News in Brief -2024-08-17

UN chief calls for banning nuclear
testing "for good"
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 16: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday called for banning nuclear testing "for good" in an observance message for the International Day against Nuclear Tests, observed annually on Aug. 29. In the message, Guterres said that across nearly eight decades, more than 2,000 nuclear tests were conducted at more than 60 sites around the world, leaving "a legacy of destruction, rendering lands uninhabitable and creating long-term health problems for people." The UN chief warned that recent calls for the resumption of nuclear testing demonstrate that the terrible lessons of the past "are being forgotten, or ignored." — Xinhua
6.1-magnitude earthquake hits Taiwan
TAIPEI, Aug 16: A 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck off Taiwan's east coast Friday morning, the United States Geological Survey said, with the island's government confirming there were no reports of major damage. The tremor, which could be felt in the capital Taipei, hit at 7:35 am (2335 GMT) at a depth of 15 kilometres (about nine miles) near Hualien, epicentre of a major quake in April, according to the USGS. — AFP
Uganda garbage landslide death
toll rises to 34
KAMPALA, Aug 16: Four more bodies have been recovered from the site of a massive garbage landslide in the Ugandan capital Kampala, bringing the death toll to 34, police said Friday. The collapse at the landfill in the northern district of Kiteezi at the weekend buried people, homes and livestock in mountains of fetid waste. An MP for the area has warned that the number of those missing could still rise. — AFP
Russian MP says Ukrainian incursion could lead to global war
MOSCOW, Aug 16: A Russian parliamentary deputy said on Friday that the Western-backed Ukrainian incursion has brought the world close to an all-out global war, Russia's RIA news agency reported. Ukrainian troops crossed the border into Russia's Kursk region on Aug. 6 and have since advanced significantly, forcing Moscow to evacuate over 200,000 people from their homes. "Considering the presence of Western military equipment, the use of Western ammunition and missiles in attacks on civilian infrastructure and irrefutable proof of foreigners' participation in the attack on Russian territory, one could come to the conclusion that the world is on the brink of a third world war," RIA quoted deputy Mikhail Sheremet as saying. — Reuters
Kashmir to vote in polls from Sept. 18
NEW DELHI, Aug 16: India will hold provincial elections in the Himalayan territory of Jammu and Kashmir from Sept. 18, the Election Commission said on Friday, the first regional polls there in a decade and five years after New Delhi scrapped the region's special autonomy. India's only Muslim-majority region, Jammu and Kashmir has been at the heart of more than 75 years of animosity with neighbouring Pakistan since the birth of the two nations in 1947 at independence from colonial rule by Britain. The larger Kashmir region is divided between India, Pakistan and China. — Reuters