Category: WORLD NEWS

Firefighters scrambled on Friday to control a raging inferno in southeastern Oregon that’s spreading miles a day in windy conditions, one of numerous conflagrations across the US West that are straining resources. Authorities ordered a new round of evacuations Thursday amid worries the Bootleg Fire, which has already destroyed 21 homes, could merge with another blaze that also grew explosively amid dry and blustery conditions. The Bootleg Fire, the largest wildfire currently burning in the US, has now torched an area larger than New York City and has stymied firefighters…

Washington, Jul 14 (PTI) US President Joe Biden has nominated a prominent Indian-American physician and a surgeon to serve in key roles in his administration. West Virginia’s former health commissioner Dr Rahul Gupta was nominated on Tuesday as the next director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Atul Gawande, a surgeon and popular author, was nominated for Assistant Administrator of the Bureau for Global Health at the US Agency for International Development. A practising primary care physician of 25 years, Gupta previously served under two Governors as the Health…

In a landmark verdict, Nepal’s Supreme Court on Monday directed President Bidya Devi Bhandari to appoint Nepali Congress chief Sher Bahadur Deuba as prime minister by Tuesday and reinstated the House of Representatives for a second time in five months. A five-member Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana issued the verdict stating that President Bhandari’s decision to dissolve the lower house upon a recommendation of Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli was an unconstitutional act, delivering a major blow to the veteran Communist…

 Bulgarians are voting in a snap poll on Sunday after a previous election in April produced a fragmented parliament that failed to form a viable coalition government. Latest opinion polls suggest that the rerun could produce similar results but also a further drop in support for former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov’s GERB party, after the current caretaker government made public allegations of widespread corruption during his rule. NATO and EU member Bulgaria has been repeatedly criticized for not tackling corruption and for deficiencies in the rule of law and media…

 Just two months ago, Indonesia was coming to a gasping India’s aid with thousands tanks of oxygen. Today, the Southeast Asia country is running out of oxygen as it endures a devastating wave of coronavirus cases and the government is seeking emergency supplies from other countries, including Singapore and China. A shipment of more than 1,000 oxygen cylinders, concentrators, ventilators and other health devices arrived from Singapore on Friday, followed by another 1,000 ventilators from Australia, said Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, the government minister in charge of Indonesia’s pandemic response. Beside…

The anti-poverty organisation Oxfam says 11 people die of hunger each minute and that the number facing famine-like conditions around the globe has increased six times over the last year. In a report titled The Hunger Virus Multiplies,” Oxfam said Thursday that the death toll from famine outpaces that of COVID-19, which kills around seven people per minute. The statistics are staggering, but we must remember that these figures are made up of individual people facing unimaginable suffering. Even one person is too many, said Oxfam America’s President and CEO…

Spanish police said Wednesday that they had arrested two people for their alleged responsibility in the deaths of more than 20 migrants who perished last month while trying to cross the Atlantic Ocean to the Canary Islands. Police said in a statement that they detained the suspected human trafficker and the suspected captain of the craft that was reached by Spanish rescue services on June 30 after 13 days adrift. Only 29 people were found by rescuers. Police believe that between 52-60 people had boarded the boat from its departure…

Coronavirus infections have been on the rise in the 22 countries of the eastern Mediterranean region after two months of steady decline because of increased international travel, low protection and limited vaccination, World Health Organization officials said Wednesday. The region, which includes the Gulf, North African and Asian countries, has registered over 11 million infections and over 220,000 deaths since last year. Iran has been the worst impacted by the pandemic, followed by Iraq. Ahmed Al-Mandhari, regional director of the WHO, said another spike is likely in the summer months…

 As the end to America’s forever war rapidly approaches, the U.S. Embassy and other diplomatic missions in Kabul are watching a worsening security situation and looking at how to respond. In the countryside, districts are falling to the Taliban in rapid succession. America’s warlord allies are re-arming their militias, which have a violent history, raising the specter of another civil war once the U.S. withdrawal is finished, expected in August. A U.S. Embassy spokesperson told The Associated Press that security assessments are frequent these days. Speaking on condition of anonymity…