World | WPN World People News

A school in the city of Taiz, in south-western Yemen, bears the scars of intense fighting.

The number of refugee and migrant children who arrived on the Greek Islands between January and August has risen by 32 percent compared to the same time-period last year. Over 7,000 children – on average more than 850 every month – have made the dangerous journey by sea, with most ending up in overcrowded and unsafe facilities.

UNICEF and its partners have so far identified 155 children who have been orphaned or left unaccompanied as a result of the latest Ebola outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This figure includes children who have lost one or both parents, or primary caregivers to Ebola, as well as those who have been left unaccompanied while their parents are isolated in Ebola treatment centres.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomed a US$1.8 million (JP¥ 200,000,000) contribution from Japan to help bolster food and nutrition security in South Sudan, where millions of people do not know where their next meal is coming from.

The funding comes as some 2.5 million, half the country's population, are in need of assistance, with the crisis triggering an influx of refugees into neighbouring countries.

Since 2016 the European Parliament has been measuring citizens’ perceptions and expectations of action taken by the EU in 15 core policy areas. The latest survey, carried out in April this year, finds that whilst an ever greater share of respondents are satisfied with action taken by the EU to address concerns about security, jobs and the environment, calls for more EU action in nearly all policy areas are no less significant. This flies in the face of the EU’s critics who accuse it of irrelevance or over-regulation.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday called the downing of a Russian military plane by Syria "a chain of tragic, accidental circumstances," tamping down what could have turned into a tense situation with Israel.

The head of Germany's domestic intelligence agency has been transferred from his job just weeks after he made remarks that appeared to downplay anti-migrant violence.

South Africa's top court has legalized the use of cannabis for private, personal use.

The Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, Mr. Edward Kallon, condemns the killing of the aid worker and midwife Saifura Hussaini Ahmed Khorsa in north-east Nigeria. Ms. Hussaini, 25 years old, was abducted on 1 March 2018 in Rann town, Borno State, where she was working with the International Committee of the Red Cross, following a deadly attack by a Non-State Armed Group in which three aid workers were killed. Two other female aid workers were also kidnapped during that incident.