WORLD

Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his condolences to the family of Yevgeny Prigozhin on Thursday, breaking his silence after the mercenary leader’s plane crashed with no survivors two months after he led a mutiny against army chiefs. Two US officials told Reuters that Washington believed a surface-to-air missile originating from inside Russia likely shot down the plane, though they said the information was preliminary and under review. They spoke on condition of anonymity and offered no evidence.

Russian investigators opened a criminal probe but there has been no official word from Moscow on what may have caused Wednesday evening’s crash. Until Putin’s comments there had been no official confirmation of Prigozhin’s death beyond a statement from the aviation authority saying he was on board.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, during the 15th BRICS Summit, expressed his desire to end what he characterised as the "war unleashed by the West and its satellites" in Ukraine. 

Speaking by video link to leaders of the grouping, Putin said, "The desire of a number of Western countries to maintain their hegemony in the world led to a severe crisis in Ukraine. The actions of the Russian Federation in Ukraine are dictated only by the desire to stop the war of extermination unleashed by the West".

The Central American Parliament on Monday voted to expel Taiwan after more than two decades as a permanent observer and replace it with China, whose growing economic influence in Latin America has increasingly marginalized Taipei.

The six-nation parliament, known as Parlacen, met in the Nicaraguan capital Managua where local legislators proposed adding China, which claims democratically ruled Taiwan as its own territory.

The upcoming BRICS summit will focus a lot on the plans of the expansion of the international grouping. Member nation China will be trying its best to push the BRICS bloc of emerging markets to evolves as a full-scale rival to the G7 this week, reported the Financial Times

The BRICS summit will take place in Johannesburg from Wednesday. It will be joined by several leaders of of the developing countries. Moreover, many countries have been invited to join the bloc, which consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, etc.

Tropical Storm Hilary made landfall along Mexico's Baja California coast on Sunday and was on course to hit California. The US National Hurricane Center warned of "catastrophic and life-threatening flooding" over Baja California and portions of the southwestern US through Monday. 

Hilary is expected to make history as the first tropical storm to hit Southern California in 84 years, bringing flash floods, isolated tornadoes, high winds and power outages, said news agency AP.