continues to rage in Southern California amid a major heatwave.The Canyon Fire broke out around 1:25 P.M. local time (2025 GMT) on Thursday near Piru, a small historic town located in eastern Ventura County and dozens of kilometres northwest of Los Angeles. The blaze grew rapidly to over 4,800 acres (about 19.4 square km), according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal…

Geneva, Aug 9 (IANS) The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) has warned that extreme heat is impacting millions of people around the world, with wildfires and poor air quality compounding the problem, highlighting the importance of early warning and heat-health action plans.WMO issued a bulletin on Thursday, stating that data from its members show increasingly frequent global heatwaves and record-breaking temperatures in many regions.According to the EU-funded Copernicus Climate Change Servi…

Washington, Aug 9 (IANS) Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a historic joint declaration for peace after decades of bitter conflict and significant loss of life as US President Donald Trump hosted both the leaders of the South Caucasus region in Washington, as confirmed by the White House.“For more than 35 years, Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought a bitter conflict that resulted in tremendous suffering for both nations…Many tried to find a resolution… and they were unsuccessful. With this Accor…

New York, Aug 9 (IANS) US President Donald Trump has claimed that he “got things settled” between India and Pakistan during their “conflict” in May through trade, even though in reality, there is no deal with India. “I got things settled with India, Pakistan [and] I think it was trade more than any other reason,” he said on Friday.India has denied that trade came up in any of the discussions with US leaders during Operation Sindoor or that Trump mediated a truce.Soon after Trump first made the c…

Lisbon, Aug 9 (IANS) Portugal’s President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa vetoed the amended Foreigners Law, returning it to parliament shortly after the Constitutional Court struck down several of its provisions as unconstitutional, the presidential website announced.According to Diario de Noticias, the court ruled that measures restricting access to family reunification and limiting appeals to the Administrative Court against decisions of the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum violated const…

Moscow, Aug 9 (IANS) In a significant development underscoring the deepening strategic partnership between India and Russia, National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval met with Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister, Denis Manturov in Moscow.During the meeting, Doval and Manturov discussed a broad spectrum of issues, from military-technical cooperation to joint projects in strategic sectors such as civil aviation, metallurgy, and the chemical industry.The Russian Embassy in India shared an update …

New York, Aug 9 (IANS) Amid signs of progress towards a Ukraine War ceasefire, US President Donald Trump has announced a path-breaking summit with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin next Friday, a meeting on which the future of the 25 per cent punitive tariff on India for buying Russian oil may hinge.Crowning three days of fast developments, Trump announced on Truth Social on Friday, “The highly anticipated meeting between myself and Putin will take place next Friday, August 15, 2025, in the Gr…

New York, Aug 9 (IANS) A shooting on Emory University’s Atlanta campus in the US state of Georgia left the shooter dead and one officer injured, according to media reports.There was a single shooter who is now dead, with no further threat to the campus or surrounding area, said NBC News, quoting the Atlanta Police Department.A law enforcement officer was injured while confronting the shooter, according to reports.A shelter-in-place order was put into place and now has been lifted, said the lates…