Cannabis use has risen with legalisation and COVID-19 lockdowns: UN report

Cannabis has long been the world’s most widely used drug and that use is increasing VIENNA, June 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Places including US states that have legalised cannabis appear to have increased its regular use, while COVID-19 lockdowns had a similar effect, raising the risk of depression and suicide, a…

Update: South African nightclub death toll rises to 20, two still critical

Twenty young adults aged between 18-20 years died in a local tavern in Scenery Park JOHANNESBURG, June 26 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The number of young people who have died at a makeshift nightclub in a township in South Africa’s southern city of East London has risen to 20, a senior safety…

17 people found dead in South Africa’s tavern, investigation underway

CAPE TOWN, June 26 (NNN-Xinhua) — South African police said 17 people were found dead in a tavern in the country’s southeastern city of East London early Sunday, local media reported. “We do not want to make any speculations at this stage, our investigation is continuing,” provincial police spokesperson Tembinkosi…

CHOGM: West African states Gabon and Togo join Commonwealth

KIGALI, June 26 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Gabon and Togo joined the Commonwealth on Saturday, becoming the latest nations with no historic ties to Britain to enter the English-speaking club headed by Queen Elizabeth II. The 54-nation group of mostly former British colonies accepted Togo and Gabon’s application for membership on the…

Russia-Ukraine conflict: Four G7 powers impose gold export ban on Russia

ELMAU CASTLE (Germany), June 26 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Four G7 powers will ban Russian gold exports in a new bid to stop oligarchs from buying the precious metal to avoid the impact of sanctions against Moscow, Britain said on Sunday. The joint action taken by Britain, Canada, Japan and the United…

Detained Tunisia ex-PM Jebali hospitalised: lawyer

TUNIS, June 26 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Tunisia’s former prime minister Hamadi Jebali, on hunger strike after being arrested earlier this week on money-laundering allegations, was rushed to intensive care on Saturday, his lawyersaid. “His condition rapidly deteriorated because he is on an intense hunger strike and he didn’t take his medicine”…

Melilla migrant rush toll up to 23: Moroccan officials

Migrants climb the fences separating the Spanish enclave of Melilla from Morocco in Melilla, Spain NADOR (Morocco), June 26 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The death toll from a bid by African migrants to force their way into the Spanish enclave of Melilla, northern Morocco, has risen to 23, Moroccan officials said. Officials…

Russia-Ukraine conflict: Sievierodonetsk falls to Russia after one of war’s bloodiest fights

KYIV, June 26 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Russian forces seized full control of the eastern Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk on Saturday, both sides said, confirming Kyiv’s biggest battlefield setback for more than a month following weeks of some of the war’s bloodiest fighting. Ukraine called its retreat from the city a “tactical withdrawal”…

US economy will ‘narrowly avoid’ recession in 2022 and 2023, IMF says

 WASHINGTON, June 26 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The US economy is likely to slow in 2022 and 2023 but will “narrowly avoid a recession” as the Federal Reserve implements its rate-tightening plan to curb inflation, the International Monetary Fund said. “The policy priority now must be to expeditiously slow wage and price…

Canadian gold miners find rare mummified baby woolly mammoth

OTTAWA, June 26 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Miners in the Klondike gold fields of Canada’s far north have made a rare discovery, digging up the mummified remains of a near complete baby woolly mammoth. Members of the local Tr’ondek Hwech’in First Nation named the calf Nun cho ga, which means “big baby…