LONDON(AP) - A Russian naval ship carried out a live-fire weapons exercise in international waters in the Channel south of the UK port city of Plymouth, the British defense ministry said Tuesday. The ship located around 40 miles (74 km) south of the English coast on Monday informed a British naval patrol vessel, HMS Tyne, of its intention to fire and asked it to move to a safer position, the ministry said.  “The exercise was subsequently carried out in international waters and lasted for 30 minutes.” The British Navy monitored the exercise and was continuing to track the vessel closely, the ministry said. 

 

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MADRID (AFP) - More than 600 firefighters and troops and 29 aircraft on Tuesday battled for a sixth day a huge wildfire north of Madrid that authorities said is one of the most difficult they have faced. Some 1,200 people have fled their homes and the flames have devastated 29,000 hectares (70,000 acres) of land in Guadalajara province about 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of the Spanish capital. Castilla-La Mancha regional president Emiliano Garcia-Page said firefighters had “practically stopped” the advance of the fire toward the town of Soria but that the inferno was still not under control. The fire started Thursday in an isolated forest and has since spread quickly across neighboring hills. 

 

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KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - A wave of political disinformation targeting Malaysia’s Rohingya population has raised alarm among rights groups that say it is fueling xenophobia and intimidation against the refugee community. AFP fact-checkers have debunked a torrent of falsehoods about the Muslim ethnic group on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok — including fake quotes, doctored videos and fabricated statistics. While anti-Rohingya disinformation has proliferated for years amid military crackdowns in their home country of Myanmar, analysts say the recent uptick is part of a broader political campaign ahead of Malaysian elections next year.

 

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NEW DELHI (Reuters) - At least 10 people have died and 17 others remain missing after a suspected gas explosion triggered the collapse of a tunnel under construction at a hydropower project in India’s northeastern state of Sikkim, officials said. The blast ripped through the tunnel on Monday at Samardung village, near the border with Bhutan and Tibet in the Himalayas, officials said. Multiple workers were carrying out construction projects on the 500-megawatt project for the state-owned National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) on the Teesta River. Survivors told authorities they heard a loud explosion before debris came crashing through the tunnel, trapping dozens inside.

 

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NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania (AP) — The United Nations refugee agency said Tuesday it is “extremely saddened” after nearly 150 people died or went missing from boats off Mauritania last week while trying to make their way to Europe. The agency said 144 people were dead or missing after two incidents between July 14 and 18. It said 387 people were rescued. Mauritania’s coast guard has said 122 people went missing off the coast near the capital, Nouakchott. It said the boat carrying 160 people from Gambia toward the Canary Islands ran out of fuel and was stranded at sea for 25 days. In a separate incident, the coast guard said it rescued 179 people who had boarded a boat from Senegal on Saturday.