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01-07-2021 BRITISH COLUMBIA/ OTTAWA: Authorities say nearly 500 people have died in Canada’s westernmost province across five days, as record-breaking temperatures raise serious concerns for vulnerable groups, including the elderly. British Columbia’s (BC) Chief coroner Lisa Lapointe said on Wednesday afternoon that the BC Coroners Service received at least 486 …

01-07-2021 PARIS: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has pledged $2.1bn over the next five years to help advance gender equality worldwide, announcing this commitment during the UN Women Generation Equality Forum in Paris. During the forum’s opening event Wednesday, $40bn in new investments benefitting women and girls were announced, …

01-07-2021 WARNING: The story below contains details of residential schools that may be upsetting, Canada’s Indian Residential School Survivors and Family. OTTAWA/ BRITISH COLUMBIA: An Indigenous community in western Canada has found 182 unmarked graves near a former boarding school for Indigenous children, the latest such discovery in recent weeks. …

30-06-2021 ADDIS ABABA/ TIGRAY: Tigrayan fighters have reportedly taken control of more territory in the embattled northern Ethiopian region of Tigray, a day after regarding the regional capital, Mekelle, from retreating federal government forces and pledging to drive all “enemies” out. The military advances and rhetoric cast doubt on whether a …

30-06-2021 Bureau Report + Agencies NEW DELHI: When student activists Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal walked out of Delhi’s Tihar jail recently, it was obvious their 13-month stint in prison had failed to dim their morale. With wide smiles and fists raised in defiance, the founders of Pinjra Tod (Break …

30-06-2021 Bureau Report CANBERRA/ BEIJING: Chinese pro-democracy students in Australia fear punishment for their family back home if they speak out on sensitive issues, a new report says. Human Right Watch found such students feel surveilled in Australia, leading many to self-censor in classrooms. Academics teaching China courses in the country …

30-06-2021 Bureau Report + Agencies NEW DELHI/ LONDON: India has classified a new variant of the coronavirus first identified in Europe as a “variant of concern”, but it’s too early to tell whether it poses a significant threat. India’s health ministry says studies showed that the so-called Delta plus variant …

30-06-2021 Bureau Report + Agencies ABU DHABI: Israel’s top diplomat Yair Lapid opened the Jewish state’s first embassy in the Gulf during a trip to the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday after ties were normalized ties last year. “The opening of the Israeli Embassy in Abu Dhabi with the Emirati …

30-06-2021 VANCOUVER: At least 69 people in the Vancouver area have died in a record-smashing heat wave engulfing western Canada and the US Pacific Northwest, police said Tuesday. Most of the dead in the Vancouver suburbs of Burnaby and Surrey over the past 24 hours were elderly or people with …

30-06-2021 Bureau Report KABUL/ ISLAMABAD: Taliban fighters have launched an attack on Ghazni, clashing with Afghan forces and using explosives in an attempt to seize the central Afghan city, local officials have said. Tuesday’s assault on Ghazni, on the highway linking the capital Kabul with the southern province of Kandahar, …