BEIJING, May 23 (Xinhua) — Heads and representatives of media outlets from China and five Central Asian countries on Tuesday gathered at a media forum in Beijing, where they had in-depth discussions and reached broad consensus on strengthening media cooperation to promote the building of a China-Central Asia community with a shared future. The China-Central Asia News Agency Forum, one of the achievements of the recently concluded China-Central Asia Summit, was initiated and hosted by China’s Xinhua News Agency. The…

HIROSHIMA, Japan, May 20 (Xinhua) — At the Group of Seven (G7) Summit starting here Friday, the U.S.-led clique is again hyping up their so-called “law and order,” whereas political observers have precisely debunked the essence of their lies — a scheme to play small-clique politics and dictate to the rest of the world. The G7 on Saturday issued a statement concerning economic resilience and security, threatening to counter “economic coercion,” which will de facto divide the world into two…

MOSCOW/KIEV, May 21 (Xinhua) — Russia said on Saturday that its forces had taken full control of the hotly contested city of Bakhmut, also known as Artyomovsk, while the Ukrainian side said the situation there was critical. Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of Russia’s Wagner private military group, said in a video message posted on his Telegram channel that Wagner will begin to withdraw its units on May 25 for rest and retraining, and its fighters will create “the necessary lines of…

CAIRO, May 22 (Xinhua) — Egypt will import 170,000 cattle and sheep for the upcoming Islamic holiday Eid al-Adha, the Egyptian Agriculture Ministry announced on Monday. The imports include 150,000 calves and 20,000 sheep, the ministry said, adding that in which 45,000 will be slaughtered immediately, and the remaining 105,000 will be fattened.  The measure aims to provide sufficient meat at reasonable prices for Eid al-Adha, one of the most important holidays for Muslims, Egypt’s Agriculture Minister Al-Said Al-Qusair said…

DAR ES SALAAM, May 22 (Xinhua) — Tanzanian authorities on Monday announced measures aimed at boosting security in Lake Victoria, including the construction of a regional maritime rescue coordination center. Makame Mbarawa, the minister for Works and Transport, told parliament that the construction of the center to be coordinated by the state-run Tanzania Shipping Agencies Corporation (TASAC) will be located on the shores of the lake at Ilemela in Mwanza region.  “The contractor of the center has been identified and…

DAR ES SALAAM, May 22 (Xinhua) — Tanzanian health authorities said Monday they have set aside 90 hectares of land for the construction of an isolation center for the treatment of epidemics. Godwin Mollel, the deputy minister for Health, told parliament in the capital of Dodoma that the high-tech isolation center will be built in the Kagera region that borders Uganda.  “We have decided to build the isolation center in Kagera region because of its social interactions with people from…

ABUJA, May 22 (Xinhua) — Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday inaugurated the world’s largest single-train refinery in the country’s southwestern state of Lagos, hailing it as a significant milestone for the country’s economy and a “game changer” for the petroleum products market in Africa. Speaking at the ceremony for commissioning the Dangote Refinery which cost 19 billion U.S. dollars, Buhari emphasized the transformative impact of the refinery on Nigeria’s economic prosperity, noting the public-private partnership project will not only…

NAIROBI, May 22 (Xinhua) — The enhanced conservation of the Congo Basin, the world’s second-largest tropical forest after the Amazon, is key to halting the further loss of the endangered forest elephant species, senior officials said Monday during a virtual forum to mark International Day for Biological Diversity. Home to a significant population of forest elephants, the Congo Basin is grappling with a myriad of human and climate-induced threats, necessitating the urgency to strengthen its conservation, said Rosalie Matondo, the…

KHARTOUM, May 22 (Xinhua) — The death toll in the armed clashes between the Sudanese Army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has risen to 863, the Sudanese Doctors Union said on Monday. “The number of civilian deaths since the beginning of the clashes has risen to 863 with 3,531 injuries,” the nongovernmental body said in a statement. Over 1 million people have been displaced since the conflict began on April 15, fleeing to safer locations inside and outside Sudan, the…

YAOUNDE, May 22 (Xinhua) — Scores of women have been abducted in Cameroon’s English-speaking region of Northwest where an armed separatist conflict is underway, security and local sources said Monday. The women were abducted by separatist fighters in Big Babanki village of the region after they staged a protest demonstration against a tax imposed on them by the fighters, a family source of one of the kidnapped women told Xinhua by phone.  “They are about 50 women in captivity. They are between…