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Kenya’s rainy season turns deadly again, with 18 killed and 54,000 households hit over a week

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Recent flooding during ongoing heavy rains in Kenya left 18 people dead over the past week, police said Sunday, with most of the deaths attributed to drowning.

More than 54,000 households have been affected by the flooding countrywide, with 6,000 of those being in the capital, Nairobi, according to the Interior Ministry.

Dozens of schools and hospitals across the country have flooded, and 17 roads have been cut off.

Mudslides have also forced thousands to move from the western Rift Valley area, while people living downstream of the Tana and Athi rivers have been urged to move to higher ground as water levels in the country’s hydroelectric dams rise.

The Kenya Meteorological Department has warned that enhanced rainfall is expected to continue in the first two weeks of May.

Heavy rains in the country started in March at the beginning of the rainy season and have left a trail of destruction, with more than 100 people dead by the end of March.

Beijing bans 4 New Zealand lawmakers from entering China because they visited Taiwan

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Beijing banned four New Zealand lawmakers from traveling to China for a year and demanded they apologize because they visited Taiwan on a parliamentary trip, according to a message from the Chinese embassy conveyed via parliamentary officials and shown to The Associated Press on Thursday. China has hit lawmakers from other countries with sanctions related to contact with Taiwan before, but it's the first time for New Zealand parliamentarians, the government in Wellington said. Beijing has been increasing pressure in recent years on the democratically governed island that it claims as its own territory. Two lawmakers reached by the AP on Thursday rejected the demand for an apology, while the other two could not be immediately reached. New Zealand's government said it would express concern about the travel bans to Beijing. The elected officials visited Taipei in May, as New Zealand parliamentarians have done “for decades,” a spokesperson for Foreign Minister Winston Peters said in a statement.
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