BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Russia and European nations have launched investigations into the cause of the gas leaks in the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea, while countries in the region beef up security around their energy facilities. Gas leaks were detected in the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines near the Danish island of Bornholm on Monday. Seismic reports showed that “in all likelihood” there had been explosions in the area prior to the leaks.

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RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazil’s main presidential candidates traded accusations of corruption in their last debate before Sunday’s election, with little discussion of proposals to govern the South American country. Incumbent far-right President Jair Bolsonaro called his leftist rival, former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the boss of a criminal gang that ran a “kleptocracy” during his two-term presidency from 2003 to 2010. Lula, who has a comfortable double-digit lead going into the first round of voting, called Bolsonaro a “shameless” liar whose government had covered up graft in the purchase of vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic that killed more than 680,000 Brazilians.

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McGREGOR, Texas (ABC) - Five people were shot dead in a Central Texas residential neighborhood Thursday, officials said. The incident happened at about 7:30 a.m. Thursday morning in McGregor, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) southwest of Waco. An armed man shot at police officers who arrived at the scene, McGregor Mayor Jimmy Hering told KCEN-TV. Officers returned fire, but Hering didn’t say if the suspect was wounded. However, the Texas Department of Public Safety said a suspect in the shootings was captured alive.

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ISLAMABAD (AP) — The United Nations will seek $800 million more in aid from the international community to respond to soaring life-saving needs of Pakistani flood survivors, a UN official said Friday. The unprecedented deluges — likely worsened by climate change — have killed 1,678 people in Pakistan since mid-June. About half a million survivors are still living in tents and makeshift shelters. Julien Harneis, the UN resident coordinator in Pakistan, told reporters in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, that the latest appeal will be issued from Geneva on Tuesday. It comes just weeks after the agency sought $160 million in emergency funding for 33 million people affected by floods.

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THE HAGUE (Reuters) – A UN tribunal in The Hague opened the genocide trial on Thursday of a Rwandan businessman captured two years ago after decades on the run, with judges saying the hearing must go on despite the suspect’s decision to boycott it from his jail cell. Felicien Kabuga, a former businessman and radio station owner, is one of the last suspects sought by a UN tribunal prosecuting crimes committed in the 1994 genocide, when ruling Hutu majority extremists killed more than 800,000 minority Tutsis and Hutu moderates in 100 days. “Mr Kabuga is this morning well but has decided not to attend the hearing this morning either in person or via video link,” Judge Iain Bonomy said. “The trial must proceed” with the opening statement of the prosecutor, judges decided.