Covid-19: Guam launches vacation-and-vax tourism drive

  HAGATNA (Guam), June 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The US Pacific territory of Guam will offer visitors a Covid-19 vaccination with their tropical holiday, in a bid to restart its struggling tourism industry. Dubbed ‘Air V&V’ — vacation and vaccination — the programme is primarily aimed at US expatriates in the…

Sudan’s transition faces hurdle of merging paramilitary into army

  KHARTOUM, June 28, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – Integrating a powerful paramilitary force into the army has emerged as the latest stumbling block in Sudan’s transition to civilian rule following three decades under ousted strongmanOmar al-Bashir.   A civilian-military administration has led Sudan since August 2019 under a power-sharing deal that…

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…