Author: News Desk

Ottawa, Aug. 14 (BNA): Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is planning a snap election for Sept. 20 to seek voter approval for the government’s costly plans to combat COVID-19, four sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday. Trudeau is set to make the announcement on Sunday, said the sources, who requested anonymity given the sensitivity of the situation. Trudeau aides have said for months that the ruling Liberals would push for a vote before end-2021, two years ahead of schedule, Reuters said. Trudeau only has a minority government and relies on other parties to push through legislation.…

Mexico City, Aug. 14 (BNA): Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Friday asked the country’s indigenous Mexica peoples for forgiveness for the abuses inflicted on them during the bloody 1521 Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire. Lopez Obrador spoke in front of a large replica temple built to commemorate 500 years since the fall of the ancient Aztec capital Tenochtitlan to Hernan Cortes, the leader of the invading Spanish force and the armies of his indigenous allies, Reuters reported. Cortes and his allies defeated the Aztec leaders and the Mexica people who lived in Tenochtitlan, which later became Mexico…

ATHENS: A new fire broke out Friday on Greece’s island of Evia but south from the area where a massive wildfire decimated forests, torched homes and still smoldered 10 days after it started. Greece’s fire department said four water-dropping aircraft and six helicopters were sent to control the new fire in central Evia, along with 23 firefighters and 10 vehicles. The larger fire that broke out on August 3 destroyed most of the island’s north and is one of the country’s worst known forest fires. Although wildfires are common in Greece during the hot, dry summers, hundreds of blazes have broken out…

California : Wildfires in Montana threatened rural towns and ranchland, and victims of a California blaze returned to their incinerated town even as the region faced another round of dangerous weather. Firefighters and residents have scrambled to save hundreds of homes as flames advance across the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in southeastern Montana. An evacuation order was lifted on Friday morning for about 600 people in and around the town of Ashland, just east of the reservation, signaling progress on the blaze that had burned out of control since Sunday. But the fire was still burning near the tribal headquarters…

Cairo :  The Arab Parliament has condemned Houthi terrorist militia’s launching of a bomb-laden UAV towards Khamis Mushit, Saudi Arabia, in a systematic and deliberate way targeting civilians and civilian objects, which was intercepted and destroyed by the Coalition Forces to Restore legitimacy in Yemen. In a statement issued today and carried by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), the Arab Parliament urged the international community to condemn these terrorist attacks and to take measures that would deter these terrorist groups and those who finance and support them to target civilians and civilian objects. The Arab Parliament also called on the…

Abu Dhabi : Gulf Air Acting Chief Executive Officer Captain Waleed Abdulhameed AlAlawi has visited Etihad Aviation Training Centre in Abu Dhabi. In February, Gulf Air and Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, signed a Strategic Commercial Cooperation Agreement to deepen their partnership between Bahrain and Abu Dhabi and beyond the respective hubs. The wide-ranging agreement sets out specific actions for deepening and broadening commercial cooperation, building on the Memorandum of Understanding the airlines signed in 2018 during the Bahrain International Airshow. The memorandum also provided for exploration of MRO, pilot and crew training, and cargo…

Brussels : Italy on Friday received 24.9 billion euros ($29.3 billion), its first tranche of money from the 800 billion euro EU Recovery Fund, aimed at helping the bloc rebound from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and also making its economy greener and more digitalised. Italy has been allocated a total of 191.5 billion euros in grants and loans from the fund. The remaining money will be paid out as the investments and reforms proposed by Rome are implemented, Reuters reported. “It is a once-in-a-lifetime chance for Italy to relaunch the economy and build a sustainable future for the…

US : The number of migrants detained at the US-Mexico border in July exceeded 200,000 for the first time in 21 years, government data shows. A total of 212,672 migrants were apprehended by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), including an all-time high of 19,000 unaccompanied minors. It continues a trend of rising migrant numbers this year, despite the White House urging people to stay away. Experts say many migrants are fleeing violence and extreme poverty. The July figure represents the highest monthly total since April 2000 – the latest sign of the growing humanitarian crisis facing the Biden administration.…

UK : The drug companies Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna are poised to make billions of dollars from Covid-19 booster jabs this autumn, with analysts estimating that sales could rival the $6bn-a-year market for seasonal flu vaccines. The UK government is expected to announce details of its booster programme in the coming days, based on formal advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, but the health secretary, Sajid Javid, has suggested the over-50s could be offered a dose along with their winter flu jabs. The UK is expected to join France and Germany in offering follow-up doses from September. The US…

Potsdam :  On the 60th anniversary of the building of the Berlin Wall, the leader of Germany’s conservative Christian Democratic Union Armin Laschet paid tribute to its victims on the former border between East and West Germany, said dpa international. “Only an unjust state shoots at its own people,” said Laschet on Friday at a commemoration event at the Glienicke Bridge in Potsdam, where multiple spy exchanges between US and Soviet intelligence agencies occurred during the Cold War. Saying he represented all the victims of the Wall, Laschet paid tribute in particular to 20-year-old Chris Gueffroy, who was the last victim to…