RAMALLAH, Aug 25 (NNN-WAFA) — Representatives of European diplomatic missions in Palestine, yesterday paid a solidarity visit to a Palestinian village in the West Bank, and condemned the Israeli settlers’ acts against the Palestinians.

According to a joint statement, the European diplomats’ delegation, who visited the village of Burqa, east of the West Bank city of Ramallah, included representatives from France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Finland, Belgium, Sweden, Britain, Norway, and Canada.

LONDON/CHICAGO, Aug 24 (Reuters) - A highly mutated COVID variant called BA.2.86 has now been detected in Switzerland and South Africa in addition to Israel, Denmark, the U.S. and the U.K., according to a leading World Health Organization official.

The Omicron offshoot carries more than 35 mutations in key portions of the virus compared with XBB.1.5, the dominant variant through most of 2023 - a number roughly on par with the Omicron variant that caused record infections compared to its predecessor.

LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — Maui County released the names of 388 people still missing Thursday more than two weeks after the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century, and officials asked anyone who knows a person on the list to be safe to contact authorities.

The FBI compiled the list of names. The number of confirmed dead after fires on Maui that destroyed the historic seaside community of Lahaina stands at 115, a number the county said is expected to rise.

DAR ES SALAAM, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) -- Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan has called for concrete action to address the widening global North-South divide in a bid to create a just international economic order.

A statement issued late Thursday by the Directorate of Presidential Communications said President Hassan made the appeal during the BRICS-Africa Outreach and BRICS Plus Dialogue, held on the sidelines of the Aug. 22-24 BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa.

GORKI, August 25. /TASS/: The decision to recognize the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia was not an easy one to make, but it ensured peace in the Caucasus, the Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, said at a meeting with the heads of the two republics - Aslan Bzhania and Alan Gagloyev.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s internal security officers were searching for the source of a deadly outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease which has killed seven people and infected more than 100 others in the strategic city of Rzeszow, near the border with Ukraine, authorities said Friday.

Rzeszow region, in Poland’s southeast, is a key transit hub for international military support for Ukraine, following Russia’s full-scale invasion last year. Some 10,000 U.S. troops are also stationed in the area.

Russia (AP) —The Kremlin on Friday rejected allegations it was behind a plane crash that is presumed to have killed mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, whose brutal fighters were feared in Ukraine, Africa and Syria and conducted a brief but shocking mutiny in Russia two months ago.

Prigozhin, who was listed among those on board the plane, was eulogized Thursday by President Vladimir Putin, even as suspicions grew that the Russian leader was behind a crash that many saw as an assassination.

BEIJING, Aug 25 (Reuters) - China's abrupt move to dismantle its strict COVID-19 regime, which unleashed the virus onto its 1.4 billion residents, could have led to nearly 2 million excess deaths in the following two months, a new U.S. study shows.

The study by the federally funded Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle was taken from a sample of mortality data published by some universities in China and internet searches.

BANGKOK, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) -- Thailand's new Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin pledged on Friday to enact measures aimed at boosting the number of Chinese tourists to the country.

The Pheu Thai Party in a statement quoted Srettha as saying during his visit to the tourist island of Phuket that the return of Chinese tourists remains below pre-pandemic levels and stressed the need to ease entry restrictions while enhancing overall confidence in Thailand as a travel destination.

MINSK, August 25. /TASS/:  There is no reason for the West to be concerned about the drills the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) is holding in Belarus from September 1 through 16 because these are scheduled exercises, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Friday.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The prime ministers of India and Greece pledged to boost their countries’ trade, business and defense ties Friday during a visit to Athens by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Modi’s visit is the first to Greece by an Indian prime minister in 40 years since Indira Gandhi visited the country in September 1983.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the two countries enjoyed relations stretching back to antiquity.

ABUJA, Aug 25 (NNN-AFRICANEWS) — Rescue crews were searching for survivors after a building collapse in Nigeria’s capital left two people dead while many others are feared trapped, emergency officials said.

The two-story building in the densely populated Garki district of the capital Abuja collapsed during a downpour late Wednesday, witnesses said. It served both as a shopping center and a residential block and some of those trapped were believed to be shoppers.