International news brief: 3 dead in US mall shooting; Zelenskyy fires top security chief

Washington, July 18: Three people were killed and another three injured on Sunday at a mall in the US state of Indiana, the latest in a spate of gun violence in the country. While Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy fired his state security chief and prosecutor general over treason.

3 dead in US mall shooting

At least three people were killed and several others injured during a shooting Sunday evening at a mall in Greenwood in the US state of Indiana, local police said.

There is no active threat to the area and police have at least one suspect, Indianapolis Assistant Chief of Police Chris Bailey said. Greenwood is a southern suburb of Indianapolis.

Muted protests on Gotabaya Rajapaksa's entry into Singapore

Muted protests were organized by a handful of Singaporeans as ousted Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa arrived here last Thursday, leaving behind an economically-shattered country. Shortly after he arrived in Singapore on Thursday, the police reminded any would-be demonstrators about the consequences of breaking the law.

On Twitter, several Sri Lankans have also been tagging the Singapore government's Twitter account to express their anger at the Republic's decision. These tags, which show up when users search for who has interacted with the government's Twitter account, were swiftly removed, according to the Singapore daily report. But there were also some who thought Singapore was well within its rights to allow Rajapaksa entry.

Ukraine''s Zelenskyy fires top security chief and prosecutor

As Russian troops pressed their offensive in Ukraine's east, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy fired his state security chief and prosecutor general on Sunday, citing hundreds of criminal proceedings into treason and collaboration by people within their departments and other law enforcement agencies.

"In particular, more than 60 employees of the prosecutor's office and the SBU (state security service) have remained in the occupied territory and work against our state," Zelenskyy said.

"Such an array of crimes against the foundations of the state's national security, and the links recorded between Ukrainian security forces and Russian special services raise very serious questions about their respective leaders,'' he said in his nightly video address to the nation.

Wildfires rage across France, Spain and Portugal

Firefighters struggled on Sunday to contain wildfires raging out of control in France and Spain as Europe wilts under an unusually extreme heat wave that authorities link to a rise in excess mortality.
Two huge blazes have burned their way through pine forests for six days just south of the city of Bordeaux in southwestern France. The fires have forced the evacuation of some 14,000 people, including many who were on holiday in the area.

The devastating forest fires are triggered by a summer heat wave in Europe. Parts of the continent are bracing for new temperature records early next week.

World Health Organization declares Marburg outbreak in Ghana

The World Health Organization has declared Ghana's first outbreak of the Ebola-like Marburg virus disease after labs confirmed the infections in two cases announced earlier this month.

The disease, a very infectious hemorrhagic fever in the same family as Ebola, is spread to people by fruit bats and transmitted among people through direct contact with bodily fluids of infected people and surfaces, WHO said.

A preliminary analysis of samples from two patients from Ghana's southern Ashanti region - both of whom died and were unrelated - turned up positive, but were forwarded for full confirmation to the Institute Pasteur in Dakar, Senegal.

With agency inputs