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The US Forest Service has announced it is closing several sites at California’s scenic South Lake Tahoe after discovering bubonic plague in the chipmunk population. The agency announced this week that “based on positive plague tests” in the rodent population around hiking areas, it would close popular hiking spots including …

North Korea wants international sanctions banning its metal exports and imports of refined fuel and other necessities lifted before it restarts denuclearization talks with the United States, South Korean lawmakers said on Tuesday. Pyongyang has also demanded the easing of sanctions on imports of luxury goods, including fine liquors and …

Two people died, seven were in critical condition and 31 others suffered injuries in a collision between two passenger trains near the western Czech town of Domazlice, Czech news agency CTK reported on Wednesday. Czech transport Minister Karel Havlicek said on Twitter one of the trains involved was the Ex …

French President Emmanuel Macron will on Wednesday seek to raise more than $350 million in aid for Lebanon at a donors’ conference marking the anniversary of the Beirut port blast, and send yet another warning to its squabbling political class. One year since an explosion ripped through the capital’s port …

One person died and three were injured when a fire broke out on a bus in a heavily fortified army compound in Damascus early on Wednesday, Syrian state news agency SANA reported. One source at the site of the explosion suggested an electrical fault had set the petrol tank on …

Singapore aims to have more than 200,000 police cameras by at least 2030, Minister for Home Affairs K Shanmugam said on Tuesday, over double the current number of cameras deployed across the island state. With a land area of little over 700 square kilometres (270 square miles), Singapore has strict …

Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin defied mounting pressure to quit on Wednesday, saying he retained majority support among lawmakers and that he will prove it when the Southeast Asian nation’s parliament reconvenes next month. Speaking in a televised address, Muhyiddin said King Al-Sultan Abdullah agreed that he should remain in …

Australia’s New South Wales reported one of the country’s youngest deaths from COVID-19 on Wednesday, as daily infections lingered near a 16-month high despite the lockdown of five million people in state capital Sydney entering its sixth week. The unnamed man in his 20s, who had no underlying health issues …

US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo should resign in light of a report by the state attorney general that found the Democratic governor had sexually harassed 11 women. “I think he should resign,” Biden told reporters at the White House. New York’s attorney …

The Iranian Foreign Ministry has dismissed rumors about the entry of the country’s military forces into foreign ships passing in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, warning against such false reports propagated by the Western and Zionist media. Saeed Khatibzadeh, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, made the remark in …

Thirty-seven people were killed in a road accident in south-central Mali on Tuesday, the transport ministry said, after a passenger bus collided with a truck. The force of the crash, which happened 20 km (12 miles) from the town of Segou, sheared off the front section of the bus and …

Two gunmen were reportedly in on the loose in an affluent part of Kabul. No one has claimed the attack yet, but it comes as tensions between the government and Taliban rise. Three people have died following an explosion in the green zone of Afghanistan’s capital Kabul. While no group …

Pakistan has announced that it hit the milestone of administering one million Covid vaccinations in a day, shortly after a deadline for compulsory vaccination was set for certain categories of people. Asad Umar, the minister in charge of the National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC), a military-run organization that manages …

The Pentagon went into lockdown on Tuesday after multiple injuries in a shooting at its nearby Metro, bus, and rail transit center. A police officer is said to be among the wounded, and the suspect reportedly fled on a Metro train. The Pentagon building in Arlington, Virginia – the headquarters …

A five-month investigation has found that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women in violation of federal and state law, creating a “climate of fear” within his office, state Attorney General Letitia James, said on Tuesday. The independent inquiry showed that Cuomo engaged in unwanted groping, kissing and …

At least 5 Americans have been killed and 50 others injured in a spate of shootings across Chicago in the US State of Illinois. A man was killed and another was wounded after being shot multiple times in the city’s Near West Side on Sunday. The 30-year-old was pronounced dead …

The United States has surpassed 35 million recorded COVID-19 cases as experts warn that the worst is yet to come with the Delta variant driving a new surge in infections. The country is now averaging a daily caseload of about 70,000 and recorded more than 100,000 on Friday, according to …

At least 16 people have been killed and a quarter of a million people displaced from their homes after heavy monsoon rains lashed eastern India, officials said on Tuesday (Aug 3), as the air force joined rescue efforts. According to reports, the latest deaths in West Bengal came a few …

The presence of the Taliban movement in Afghanistan’s north will suppress the growth of threat from the Daesh (ISIS) terrorist group to Central Asian countries, Russia’s special presidential representative for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, said on Tuesday. “Many other international terrorist organizations have been based on these territories for a long …

Iran will not continue with its plans for prisoner swaps with the United States, an unnamed Iranian official told the semi-official Nour Newsagency on Tuesday, accusing Washington of “breaches” against efforts to free the detainees. “With the continuing Biden administration … breaches, there is no incentive on Iran’s part to …