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JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian President Joko Widodo held his first cabinet meeting in his planned new capital, Nusantara, on Monday, as the outgoing leader seeks to reassure investors his $32 billion mega-project remains on track before he steps down this October. Years after announcing his flagship infrastructure project, intended to...

Indonesia Holds First Cabinet Meeting in Planned New Capital, Nusantara

Business Insider

Nusantara is meant to be ready to house Indonesia's government by October. But building a city in the Borneo jungle is proving a challenge.

Indonesia's $30 billion purpose-built new capital city is not going to plan

The Conversation Africa

In Cameroon, violent clashes between government forces and separatists from the English-speaking parts of the country started in 2017. Since then, at least 598,000 people have had to leave their homes and about 2 million have been left in need of humanitarian aid. The anglophone crisis resulted from the government’s...

Cameroon spends 90% of Chinese development loans on its French region: this could deepen the country’s divisions

The Independent

 A charity working with homeless people in Auckland, New Zealand unknowingly distributed candies filled with a potentially lethal dose of methamphetamine in its food parcels after the sweets were donated by a member of the public. Auckland City Mission told reporters on Wednesday that staff had started to contact up to 400 people to track down parcels that could contain the sweets — which were solid blocks of methamphetamine enclosed in candy wrappers. New Zealand's police have opened a criminal investigation. The amount of methamphetamine in each candy was up to 300 times the level someone would usually take...

Food bank unknowingly distributes candy made from meth

 Remarkable new scientific research at Stonehenge has revealed an extraordinary new mystery. Mineralogical tests on the massive six-tonne stone at the heart of the monument show that this central rock, known as the altar stone, was brought to Stonehenge from the far north of Scotland.The altar stone is arguably the most ritually important stone in Stonehenge, because it is the rock that marks the intersection of the prehistoric temple’s two most important celestial alignments – the winter solstice sunrise to summer solstice sunset alignment, and the summer solstice sunrise to winter solstice sunset alignment. It’s already known that some...

Mystery of Stonehenge deepens after ‘jaw-dropping’ discovery

 The mother of a nine-year-old girl shot dead by a burglar in her own home has called for an end to gang violence, two years on from her daughter’s death.Olivia Pratt-Korbel was killed when a masked gunman opened fire as he chased a convicted burglar through the door of her home in Liverpool on 22 August 2022.Olivia’s mother Cheryl cried as she called for an end to the “no-grass” culture associated with gang violence.Appearing on Good Morning Britain on Friday (16 August), she said: “Anything that you know. You need to speak up.”

Gang violence: Olivia Pratt-Korbel’s mother cries as she calls for an end to ‘no grass’ culture

The Mayor of London plans to shut the programme to new applicants on September 7.

Sadiq Khan to close Ulez scrappage scheme

As conflict casts a shadow across the Middle East, people are getting rich in Dubai

As the Middle East frets about conflict, Dubai booms with an influx of anxious wealth

UPI News

Major landslides triggered by monsoon rains in the southern Indian state of Kerala killed at least 93 people as they slept with dozens more missing after heavy monsoon rain saw homes swept away.

At least 93 people killed in landslides in southern Indian state of Kerala

The election of Paetongtarn Shinawatra as Thailand’s prime minister represents a remarkable back-to-the-future moment

Thailand's new prime minister renews the legacy of her father, the divisive Thaksin Shinawatra

South Carolina State

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Colleton County, SC

Explore Beaufort SC

Some beachgoers were in for a surprise this week when a bizarre looking prehistoric fish washed ashore in Colleton County along Edisto Beach at Edisto Beach State Park. It turned out to be an atlantic sturgeon.

Rare Atlantic sturgeon washes ashore on South Carolina beach

Police in New Zealand have accounted for 41 chunks of methamphetamine enclosed in candy wrappers — each a potentially lethal amount of the drug — that were unknowingly distributed by an Auckland food bank

Number of potentially lethal meth candies unknowingly shared by New Zealand food bank reaches 65

West Bengal chief minister demands death penalty for those accused in rape and murder of 31-year-old doctor at capital Kolkata’s RG Kar medical college

Kolkata doctor rape and murder case live: Massive nationwide protests and over dozen arrests for vandalism

Paetongtarn Shinawatra, 37, is the  daughter of former Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra

Paetongtarn Shinawatra becomes Thailand’s youngest PM after winning parliament vote

The duke and duchess were greeted by vice-president Francia Marquez in the capital Bogota on Thursday.

Harry and Meghan begin four-day tour of Colombia

 Watch live as foreign secretary David Lammy meets his Israeli counterpart Israel Katz in Jerusalem to press for a ceasefire in Gaza on Friday (16 August).In the first joint UK-France visit to the region in more than a decade, Mr Lammy and French foreign minister Stephane Sejourne will also visit the Occupied Palestinian Territories.The pair, who will meet Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz and minister of strategic affairs Ron Dermer, said they will stress “there is no time for delays or excuses from all parties on a ceasefire deal”.The foreign secretary said the trip is a vital opportunity to “end the current destructive cycle of retaliatory violence”, calling for all parties to engage seriously in the negotiations.Mediating parties have been attempting to secure an agreement for a three-phase plan in which Hamas would release a number of hostages captured in the 7 October attack in exchange for a lasting ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

Watch live: David Lammy meets Israeli counterpart Israel Katz in Jerusalem to press for Gaza ceasefire

One looter who had taken a duck and eaten it paid money

Bangladesh protesters return loot from Sheikh Hasina’s house: jewellery, cat and classified papers

More evidence has emerged that Mexican authorities disposed of the bodies of dissidents in “death flights” during the country's 1965-1990 “dirty war.”

Mexico's truth commission reveals new evidence of ‘death flights’ during 1965-1990 'dirty war'

Here are the stories making headlines on Friday.

What the papers say – August 16

Health officials have warned travellers visiting South America to be “vigilant” after cases of a virus originating in sloths were reported in tourists returning to Europe for the first time.The imported cases of Oropouche virus (OROV), most commonly found in South America and the Caribbean, were diagnosed in travellers who had recently visited Cuba, with one Italian patient diagnosed after visiting northern Brazil.As of 1 August 2024, there were 8,078 confirmed cases of Oropouche fever in the region – reported in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, and Peru, according to The Lancet.Travel-associated cases of imported OROV disease in Europe reached 19 at the...

Travellers to South America and the Caribbean warned to take protective measures against sloth borne virus

Indonesia’s outgoing President Joko Widodo highlighted advances in the economy and infrastructure during his final State of the Nation address

Indonesia's leader highlights economic and infrastructure developments in his final state of nation

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