The Democratic Republic of Congo has declared the end of its 14th Ebola outbreak after less than three months, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday. (Representative image/Image Credit: ANI)   

Cuba officially started the 2022 summer break season from Saturday as the continuing decline of COVID-19 cases has prompted the country to lift anti-pandemic measures for the first time in two years. The holiday will run through the end of August, coinciding with the school summer vacation.

* The inflation rate in Laos hit 23.6 percent year-on-year in June, the highest recorded since May 2000, with a surge in the prices of energy and consumer goods.

* Myanmar exported about 322,650 metric tons of rice and about 227,890 metric tons of broken rice in the first three months of the 2022-23 fiscal year, according to the Myanmar Rice Federation (MRF) on Monday.

* Israel's interim Prime Minister Yair Lapid on Sunday pledged to run a functional government despite another round of political instability that triggered new elections.

* The United States failed to be constructive in the latest round of the talks on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday.

* Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday held a meeting with visiting Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to discuss security cooperation, the presidential press service reported.

* Russian gas producer Gazprom GAZP.MM has proposed to apply the rouble-for-gas scheme it uses for pipeline gas supplies in the liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade, Interfax news agency quoted a senior manager as saying on Monday.

* Israel and Poland have agreed to improve relations that had deteriorated after Warsaw introduced a law last year limiting the ability of Jews to recover World War Two properties, saying on Monday they would mutually restore ambassadors.

* Leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on Sunday lifted economic and financial sanctions imposed on Mali, after its military rulers proposed a 24-month transition to democracy and published a new electoral law.

* India recorded 16,135 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the total tally to 43,518,564, showed the data released by the country's federal health ministry on Monday.

* The number of active cases of coronavirus surpassed 1 million in Italy on Sunday, the result of a swift increase in cases over the last two weeks.

* Sri Lanka's tourist arrivals in June increased by 8.8 percent to 32,865 from 30,207 in May despite the ongoing economic crisis, surpassing the 400,000 mark in the first half of this year, local media reported Monday.

* Peru registered 17,841 COVID-19 cases between June 19 and 25, an increase of 70 percent compared to the previous weekly period, the country's social security agency Essalud reported on Sunday.

* Norway's oil ministry on Monday said it had approved adjusted production permits for six offshore fields but that would not change the expected amount of gas Norway would export in 2022. The Nordic country expects to sell some 122 billion cubic metres of gas this year.

* A large wildfire raged out of control north of Athens on Monday, prompting authorities to order the evacuation of a nearby coastal town as a precaution.

* The Belgian subsidiary of Lufthansa LHAG.DE, Brussels Airlines, is cancelling close to 700 flights over the summer holiday period, around 6% of those scheduled, to reduce workload and avoid strikes, the airline said on Monday.

* Twelve bodies of suspected victims have been found as of 3:30 p.m. Monday after a floating crane sank in waters off the coast of south China's Guangdong Province, according to the provincial maritime search and rescue center.

* Helicopter crews and drones searched on Monday for around 15 people missing in the Italian Alps after part of a mountain glacier collapsed, killing at least six people and injuring eight.

* Over four decades after they became extinct locally, rhinos are roaming again the wilds of Mozambique, which is bringing the endangered species from South Africa in efforts to breathe new life into its parks and boost local tourism.

* A new case of monkeypox has been confirmed in Brazil, bringing the total number in the country to 76, the Ministry of Health reported on Sunday.

* Two new cases of monkeypox were detected in Colombia, bringing the total number of cases in the country to five, local health authorities reported on Saturday.

Xinhua/Reuters/VNA