More than 40 athletes at the 2024 Paris Olympics have tested positive for Covid-19 highlighting a new global rise in cases, the World Health Organization said Tuesday. The WHO said the virus behind the Covid-19 pandemic was still circulating and countries need to sharpen up their response systems. Several high profile athletes have suffered from Covid-19 at the Paris Games. British swimmer Adam Peaty tested positive a day after winning silver in the 100m breaststroke when he had not felt well, his team said. Australian medal hope Lani Pallister pulled out of the women’s 1500m freestyle after falling ill. Data…
Author: Linda
Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to be her running mate on Tuesday, choosing a progressive policy champion and a plain speaker from America’s heartland to help win over rural, white voters, according to sources familiar with the matter. Campaign officials did not respond to requests for comment. An official announcement was expected on Tuesday morning. Walz, a 60-year-old U.S. Army National Guard veteran and former teacher, was elected to a Republican-leaning district in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2006 and served 12 years before being elected governor of Minnesota in 2018. As governor, Walz has…
Bangladesh’s president dissolved parliament on Tuesday, clearing the way for an interim government and new elections, a day after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled following a violent crackdown on a student-led uprising. President Mohammed Shahabuddin’s office also announced that the leader of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Begum Khaleda Zia, a former prime minister who had feuded with Hasina for decades, had been freed from house arrest. Student protesters had threatened more demonstrations if parliament was not dissolved. The movement that toppled Hasina rose out of demonstrations against public sector job quotas for families of veterans of Bangladesh’s 1971…
A Tunisian court on Monday sentenced four potential presidential election candidates to eight months in prison and banned them from running for office on a charge of vote buying, politicians and a lawyer told Reuters, a move they said was aimed at excluding serious competitors of President Kais Saied. The ruling reinforces the fears of opposition parties, candidates and human rights groups who have accused authorities of using arbitrary restrictions and intimidation in order to ensure the reelection of Saied in a vote set for Oct. 6. The decision was issued against prominent politician Abdel Latif Mekki, activist Nizar Chaari,…
Turkey says it will formally submit its declaration of intervention in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel over the war on Gaza at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan made the announcement on Monday while addressing a news conference in Cairo. He said the submission before the United Nations court is expected on Wednesday. Turkey had announced in May that it had decided to join the case launched by South Africa as it stepped up measures against Israel over its assault on Gaza, and that it would submit a bid after the necessary legal…
Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has resigned and fled the country following weeks of deadly demonstrations. The removal of Hasina on Monday followed weeks of deadly protests and appears to have averted the threat of further bloodshed. The focus now moves to who will control the South Asian country. In an address to the nation, army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman announced that an interim government will now run Bangladesh and called for calm. Hasina, who ruled the country for close to two decades, boarded a military helicopter on Monday, an aide told Al Jazeera, as huge crowds ignored a national curfew to…
Mali has announced it is severing diplomatic ties with Ukraine, accusing a senior official of having admitted Kyiv’s role in a heavy defeat in July that killed dozens of mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner group as well as Malian soldiers. The northern Tuareg rebels say they killed at least 84 mercenaries and 47 Malian soldiers over three days of fighting late last month in the north of the West African country, in what appeared to be Wagner’s heaviest defeat since it stepped into the conflict two years ago. On July 29, Andriy Yusov, the spokesperson for Ukraine’s military intelligence agency (GUR), told the…
An Israeli airstrike hit two schools in Gaza City on Sunday, killing at least 30 people, Palestinian officials said, while the Israeli military said it struck a Hamas military compound embedded in the schools. An Israeli airstrike hit a tent camp inside a hospital in central Gaza earlier in the day. Gaza health officials said a total of at least 44 Palestinians were killed on Sunday, the day after a round of talks in Cairo ended without result. Footage circulated on Palestinian media showed bodies scattered inside the yard of one of two blast-wrecked schools as residents rushed to carry casualties, including…
