CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Two people were fatally shot on a fifth day of violent protests in the South African city of Cape Town on Monday sparked by a dispute last week between minibus taxi drivers and authorities.

A person was killed and three others were wounded in a shooting near the Cape Town International Airport after a group of protesters pelted a car with stones and the driver responded by firing shots at them, police said. The shooting happened while minubus taxis blockaded a road near the airport, police said.

07 August 2023; MEMO: Saudi Arabia has signed an agreement with key Turkish defence firm Baykar Tech to help the kingdom localise the manufacturing of drones, in the latest deal signifying the improved relations between Riyadh and Ankara.

NIAMEY, Niger (AP) — West Africa’s regional bloc says heads of state will meet Thursday to discuss their next steps after Niger’s military junta defied the bloc’s deadline to reinstate the country’s ousted president while its mutinous soldiers closed the country’s airspace and accused foreign powers of preparing an attack.

State television reported the junta’s latest actions Sunday night, hours before the deadline set by regional bloc ECOWAS, which has warned of using military force if the democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum isn’t returned to power.

Aug 7 (Reuters) - Russia will launch its first lunar landing spacecraft in 47 years on Friday in a race with India to the south pole of the moon, a potential source of water to support a future human presence there.

The launch from the Vostochny cosmodrome, 3,450 miles (5,550 km) east of Moscow, will take place four weeks after India sent up its Chandrayaan-3 lunar lander, due to touch down at the pole on Aug. 23.

CABAZON, Calif. (AP) — Two firefighting helicopters collided while responding to a blaze in Southern California, sending one to the ground in a crash that killed all three people on board.

“Unfortunately, the second helicopter crashed and tragically all three members perished, which included one Cal Fire Division chief, one Cal Fire captain and one contract client pilot,” Cal Fire Southern Region Chief David Fulcher told a news conference early Monday.

Fulcher did not identify the victims.

TEHRAN, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- At least one person was killed and 19 others injured on Monday after an explosion shook and dismantled a three-storey residential building in Iran's capital Tehran, the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA) reported.

The explosion, which occurred on Monday morning in District 20 of Tehran due to gas leakage, also severely damaged several dilapidated buildings and cars, ISNA quoted Ali Nasiri, the president of Tehran Disaster Mitigation and Management Organization, as saying.

NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s Parliament on Monday reinstated top opposition leader Rahul Gandhi as a lawmaker three days after the country’s top court halted his criminal defamation conviction for mocking the prime minister’s surname.

His reinduction as a member of Parliament is likely to strengthen the opposition’s effort to corner Narendra Modi’s government ahead of a no-confidence motion this week over deadly ethnic violence that has roiled India’s northeastern state of Manipur for more than three months.

BEIJING, Aug 7 (Reuters) - China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in a phone conversation on Monday that China would uphold an independent and impartial position on Ukraine as it strives to find a political settlement to the issue.

Wang's comments to Lavrov were announced in a Foreign Ministry statement on Monday that said China would be an "objective and rational voice" at any international multilateral forums and "actively promote peace talks".

LONDON/WASHINGTON, Aug 7 (Reuters) - An elite group of North Korean hackers secretly breached computer networks at a major Russian missile developer for at least five months last year, according to technical evidence reviewed by Reuters and analysis by security researchers.

Reuters found cyber-espionage teams linked to the North Korean government, which security researchers call ScarCruft and Lazarus, secretly installed stealthy digital backdoors into systems at NPO Mashinostroyeniya, a rocket design bureau based in Reutov, a small town on the outskirts of Moscow.

BOR, Serbia, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Serbia's national miners' day was marked on Sunday here and also in Majdanpek with ceremonies, concerts, exhibitions, sports, an outdoor bazaar, and fireworks.

The celebration in the two cities in east Serbia was attended by representatives of the Serbian government, Chinese mining company Zijin, and local communities which number thousands of miners and their families.

NEW DELHI (AP) — His social media accounts suggest that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is launching high-speed trains and rubbing shoulders with foreign leaders as a powerhouse on the global stage and the face of an ascendant India.

But that carefully crafted image, followed by millions, sits uncomfortably at odds with his silence on what’s come close to a civil war engulfing India’s northeastern state of Manipur.

KYIV, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Monday he had held a phone call with his U.S. counterpart Antony Blinken during which he requested ATACMS long-range missiles.

"In our call, @SecBlinken and I discussed further steps to broaden global support for the Peace Formula and solutions to expand grain exports," Kuleba said on messaging platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

"I thanked the U.S. for all the assistance provided and stressed the need to enhance Ukraine's long-range capabilities by providing ATACMS."