SOUTH AFRICA: Around 300 firefighters and three helicopters battled a wildfire on a mountain overlooking Simon’s Town, south of Cape Town, for a second day today.

The fire started on Tuesday morning and was spread by winds overnight near the town, which hosts South Africa’s main naval base. Five firefighters have been injured.

NIGERIA: Gunmen kidnapped a high court judge and killed her guard in the southern state of Akwa Ibom as she made her way home from a hearing on Monday night.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Joy Uwanna’s abduction, but similar acts by criminal gangs seeking a ransom are common in some parts of Nigeria.

FRANCE: President Emmanual Macron’s government faced uproar today after MPs approved an immigration Bill, backed by the far right, which strengthens powers to deport migrants.

Marine Le Pen, who leads the far-right National Rally group in the National Assembly, described it as an ”ideological victory” for her party, while Mr Macron’s health minister resigned in protest.

GREECE: Greenpeace and the World Wide Fund for Nature are among campaign groups that have launched legal action against a major natural gas project supported by the European Union as an alternative to Russian energy.

The five groups filed the action at Greece’s Council of State against the planned plant, which is due to go online next year, saying that it is “accident-prone” and poses a threat to the local marine environment.