International

04-07-2021 Bureau Report + Agencies PARIS/ NEW DELHI: A French judge has been tasked with investigating a controversial 2016 multi-billion-dollar sale of Rafale fighter jets to India on “corruption” suspicions, the national financial prosecutors’ office (PNF) said Friday. The 7.8-billion-euro ($9.3-billion) deal for 36 planes between the Indian government and …

04-07-2021 CIUDAD JUAREZ, MEXICO: For Claudia, the journey from her small Guatemalan village to the US-Mexico border was complicated by the fact she could speak only her native Ixil, one of 21 Mayan languages in Guatemala. On way to what she had hoped would be asylum in the United States, …

03-07-2021 TEHRAN:  Iran is bracing for another wave of COVID-19 infections as the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus is spreading through the country’s southern and southeastern provinces. Expressing alarm on Saturday, President Hassan Rouhani noted that adherence to health protocols such as using masks and physical distancing had …

03-07-2021 TOKYO: Dozens Japanese have been hurt and killed and many others have been reported missing on Saturday, after heavy rains hit Japan’s central city of Atami in Shizuoka, triggering landslides, according to the public broadcaster NHK. Two people were “found in a state of cardio and respiratory arrest”, Shizuoka …

03-07-2021 More than 130 wildfires – fuelled by lightning strikes – are burning across western Canada following a record-breaking heatwave. Canada’s federal government said it would send military aircraft to help emergency workers battling to control the fires in British Columbia. Earlier this week, people had to flee the village …

03-07-2021 WINNIPEG: Protesters have vandalized statues of Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II in the Canadian city of Winnipeg as anger grows over the discovery of the remains of hundreds of children in unmarked graves at former indigenous schools. A crowd chanted “no pride in genocide” before pulling down the …

03-07-2021 Bureau Report MELBOURNE: A warning has been issued for dog owners as a canine gastro outbreak spreads through Melbourne’s inner-east. A Richmond vet told 9News his clinic has been seeing up to 30 dogs a day with gastro, who were likely catching the bug at popular parks. Golden Retriever Lenny …

03-07-2021 PARIS: The coronavirus pandemic picked up speed again this week in all regions of the world except Latin America. Here is the global state of play according to media database. First rise in weeks The average number of new daily COVID-19 cases globally increased slightly by two per cent to …

02-07-2021 Bureau Report + Agencies LONDON The United Kingdom’s opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer received a boost in northern England on Friday, fighting off a challenge from the governing Conservatives to hang on to a parliamentary seat that if lost, would have heaped pressure on him to stand down. …

02-07-2021 JERUSALEM/ GAZA CITY: Israel said its fighter jets targeted a weapons manufacturing site in the Gaza Strip overnight on Friday in the latest unrest since a ceasefire ended May’s attacks. Security sources with Hamas said the raids hit training sites and no casualties were reported. The Israeli army spokesperson …