Seven European Union countries, including Italy, France, Germany and Spain have jointly called on the Venezuelan authorities to promptly publish the electoral rolls to ensure full transparency around last weekend’s election, the Italian prime minister’s office said on Saturday. Venezuela’s electoral council has declared President Nicolas Maduro, in power since 2013, the winner of the July 28 election with 51% of the vote, sparking immediate accusations of fraud by the opposition. The opposition says its own detailed tally shows opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez likely received 67% of the vote. The joint statement by the seven EU countries added to a…
An Israeli airstrike on a school sheltering displaced persons in Gaza City killed at least 15 Palestinians on Saturday, hours after two strikes in the occupied West Bank killed nine militants including a local Hamas commander, Hamas said. The Israeli military said the first of two West Bank airstrikes hit a vehicle in a town near the city of Tulkarm, targeting a militant cell it said was on its way to carry out an attack. A Hamas statement said one of those killed was a commander of its Tulkarm brigades, while its ally Islamic Jihad claimed the other four men…
Venezuela’s government accused the U.S. on Friday of being behind what it called a coup attempt, as some regional governments recognized the opposition candidate as the winner of the country’s disputed presidential election. Foreign Minister Yvan Gil said Washington’s recognition of opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez showed it was “at the forefront of a coup attempt.” “Venezuela’s democracy is one of the most robust in the world, no effort to undermine it will be able to do so,” the government said in a statement shared by Gil. On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken recognized Gonzalez as the winner, citing “overwhelming…
Russian assaults are raising pressure on the strategic eastern logistics hub of Pokrovsk, Ukraine said on Friday, as waves of guided bombs and infantry lead to some of Moscow’s largest territorial gains since the spring. The push is fuelling a surge in civilians fleeing, with requests for evacuation in the area increasing about tenfold over the past two weeks, according to a volunteer helping people leave. Russian forces have been steadily inching forward on several fronts in the eastern Donetsk region, staging particularly fierce attacks near Pokrovsk with Kyiv’s troops stretched thin 29 months since Russia’s full-scale invasion. Russia’s gains of…
Nigerian police are on red alert and may seek the help of the military after protests against the cost of living and governance issues turned violent in some cities, the inspector general of police said. At least three protesters were killed in northern Kaduna state on Thursday, Reuters reporters and protesters said. Amnesty International said on Friday at least 13 protesters in total had been killed in three northern states, but the authorities have not commented on any deaths. Some major cities, including the capital Abuja and Kano in the north appeared calm on Friday, a day after police and demonstrators clashed…
U.S. President Joe Biden said on Thursday the killing of Palestinian Islamist group Hamas’ leader Ismail Haniyeh was not helpful for reaching a ceasefire in Israel’s war in Gaza. There has been an increased risk of an escalation into a broader Middle East war after the assassination of Haniyeh in Iran drew threats of retaliation against Israel. Hamas and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards confirmed the death of Haniyeh, who had participated in internationally-brokered indirect talks on reaching a ceasefire in Gaza. Anxious residents in Israeli-besieged Gaza feared that Haniyeh’s killing on Wednesday would prolong the war. Iran said the killing took place hours after he attended a swearing-in…
At least three protesters were killed in Nigeria’s Kaduna state on Thursday, Reuters reporters and eyewitnesses said, as demonstrators rallied across the West African nation against rising cost of living and governance issues. Kaduna state police spokesperson Mansur Hassan said the police fired tear gas at protesters and not live ammunition. Also police fired tear gas in the capital city Abuja to disperse crowds of protesters, according to eyewitness accounts. Protesters demonstrated in Abuja, the commercial capital Lagos and several other cities to show discontent with economic reforms that have led to rampant inflation and inflicted increasing hardship on ordinary Nigerians. President…
Top Iranian officials will meet the representatives of Iran’s regional allies from Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen on Thursday to discuss potential retaliation against Israel after the killing of the Hamas leader in Tehran, five sources told Reuters. The region faces a risk of widened conflict between Israel, Iran and its proxies after Ismail Haniyeh’s assassination in Tehran on Wednesday and the killing of Hezbollah’s senior commander on Tuesday in an Israeli strike on the outskirts of the Lebanese capital Beirut. Representatives of Iran’s Palestinian allies Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, as well as Yemen’s Tehran-backed Houthi movement, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iraqi resistance groups will attend the…