PARIS (AFP) - France’s ex-culture minister Rachida Dati faced a trial on Wednesday on corruption charges linked to dealings with the Renault-Nissan group, just months after her bruising defeat in the Paris mayoral race. One of the most prominent figures on the French right, Dati, 60, stood trial with the fugitive Carlos Ghosn, the disgraced former Renault-Nissan chief, who tried in absentia. Dati has been dogged by controversies for much of her political career.  She resigned as culture minister in February to concentrate on the Paris mayoral race, but lost to Socialist rival Emmanuel Grégoire in March.

 

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PARIS (Reuters) - France recorded at least 817 excess deaths between July 27 and August 20, when the country was hit by exceptionally high temperatures, the national health agency said on Wednesday. This would bring the total recorded so far to nearly 8,000 excess deaths since June and the start of a series of heatwaves. The count includes all deaths regardless of their cause and is an estimate based on death certificates issued during the period. People aged 75 and older represented the bulk of the excess mortality. The national health agency had already recorded 5,764 excess deaths during the period between June 17 and July 2 and 1,243 for the period between July 3 and July 20. Europe as a whole has experienced more extreme warming, linked to human-induced climate change, than any other continent this year, meteorologists have said.

 

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KINSHASA (Reuters) - Police in Democratic Republic of Congo dispersed opposition protests in several cities on Tuesday against proposed constitutional changes that critics say could allow President Felix Tshisekedi to seek a third term, with Reuters witnesses reporting tear gas and warning shots in Kinshasa. The demonstrations were called by the opposition C64 coalition, linked to former presidential candidates Martin Fayulu, Moise Katumbi and Delly Sesanga. A previous protest organized by C64 in the capital Kinshasa in June was violently dispersed by security forces. Several hundred people took part in the protest in Kinshasa, according to two Reuters witnesses. In the cities of Lubumbashi and Uvira, protests were officially prohibited by local authorities but went ahead anyway and were quickly dispersed, two other witnesses said.

 

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JOHANNESBURG (Xinhua) -- South Africa on Wednesday rejected the United States’ new visa restrictions, saying that the move mischaracterizes its domestic policies and undermines efforts to resolve bilateral differences through diplomatic engagement. South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Ronald Lamola said in a statement that the U.S. announcement “once again aligns with the mischaracterization of South Africa’s domestic policies by fringe groups who wrongly portray themselves as representatives of ‘minorities’ and Afrikaners in general.”

 

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KHARTOUM (Reuters) - At least 60 people were killed in a gold mine collapse in Sudan’s West Kordofan state, three local sources told Reuters, while a local rights group said some miners could still be alive underground and appealed for urgent rescue efforts. The Kordofan Observatory monitoring group said on Wednesday that more than 70 artisanal miners were dead or missing after a series of adjoining mining shafts collapsed at the al-Zara mine in the Fouja area, northwest of al-Nuhud. Citing eyewitness accounts, the group said a survivor emerged on Tuesday and reported that others were still alive underground. It said no specialised rescue teams had intervened and fragile, sandy ground was hampering residents’ attempts to rescue miners and recover bodies using basic tools.