Officials say the death toll in last month’s collapse of a Florida apartment building has now risen to 90 with another 31 people still unaccounted for after the tragedy.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava says the number of confirmed deaths is now 90. Seventy-one victims have been identified adding that 217 people are accounted for and 31 people remain potentially unaccounted for.
Miami-Dade fire chief Alan Cominsky says the recovery and removal operation was proceeding around the clock, and emergency personnel were at the point of accessing cars in the underground parking garage.
Cominsky refused to be drawn on a possible endpoint for the recovery work.

South African ex-president Jacob Zuma asked the nation’s top court to let him out of jail by rescinding its 15-month sentence for snubbing anti-graft investigators.
The Constitutional Court sentenced Zuma to prison for refusing to appear before a probe into the corruption that mired his nine years in power.
Zuma is seeking to have that ruling set aside on the grounds that it was made in his absence.
The court says should the bid fail, Zuma’s team will seek to convince the judges that jail time is not the appropriate punishment for this instance of contempt, due to reasons including the implications for Zuma’s health.
His lawyers had also petitioned the Pietermaritzburg High Court in KwaZulu-Natal to stave off imprisonment however was rejected because he lacked jurisdiction over the matter and claims about his health were not supported by any evidence.

President Emmanuel Macron says France is to start closing its bases in northern Mali before the end of 2021.
The country will initially move troops south, before reducing the numbers to around half - amounting to about 2,500 to 3,000 soldiers.
Macron says the decision had been taken in line with the imperative of containing the spread of the threat to the south.
The French president was keen to point out they would continue to work in the region, even with reduced numbers.
Macron says they will remain committed. But to remain committed is also to adapt.

President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa has extended the Covid-19 lockdown by another two weeks as cases increase in the country.
The president says schools would remain closed and night curfew would remain.
The sale of alcohol remains prohibited and mass gatherings are still not allowed.
Restaurants have however been allowed to reopen with strict social distancing rules.
The president says the government will extend the Covid-relief fund to benefit more businesses affected by the lockdown.
South Africa recorded 16,302 new virus cases on Sunday bringing the total number of infections to 2,195,599.

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority says that it would in the coming weeks, commence public sensitisation to further enlighten air travellers on steps to take in case of flight delays or cancellations by airlines.
Director-General of NCAA, Capt. Musa Nuhu, says this would enable the agency to respond appropriately in cases where their rights are trampled upon by airlines.
Capt. Nuhu says that the law on 100 per cent refund on air tickets in cases of a three-hour delay is not novel to the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulation stressing that it has been in existence since 2015.
He, however, clarified that in the case of natural phenomena, the airlines would not be sanctioned by the agency, describing it as a force majeure.

The former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission has commended the National Assembly for taking steps to review the Electoral Amendment Act as amended but faulted the exclusion of electronic transfer of results.
Jega lamented that the decision of the 9th Assembly to allow INEC to use electronic voting without the electronic transmission of results is counterproductive.
The former INEC boss explained that not all politicians are fraudulent and want to win by hook or by crook.”
Jega asked the National Assembly to diligently work to ensure that the Electoral Amendment Bill is appropriately amended before being passed.

Lagos State Government has raised the alarm of a possible third wave of Coronavirus pandemic, following a sharp increase in the number of positive cases recorded in the last few weeks.
He says the development may not be unconnected to the careless attitude of air passengers from countries in the high-risk zones.
Sanwo-Olu disclosed that 18 per cent of 50,322 air passengers of interest could not be reached for COVID-19 status monitoring by EKOTELEMED because they supplied the wrong contact details.
Sanwo-Olu says air passengers would face prosecution, including fines and imprisonment in line with the Lagos State Coronavirus Law of 2021.

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project has asked the Federal High Court in Abuja to order the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission and the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission to perform their statutory functions to review downward the remuneration and allowances of President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, 36 governors and members of the National Assembly”.
SERAP says that slashing jumbo pay for these high-ranking political office-holders would reduce the unfair pay disparity between political officer holders and judicial officers, address the persistent poor treatment of judges, and improve access of victims of corruption to justice and effective remedies.
SERAP added that an order of mandamus to direct and compel the RMAFC to perform its mandatory constitutional duty to urgently review upward the remuneration, salaries, and allowances, as well as the conditions of service for Nigerian judges.

Finance ministers and central bankers from the group of 20 rich countries will meet face to face on Friday for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic at a gathering in Venice where corporate tax reform will top the agenda.
The G20 is expected to give its political endorsement to plans for new rules on where and how much companies are taxed which were backed last week by 130 countries at the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Officials say the two-day gathering in Italy’s historic lagoon city will open a discussion on how to put the OECD proposals into practice, with the aim of reaching a final agreement at a Rome G20 leaders’ summit in October.

Organisers of the Tokyo Olympics agreed to ban fans from the events under a COVID-19 state of emergency.
Japan’s Olympics Minister Tamayo Marukawa says they reached an agreement on no spectators at venues in Tokyo.
Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga says it was essential to prevent Tokyo, where the highly infectious Delta COVID-19 variant was spreading, from becoming the source of another wave of infections.
Suga says taking into consideration the impact of the Delta strain, and in order to prevent the resurgence of infections from spreading across the country, we need to step up virus prevention measures.