World news wrap: Desperate Venezuelans defy Ecuador’s passport rules and cross border

From rain keeping away from most parts of flood-ravaged Kerala to Ecuador passport rule halting Venezuelan migrants to the passing away of former UN leader Kofi Annan, here's the world news wrap of the day.

By: Express Web Desk | New Delhi | Updated: August 20, 2018 3:00:13 pm

World News Wrap
20th August, 2018

Rain eases in India’s Kerala, but fears emerge over disease in camps

Rain has kept away from most parts of flood-ravaged Kerala which has claimed over 200 lives since August 8. The India Meteorological Department said in New Delhi that rainfall had decreased over the past two days, and that over the next four days, it was expecting “heavy rainfall” only in Kozhikode, Kannur and Idduki districts. The discharge from the Idukki, Idamalayar, Peringalkuthu and Sabarigir dams have been reduced, and the state government Sunday withdrew the red alert for the districts of Ernakulam and Idukki. But, the authorities fear an outbreak of disease among two million people crammed into relief camps.

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Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan dies at the age of 80

Kofi Annan, the former United Nations secretary general, has died at the age of 80. He served two terms as the head of the UN, with which he shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001.

Ecuador passport rule halts Venezuelan migrants

Dozens of furious Venezuelan migrants fleeing economic misery in Venezuela for a new life elsewhere on Sunday defied rules requiring they hold a valid passport to cross the border from Colombia into Ecuador, and authorities appeared to be allowing it. Hundreds of desperate people who traveled days from Venezuela, mostly by bus but some on foot, were prevented from passing the checkpoint near the southwestern town of Ipiales by a regulation set by Ecuador’s President Lenin Moreno that kicked in on Saturday. But as tension mounted in the frigid Colombian mountain town, migrants decided to risk being detained and simply walked across the ungated and loosely guarded border, having spent days in freezing conditions at the Rumichaca crossing.

Former UN leader Kofi Annan has died

Former United Nations chief and Nobel Peace Prize laureate General Kofi Annan passed away at the age of 80, following a short illness. Annan, a Ghanaian national, died in hospital in Bern, Switzerland, in the early hours of Saturday. He is survived by his wife and three children.