World News Roundup: Ivory coast confirms H5N1 avian flu outbreak; EU says import of J&J vaccines from South Africa is temporary and more

Some 11,000 people fled to Chad and a further 7,300 were displaced in Cameroon's Far North after fighting broke out on Aug. 10 between Choa Arab herders and Mousgoum fishermen and farmers, the UNHCR said. Hong Kong students charged with 'advocating terrorism' denied bail Four Hong Kong student leaders charged with "advocating terrorism" after their union passed a motion last month mourning the death of a 50-year-old who stabbed a policeman before killing himself were denied bail on Thursday.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Ivory coast confirms H5N1 avian flu outbreak

Ivory Coast has identified an outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian flu near the commercial capital Abidjan and has taken steps to curb its spread, the livestock ministry said in a statement. Testing confirmed the presence of the virus after a large number of poultry started dying in the Grand Bassam commune on July 20, the ministry said on Wednesday.

EU says import of J&J vaccines from South Africa is temporary

The European Commission said on Thursday it had reached a temporary agreement with South Africa to use a plant there to bottle Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines that are being imported into the EU. On Wednesday the WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters he was "stunned" by the news that J&J vaccines were being exported from South Africa to the EU because the EU has already very high vaccination rates while in many African countries not even the most vulnerable have been vaccinated.

Greece says border forces on alert to avoid repeat of 2015 migrant crisis

Greece's border forces are on the alert to avoid a repeat of the mass arrivals of migrants that the country experienced in 2015, the government's spokesman said on Thursday, following the return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan. Greece was on the frontline of Europe's migration crisis in 2015 when nearly one million people fleeing conflicts in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan landed on its islands.

'Painful days ahead' as Haitians struggle to count lives lost in quake

Haitian officials slowly tallied the dead and disappeared in remote villages on Thursday, after the toll from last weekend's devastating earthquake passed 2,000 and Prime Minister Ariel Henry warned the Caribbean nation faced painful times ahead. In the small town of Cavaillon, local officials huddled over pieces of paper where they recorded the number of damaged houses, schools, and churches in each of the surrounding villages, along with the number of dead and missing.

Son of slain Afghan hero Massoud vows resistance, seeks support

The son of Ahmad Shah Massoud, one of the main leaders of Afghanistan's anti-Soviet resistance in the 1980s, has pledged to hold out against the Taliban from his stronghold in the Panjshir valley. In a Washington Post editorial, Ahmad Massoud, the 32-year-old son of the former mujahideen commander, said members of the Afghan military including some from the elite Special Forces units had rallied to his cause and he appealed to the West for help.

Cameroon ethnic clashes kill at least 32 as villages are torched -UNHCR

Clashes between herders and fishermen in northern Cameroon have killed at least 32 people this month, with 19 villages torched, the U.N. refugee agency said on Thursday. Some 11,000 people fled to Chad and a further 7,300 were displaced in Cameroon's Far North after fighting broke out on Aug. 10 between Choa Arab herders and Mousgoum fishermen and farmers, the UNHCR said.

Hong Kong students charged with 'advocating terrorism' denied bail

Four Hong Kong student leaders charged with "advocating terrorism" after their union passed a motion last month mourning the death of a 50-year-old who stabbed a policeman before killing himself were denied bail on Thursday. The four, aged 18-20 and all from the University of Hong Kong (HKU), are the latest democracy activists to be denied bail under a sweeping national security law that Beijing imposed on the former British colony last year.

Last living Khmer Rouge leader says not behind Cambodia bloodbath

The last surviving leader of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge regime on Thursday denied involvement in genocide and being responsible for crimes against humanity, in one of his final appearances before an international tribunal. Khmer Rouge era President Khieu Samphan, 90, was speaking during his appeal of a 2018 guilty verdict that was one of only a few rulings against those deemed "most responsible" for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people from 1975-1979.

Biden says Taliban must decide if it wants international recognition - interview

The Taliban must decide whether it wants to be recognized by the international community, U.S. President Joe Biden said in an ABC interview aired on Thursday, adding that he did not think the group had changed its fundamental beliefs. Asked if he thought the Taliban had changed, Biden told ABC News, "No."

Protests against Afghan Taliban spread in early signs of resistance

Flag-waving protesters took to the streets of more Afghan cities on Thursday as popular opposition to the Taliban spread, and a witness said several people were killed when the militants fired on a crowd in Asadabad in the east. "Our flag, our identity," a crowd of men and women waving black, red, and green national flags shouted in the capital Kabul, a video clip posted on social media showed, on the day Afghanistan celebrates independence from British control in 1919.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)