A pet bird belonging to an Afghan girl who was evacuated from Kabul after the Taliban’s takeover has found a new home with France’s ambassador in Abu Dhabi. Xavier Chatel took in the little mynah, named Juji, after the girl was stopped from bringing it on a flight from the United Arab Emirates to France. The bird now lives at the ambassador’s residence, and after days of coaching has even learnt to tweet “bonjour”. Mr Chatel has promised to try to reunite the girl with Juji one day. More than 120,000 people were airlifted out of Afghanistan between 14 August, the day before Taliban militants took control of Kabul, and 30 August, when the last US forces withdrew from the country. About 2,600 at-risk Afghans left on French evacuation flights.(BBC)…[+]

Ten days after Germany’s centre-left Social Democrats won parliamentary elections, the Greens and pro-business liberals have agreed to start exploratory coalition talks with them. Thursday’s talks with the “kingmakers” mean centre-left leader Olaf Scholz is a step closer to the job of chancellor. It is a blow to the conservatives’ leader Armin Laschet, who presided over their worst ever electoral performance. He has not yet given up: “We are also ready for further talks.” However, the head of his CDU’s sister party in Bavaria, Markus Söder, has described the decision by the Greens and liberal FDP as a “de facto rejection” of a conservative-led government. While the two parties came third and fourth in the election, they are most popular among young voters. Their decision to favour talks with the centre-left SPD followed preliminary discussions with both main parties over recent days.(BBC)…[+]

Russian authorities are investigating allegations of torture and rape in the prison system, after leaked videos appeared to show inmates being abused. More than a thousand videos were leaked to the human rights group Gulagu.net, which claims the footage proves hundreds of people have been tortured. One video appears to show a naked man being abused with a stick at a prison hospital in the city of Saratov. The BBC has not been able to independently verify the footage. Another video appears to show a man laying face-down with his hands taped behind him, as a guard presses a boot into his back. The films are part of a large trove of files provided by an anonymous Belarusian whistleblower who served time in the Saratov facility, Gulagu.net said. “If the authenticity of this material is confirmed, it would be grounds for a serious investigation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.(BBC)…[+]

Anti-vaccine residents in a village in rural Guatemala have attacked nurses who were trying to administer Covid-19 jabs, holding them for seven hours, officials say. About 500 people blocked a road and vandalised the team’s cars in Maguilá, in the northern Alta Verapaz province. The 11 workers were released after police negotiated with the villagers, who destroyed about 50 vaccine doses. Authorities say online disinformation is feeding resistance to the vaccines. The nurses were “verbally and physically attacked” by the residents, who let the air out of the workers’ tires and destroyed the cool boxes storing the doses, the health ministry said. “We were very scared because we had never been through something like this. We were just doing our duty,” a nurse was quoted by the statement as saying. “We tried to explain a number of times that vaccination is voluntary and that we did not want to force anyone, yet they didn’t let us [work].“(BBC)…[+]

A video of an Air India plane stuck underneath an over-bridge in the capital, Delhi, has gone viral. The scrapped plane, which had reportedly been sold off, was being transported when it got stuck. The video shows traffic passing by the plane whose wings appear to have been removed. A journalist, who tweeted the video, shared a statement by Air India which said the airline had no connection with the plane anymore. “This is a [deregistered] scrapped aircraft of Air India which has been sold off. This was transported last night by the party [new owners]. Air India has got no connection whatsoever with the aircraft under any circumstances,” the statement read. Delhi airport officials told the Times of India newspaper that the “aircraft certainly does not belong to the Delhi airport’s fleet,” and that the “driver may have made an error while transporting it.”(BBC)…[+]

Russia has taken the lead in a space race with a difference, sending a team to the International Space Station to shoot a feature film ahead of an American crew. Yulia Peresild, 37, is set to star in the film, directed by Klim Shipenko. Their Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft took off from Baikonur in Kazakhstan, and three hours later docked with the International Space Station. Actor Tom Cruise and Nasa have also been planning to make a film there. There was more than a touch of showbusiness glamour when the Soyuz crew launched on Tuesday, as the TV cameras focused on Peresild and 12-year-old daughter Anna, who was watching from a safe distance. It was from the Kazakh steppes where camels and gophers roam, rather than in the studios of Hollywood that real actors went into space at 11:55 Moscow time, said Russia’s Komsomolskaya Pravda website. Klipenko’s actress wife Sofia Karpunina noted that the director had had to shed 15kg (33lbs) beforehand.(NU)…[+]

At least 13 people have been killed after tropical cyclone Shaheen battered parts of Oman and Iran. There was widespread flooding along Oman’s northern coast as the storm made landfall on Sunday, bringing heavy rain and winds of up to 150km/h (93 mph). Omani authorities reported the deaths of seven people in North al-Batinah province on Monday. Four others drowned or were killed in landslides on Sunday. In Iran, state media said the bodies of two fishermen had been found. Three other fishermen remain missing off the coast of the south-eastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan, near the border with Pakistan. Iran’s deputy parliamentary speaker initially said that six people were killed. Infrastructure, including electrical facilities and roads, was also damaged. Parts of the United Arab Emirates were placed on standby as the storm moved south-westwards over land on Monday and weakened. Residents of al-Ain were told to avoid leaving home except for emergencies.(BBC)…[+]

India’s top court has approved the government’s decision to pay 50,000 rupees ($674; £498) as compensation for every death due to Covid-19. The Supreme Court’s order followed a petition by lawyers seeking compensation under India’s disaster management laws. India has officially recorded more than 447,000 Covid-19 deaths so far. However, experts believe that up to 10 times more people could have died in the pandemic.

They have arrived at different estimates after examining excess deaths – a measure of how many more people are dying than would be expected compared to the previous few years. On Monday Justice MR Shah said the “next of kith and kin of the deceased person” shall be paid this compensation within a month of applying. This would be “over and above the amounts paid by the centre and state under various benevolent schemes”, he said.(BBC)…[+]

An oil slick off the coast of California has started washing ashore, killing fish, contaminating wetlands and closing beaches. About 3,000 barrels of oil have spread over an area covering 13 square miles (33 sq km), off the Orange County coast. Huntington Beach Mayor Kim Carr said portions of the coastline were covered in oil. An investigation into the pipeline breach that caused it is under way. The slick, about five miles off the coasts of Huntington Beach and Newport Beach, was discovered on Saturday morning. It is thought to be one of the largest oil spills in the state’s recent history, according to the Associated Press news agency. Authorities are now attempting to contain the oil by using protective booms – a type of floating barrier. Divers are also working at the scene to determine how the leak occurred.(BBC)…[+]

More than 100 inmates have been killed in a fight inside a prison in the Ecuadorean port city of Guayaquil. It is expected to take days to identify the bodies, leaving relatives of inmates fearing the worst. Journalist Blanca Moncada Pesantes spoke to some of those waiting for news.

Not even at the height of the coronavirus pandemic in March and April 2020, when death was in the air in many neighbourhoods of Guayaquil, had so many relatives ever gathered outside the city’s morgue. When President Guillermo Lasso announced that the death toll had risen, dozens of families rushed to the forensic laboratory where the bodies of the victims were being taken. They want to find out where their loved ones are and, crucially, if they are still alive. They have yet to get an answer and their anxiety only increased as explosions could again be heard coming from Guayaquil’s biggest prison, a sign that the gang war inside – said to be linked to the drugs trade – had not been brought under control.(BBC)…[+]