Sceptical President invites Netanyahu to form next Israeli government
Jerusalem, IsraelReuters A sceptical President tasked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday with forming a new government, after another inconclusive election deepened political stalemate in Israel. The country’s longest-serving leader, in power consecutively since 2009, now faces the tough challenge of enlisting enough allies for a governing coalition. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gestures as […]
Global COVID-19 death toll surpasses three million amid new infections resurgence
Reuters Coronavirus-related deaths worldwide crossed three million on Tuesday, according to a Reuters tally, as the latest global resurgence of COVID-19 infections is challenging vaccination efforts across the globe. Worldwide COVID-19 deaths are rising once again, especially in Brazil and India. Health officials blame more infectious variants that were first detected in the United Kingdom […]
Family of UK’s Captain Tom call for fundraising celebration
London, UKReuters The family of Britain’s Captain Tom Moore, the World War II veteran who lifted a nation’s spirits during the pandemic, are calling for people to come together and raise funds for charity on what would have been his 101st birthday. Moore struck a chord with locked-down Britain, and made headlines around the world, […]
More than 1,800 break out of Nigerian prison: BBC
Reuters More than 1,800 inmates escaped from a Nigeria prison after an attack by gunmen carrying rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns, explosives and rifles, the BBC reported on Tuesday. The attackers used explosives to blast the administrative block of the prison in the south-eastern town of Owerri and enter the prison yard, the BBC said. Owerri […]
Food bank, charities busy in Algarve as pandemic ravages Portugal tourism
Faro, PortugalReuters Carla Lacerda used to earn a good salary selling duty-free goods to holidaymakers arriving at Algarve airport in southern Portugal, but she lost her job last August due to the COVID-19 pandemic and quickly ran out of cash to feed her two kids. The 40-year-old now receives around €500 euros per month in […]
US looks into reports of atrocities in Ethiopia’s Tigray region
Washington DC, USReuters The United States is looking into reports of human rights abuses and atrocities in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, the US State Department said on Monday. Department spokesman Ned Price told a news briefing that the United States is “gravely concerned” about accounts last week by CNN and the BBC of a massacre in […]
US faith leaders call for elimination of Senate filibuster
AP A coalition of faith leaders and activists on Monday demanded the elimination of the Senate filibuster, wading into a crucial debate in Washington with a 50-50 Senate and President Joe Biden eyeing ambitious legislation on expanding voting rights, stemming gun violence and other proposals that face opposition from Republicans. Led by prominent progressive pastor […]
Access to language: Young Africans go online to preserve local languages, fight COVID-19
KIM HARRISBERG and KRISTI EATON, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, report…
LA Catholic Archdiocese to close six schools due to hardships heightened by pandemic
Los Angeles, USRNS Six Catholic elementary schools in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles are closing at the end of the 2020-21 school year due to financial hardships heightened by COVID-19. “These six schools had been trying to overcome financial challenges long before the pandemic,” said Paul Escala, superintendent of schools for the archdiocese in his […]
Essay: Offshore gas finds offered major promise for Mozambique – what went wrong?
In an article first published on The Conversation, THEO NEETHLING, a professor of Political Science at the University of the Free State, looks at the situation in Mozambique where hundreds were killed and thousands forced to flee after an attack by Islamist militants on the town of Palma…