A man was shot dead on Tuesday during looting and food riots proliferating round crisis-hit Venezuela, bringing to at least four the number of fatalities from this month's wave of unrest. As well as the fatality, another 27 people had been injured during a day of chaos and violence in the eastern Caribbean coastal town of Cumana. There was simultaneous looting in more than 100 establishments. Videos and photos on social media from the town showed National Guard troops confronting crowds swarming round damaged shops, with crowds baying ‘We want food!’ Security forces struggled to keep order. Protests and melees at shops have been spreading around the recession-hit South American oil-producing nation in recent weeks, fuelled by shortages of basic foods. Over ten incidents of looting are occurring every day across the nation of 30 million people.

A wave of kidnappings, forced conversions and forced marriages of young Christian girls in Egypt has Christian families living in fear. The missing girls were ‘probably taken to be forcefully married and converted to Islam.’ Among those missing is Amal Shaky, 19, kidnapped on her way to Cairo University. When she did not come home or answer her phone they searched the campus. No one had seen her. Shaky's family went to the police, who suggested her father had killed his daughter and thrown away the body. After harassing the father, the officer refused to file a report and asked for a few hours to investigate the matter. More than forty days have passed since she was kidnapped, and ‘the matter is ‘under investigation’. The most recent figures available reveal that from 2011 to 2014 there were 72 cases of kidnappings, extortion and related violence against Coptic Christians.

Republicans in negotiations on delayed funding to combat the Zika virus are promising an agreement, as they focus on a $1.1 billion deal. Negotiators met on Wednesday, but only made opening speeches to satisfy the requirements for at least one public negotiating session. President Barack Obama requested $1.9 billion four months ago, but Congress did nothing for weeks, so he borrowed from unspent funds from the Ebola crisis to provide mosquito control, research into a vaccine, better tests to detect the virus, and help for foreign countries in their battles against Zika. The World Health Organisation said on Tuesday that the Rio Olympics may help spread the Zika virus around the world, but no faster than it's already spreading. Brazil already has many international travellers, and Zika is now active in 40 countries, including much of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Nigeria is going to do the painful thing everyone said it has to do: the currency will be allowed to float freely. The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, said that the bank will intervene ‘as the need arises’. A weaker currency will help Nigeria's economy by encouraging import substitution and attracting foreign investors, who have shunned the country for fear of a devaluation. The move will be painful over the short term: inflation was 15.6% in April. The authorities will probably be forced to tighten monetary policy. Nigeria is Africa’s largest economy but it has soaring inflation. This latest action will not magically fix all of Nigeria’s problems - for example, lower oil prices and ongoing oil-production disruptions by the Niger Delta Avengers.