Photo taken on July 18, 2014 shows the debris at the crash site of MH17 of Malaysian Airlines near the city of Shakhtarsk in Ukraine’s Donetsk region [Xinhua]
Russia has categorically denied the findings of a team investigating the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 MH17 crash in the Ukraine more than two years ago.
Organization of Petroleum Producing Countries (OPEC) Secretary General Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo (R) and President of OPEC Mohammed Bin Saleh Al-Sada have called the production cut agreement “historic” [Xinhua]
Oil prices surged early Thursday after the firmest report yet that oil producers were close to implement a production cut to stabilize markets.
India and China are the best performing BRICS economies according to the Global Competitiveness scale [Xinhua]
Most BRICS countries have moved up in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report 2016-2017.
India’s 16-point jump to 39th position is the most notable.
The report measures how well the 138 countries in focus manage all their resources and competencies to facilitate long-term value creation.
The four principal factors of measure are economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency and infrastructure.
Rescue operations have been hampered by the destruction of the mine shaft during the explosion [Xinhua]
Chinese officials have blamed illegal mining for the death of 18 people in a coal mine explosion in the Northwestern Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region on Tuesday.
Two miners are yet to be found as search and rescue operations continue.
The explosion took place at a small coal mine belonging to Linli Coal Mining Co Ltd in Shizuishan city and is the latest mining disaster in the world’s largest coal-producing country.
Of primary concern to many academics is that 48 per cent of South African youth is unemployed [Xinhua]
Several South African universities continued to be closed this week because of student demonstrations protesting the government’s recommendations that such institutions could hike tuition fees by a maximum of 8 per cent in 2017 after zero increases in 2016.
Demonstrations since late 2015 under the #FeesMustFall campaign have disrupted teaching at many South African universities with buildings and libraries damaged as a result of arson and vandalism.
The Mexican peso broke through the wall and regained from its worst record this year as Donald Trump was believed to have fared poorly in his face-off with Clinton [Xinhua]
Call it the mother of all ironies.
Hours after the first US presidential debate between Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republican Donald Trump, emerging markets regained from an earlier slump, largely led by the strengthening of the Mexican peso.
The new plan announced in South Africa yesterday relies on strong cooperation from range countries such as South Africa, Botswana, Kenya and others to boost the number of rhinos, already an endangered species [Xinhua]
South Africa has proposed a plan two years in the making to save rhinos from extinction on the continent.
Late on Sunday in Johannesburg, Minister of Environmental Affairs Edna Molewa brought forward the African Range State’s African Rhino Conservation Plan which she says presents a viable mechanism for the collective to maintain rhino populations in Africa.
Liu Jieyi (C), China’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, speaks during a Security Council urgent session on the situation in Syria, at the UN headquarters in New York [Xinhua]
Liu Jieyi, the Chinese permanent representative to the United Nations, told an emergency meeting of the Security Council late Sunday that the dire situation in Syria cannot be allowed to continue even as diplomats bickered over blame for the collapse of a ceasefire.
A Su-30 fighter and an H-6K bomber of the Chinese Air Force take part in the drill in the East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) [Xinhua]
The Ministry of Defense in Tokyo said early Monday that had hours earlier dispatched fighter jets into its airspace following a fleet of Chinese aircraft flying near Japan’s Miyako Strait.
A Japanese government official said that the Chinese aircraft did not enter his country’s territorial waters but remarked this was the first time Beijing had sent its jets through the Strait.
Temer’s post-Rousseff presidency has been rocked by demonstrations and protests against reforms amid continuing graft allegations [Xinhua]
Brazil’s so-called Operation Car Wash, which investigates the link between high-ranking state officials with a corruption scandal at top energy producer Petrobras, seems like the gift that keeps on giving.
Early on Saturday, Brazilian Supreme Court Judge Teori Zavascki agreed that an investigation can be opened into allegations that President Michel Temer and his closest allies were involved in a kickback scheme within Petrobras.
