WORLD HIGHLIGHTS

►Peru LIMA

Peru pledged to review conditions around a major cooper mine but said it will not lift by yesterday an emergency declaration temporarily suspending civil liberties in the area, a step demanded by indigenous protesters camped out at the mine, forcing its closure.

►Libya TRIPOLI

A powerful government-backed Libyan militia on Thursday rejected accusations of killings, torture and forced labour, insisting it upholds the law and threatening to sue Amnesty International for its report.

►DR Congo KINSHASA

Greenpeace on Thursday urged a top state prosecutor in the Democratic Republic of Congo to investigate allegations that six ex-government ministers granted forestry concessions in violation of a logging moratorium.

►South Africa JOHANNESBURG

South Africa's new Covid-19 cases shot up by more than 50 per cent Thursday from the previous day, official data showed amid a surge of infections driven by two new Omicron sub-variants.

►Brazil BRASÍLIA

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro vetoed a bill on Thursday that would grant $600 million in aid to artists and cultural programmes reeling from the coronavirus pandemic, the second such legislation he has blocked in a month.

►Sudan KHARTOUM

Sudanese security forces on Thursday killed a protester when an armoured vehicle ran over him during the latest rally against last year's military coup, medics said.

►Mexico CULIACÁN

A journalist has been murdered in northwestern Mexico, authorities said on Thursday – the ninth such killing so far in a particularly violent year for the country's press. AGENCIES