Newscast - Africa

At least four persons have died after a high-rise building collapsed in the Ikoyi area of Lagos on Monday.
Some five persons have also been rescued alive as rescue operations intensified into the night. More people are believed to still be trapped in the rubble.
The Lagos State Emergency Management Agency says it was fully on the ground with heavy-duty equipment and life detection equipment have been dispatched.
The President prays for God’s intervention in the ongoing rescue operations.

The Senate Committee on Health refused to consider the 2022 budget proposal of the Ministry of Health, citing inconsistencies in its 2021 budget performance.
Committee members during the budget defence session of the Ministry observed anomalies in the documents presented by the Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire as regards capital releases and information on the implementation of the basic healthcare provision fund.
The committee asked the Minister to effect the corrections on the issues raised by the lawmakers on the document and report back on Tuesday with evidence of all funds released to the ministry from 2018 to date.

The Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor, says there is a greater need for stronger collaboration in the armed forces, in order to effectively deal with contemporary security challenges in the country.
The defence chief says several ongoing military operations across the country, require collaboration between the army, navy, air force and the police to succeed.
He says these operations are either targeted at combating security threats posed by proscribed groups, or other organized criminal groups who kidnap, kill or attack public infrastructure across the country.

G20 leaders meeting in Rome committed to the key goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius and pledged action on the use of coal, but fell short on a target of zero emissions, according to a final draft communique.
The pledges by the Group of 20 major economies, who emit nearly 80 per cent of carbon emissions, are viewed as crucial to the success of make-or-break UN climate talks taking place in Glasgow over the next fortnight.
The leaders agreed to keep in play key commitments agreed at the landmark 2015 Paris accords.

Leaders of the world’s 20 biggest economies have endorsed a global minimum tax of 15 per cent on big multinational businesses.
Joe Biden, the president of the United States who is in the Italian capital for the discussions, hailed the tax deal as a game-changer.
The tax rules, part of a reform plan inked by almost 140 nations, will make it harder for multinational corporations – including giants like Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft or Apple – from avoiding taxation by establishing offices in low-tax jurisdictions.
The rules will also aim to put an end to decades of tax competition between governments to attract foreign investment.

US President Joe Biden and European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen agreed to crack down on dirty steel and lift tariffs in a bid to curb carbon emissions and repair transatlantic relations.
The American and EU officials say the agreement represented a new era.
The US president says the agreement would not only avert punishing tariffs put in place by former President Donald Trump but lead to cleaner steel, lower inflation and badly needed improvements in snarled global supply chains.
Von der Leyen says the deal was a major step forward in achieving climate neutrality and a sign of a renewed agenda with the US.

Pakistan’s government has reached an agreement with the outlawed far-right Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan party, putting an end to a 10-day protest that resulted in violent clashes.
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and religious leader Mufti Muneebur Rehman took part in the talks but did not share any details of the agreement at a news conference in the capital, Islamabad.
The group is also demanding the expulsion of France’s ambassador for the publication of a series of caricatures depicting the Prophet Muhammad by French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

US President Joe Biden has held talks with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the G20 meeting in Rome amid tensions over human rights and a request from Turkey for F-16 fighter jets.
Biden told Turkey’s Erdogan his request for F-16 fighter jets had to go through a process in the United States and expressed a desire to handle disagreements between the two countries effectively.
A different US administration official says that Biden would warn his Turkish counterpart that any precipitous actions would not benefit US-Turkish relations and that crises should be avoided after Erdogan threatened to throw out the US ambassador to Turkey and other foreign envoys for seeking the release of jailed philanthropist Osman Kavala.

The UN has urged the Sudanese military to show restraint towards people protesting against Monday's coup and not to create any more victims.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says people must be allowed to demonstrate peacefully".
Health workers say at least eight people have been killed and nearly 200 injured by the security forces who have fired tear gas and rubber bullets.
The US President Joe Biden has called recent events a grave setback and demanded the restoration of the civilian-led transitional government.

The US State Department says it's gravely concerned by the expansion of fighting between Ethiopia's government forces and Tigrayan rebels in the north of the country.
Washington reiterated its call for the Tigray People’s Liberation Front to withdraw from the Amhara and Afar regions and halt its advances in and around the cities of Dessie and Kombolcha.
The Ethiopian government has denied a claim from the TPLF earlier on Saturday that the rebels had taken control of Dessie.