Russia, China extend friendship treaty, hail ties

  MOSCOW, June 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The leaders of China and Russia on Monday announced the extension of a 20-year-old friendship treaty, hailing increasingly close ties and the “stabilising role” of their relationship.    The Kremlin published a joint statement from Russia and China to mark two decades since the treaty…

UN Security Council confronts growing threat of cyber attacks

 UNITED NATIONS, June 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The UN Security Council on Tuesday will hold its first formal public meeting on cybersecurity, addressing the growing threat of hacks to countries’ key infrastructure, an issue Joe Biden recently raised with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. At their summit earlier this month in…

World’s second-largest hydropower dam goes online in China

BEIJING, June 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — China began operating the world’s second-largest hydropower station on Monday in what officials hailed as a milestone towards Beijing’s carbon neutrality goals, despite warnings of environmental damage. The 289-metre high Baihetan Hydropower Station in southwest China, second in the world only to the country’s Three…

Haiti to hold delayed constitutional referendum in September

 PORT-AU-PRINCE, June 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Haiti’s constitutional referendum, initially slated for April but postponed twice due to the coronavirus pandemic, will be held on Sept 26, the electoral commission announced late Monday. Local and municipal elections are postponed until January 2022, the authorities said. President Jovenel Moise has been ruling…

Covid-19: India’s holy Ganges river gives up its coronavirus dead

 ALLAHABAD (India), June 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Partly hidden between long reeds of grass, bodies shrouded in saffron cloth float silently down the holy Ganges river, a reminder of how India’s ferocious coronavirus wave overwhelmed hospitals and crematoriums. Families in India’s north and east gave up the bodies of their loved…

Nepal introduces digital visa system

  KATHMANDU, June 29 (NNN-XINHUA) — Nepal on Monday launched a digital visa system to replace its 45-year-old hand-written visa regime.    Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Bishnu Prasad Paudel inaugurated the new system under which visas are produced digitally from the integrated information system of the Department of…

North American trade deal empowers Mexican workers

 MEXICO CITY, June 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A revamped North American free trade agreement is giving factory workers new muscle to flex in Mexico, where labor unions have long been accused of shady backroom deals with employers. The year-old United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) requires the three countries to guarantee worker rights…

No deal on UN peacekeeping budget, risk of mission freeze: diplomats

  UNITED NATIONS, June 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The 193 member states of the United Nations have thus far failed to agree on a peacekeeping budget for the year beginning July 1, which could lead to “a freeze on all missions” should a deal not soon materialize, diplomats said.    The…

US warns Russia not to veto Syria border access

 ROME, June 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United States warned that Russia would put at risk hopes for more constructive relations if it uses its UN veto to shut the sole border crossing for aid into Syria.    Secretary of State Antony Blinken joined Italy in leading talks in Rome of…

More record-smashing heat forecast as Canada, US northwest bake

OTTAWA, June 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Canada braced for its highest ever temperature as the country’s west and swathes of the United States baked in an unprecedented heat wave, forcing schools and Covid-19 vaccination clinics to close and the postponement of an Olympic athletics qualifying event.    The village of Lytton…