LONDON (Dispatches) - A chemical-laden cargo ship is sinking off the coast of Sri Lanka, sparking fears of an environmental disaster. The Singapore-registered X-Press Pearl had been on fire for almost two weeks before the blaze was put out this week. Hundreds of tonnes of oil from fuel tanks could leak into the sea if it sinks, devastating nearby marine life. The Sri Lankan and Indian navies had worked jointly over the past days in an attempt to put out the fire and prevent the ship from breaking up and sinking.

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PARIS (Reuters) - The chair and secretary-general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plan to travel to Myanmar this week even as the 10-nation group remains divided on how to respond to the military coup there, four diplomatic sources have told the Reuters news agency. Myanmar is a member of ASEAN and has a policy of non-interference in the affairs of members, but it has led the main diplomatic effort to resolve the crisis that has engulfed the country since February 1 when the military staged a coup and removed the democratically elected government.

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TUNISIA (Reuters) - At least 23 refugees were missing and two bodies recovered from the sea off Tunisia, the Red Crescent reported Wednesday, after the military said more than 100 migrants were intercepted. The Tunisian navy said a boat headed for Europe from Zuwara in Libya was intercepted on Tuesday near Miskar oil platform, some 67 kilometers (52 miles) off the coast. The refugees - 37 Eritreans, 32 Sudanese and an Egyptian, aged between 15 and 40- were handed over to the Red Crescent and International Organization for Migration in the southern port of Zarzis. Apart from 23 people missing, two bodies were recovered from the water, according to the Red Crescent. The Tunisian army, for its part, said 39 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa were intercepted at sea off the eastern port city of Sfax on Monday night.

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NEW DELHI (Dispatches) -Thousands of doctors across India are putting on black armbands and calling for the arrest of a hugely popular guru who has claimed yoga can prevent COVID-19 and that conventional medicine has killed thousands of coronavirus patients. Baba Ramdev, the creator of a successful traditional medicine empire, said last month the pandemic showed modern pharmaceuticals to be “stupid and failed science” and claimed hundreds of thousands “have died because they had allopathy (conventional) medicines”.

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PARIS (France 24) - The African Union announced it was suspending Mali with immediate effect and threatened the impoverished country with sanctions, after a second military coup in nine months. The putsch has sparked deep concerns over stability in the volatile Sahel region and warnings of economic penalties from across the international community.

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PARIS (Dispatches) - Covid-19 variants are to be known by letters of the Greek alphabet to avoid stigmatizing nations where they were first detected, the World Health Organization announced. The new system applies to variants of concern -- the most troubling of which four are in circulation -- and the second-level variants of interest being tracked. “They will not replace existing scientific names, but are aimed to help in public discussion,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s Covid-19 technical lead.