Category Archives: World News

Anoosheh Ashoori: London Marathon dream of Iran detainee nears reality

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British-Iranian who set goal while at notorious Evin prison says he wants ‘something good to come out of all that pain’

Serving a minimum 10-year sentence in Iran’s notorious Evin prison on spying charges, Anoosheh Ashoori, a 68-year-old British-Iranian retired engineer, knew he must find purpose if he was to avoid insanity.

He pledged that one day, when he was released, he would run the London Marathon. It was an ambitious dream, especially for a man who was not very fit and or expecting to be freed before the age of 73.

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Kenyan tea pickers on Scottish-run farm to pursue health issues in UK court

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Prolonged bending to gather tea for James Finlay Kenya is argued to accelerate ageing of pickers’ backs by up to 20 years

More than a 1,000 Kenyan tea pickers who say that harsh and exploitative working conditions on a Scottish-run tea farm have caused them crippling health complaints can now pursue their class action in an Edinburgh court.

Lawyers acting for the tea pickers have won an order from the court of session, Scotland’s highest civil court, telling James Finlay Kenya Ltd (JFK) to abandon attempts to block the suit through the Kenyan courts.

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Sanna Marin: Finland’s prime minister who just wants to be herself

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Controversy over her private life goes to the heart of the occasionally divisive leader’s appeal

The controversy embroiling Finnish prime minister Sanna Marin’s partying scandal threatens to derail what has appeared until now to be a charmed political career.

Marin, who when she became prime minister aged 34 was the world’s youngest elected leader, is a career politician whose rise through the ranks of Finland’s centre-left Social Democratic party appeared effortless.

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Biden unveils plan to cancel $10,000 in student loan debt for millions

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President delivers on campaign promise and outlines debt relief measures for those on lower incomes in White House speech

Millions of Americans received welcome news on Wednesday when Joe Biden delivered on a campaign promise to provide $10,000 in student debt forgiveness.

Borrowers who earn less than $125,000 a year will be eligible for loan forgiveness, with those whose low incomes qualified them for federal Pell Grants receiving up to $20,000 in relief. About a third of US undergraduate students receive Pell Grants.

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Putin to blame for UK’s high energy bills, says Johnson on surprise visit to Kyiv

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Prime minister says while Britons face higher costs, Ukrainians are ‘paying in their blood’ for Russia’s aggression

Vladimir Putin is to blame for British people being hit by high energy bills while Ukrainian people are “paying in their blood”, Boris Johnson has said as he made a final visit to Kyiv as prime minister.

In his third visit to the country since Russia invaded in the spring, Johnson urged the international community to “stay the course” in its support for Ukraine. The outgoing prime minister also told the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, that Ukraine “can and will win the war”.

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Canada refuses to extend bilingual bonus to Indigenous-language workers

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Government pays stipend to employees who speak French and English but Treasury Board says it has no plans to expand scheme

Canada’s federal government says it will not expand the scope of a program that pays an annual bonus to bilingual employees, excluding hundreds of government workers who speak an Indigenous language on the job.

Since the late 1970s, the federal government has paid a bonus of C$800 (US$617) to workers who use English and French, the country’s two official languages. But Canada has more than 60 Indigenous languages, and about 500 federal employees frequently speak an Indigenous language on the job.

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China warns Canada over planned Taiwan visit by parliamentarians

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Beijing threatens ‘forceful measures’ if Canada ‘interferes’ as MPs plan trade delegation to Taipei later this year

China warned it will take “forceful measures” if Canada “interferes” in Taiwan, a week after it emerged that a delegation of Canadian parliamentarians was planning to visit the island later this year to explore trade opportunities.

China claims Taiwan as its territory under its “one-China principle” and objects to foreign politicians visiting the island. Democratically governed Taiwan rejects China’s claims.

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Fighting in northern Ethiopia shatters months-long truce

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Tigrayan rebels and government each accuse the other of striking first as conflict resumes

Fighting has erupted between government forces and Tigrayan rebels in northern Ethiopia, shattering a five-month truce between the warring sides.

Both have repeatedly blamed the other for a lack of progress towards negotiations to end the 21-month conflict in Africa’s second most populous nation.

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Thai court suspends PM Prayuth pending term limit review

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Surprise move by constitutional court throws Thai politics into confusion

Thailand’s prime minister, Prayuth Chan-ocha, has been suspended from office by the constitutional court while it considers whether he has overstayed the limits of his term.

The court agreed to hear a case brought by opposition MPs, who say Prayuth, who came to power in a coup in 2014, should have left office this week. Under Thailand’s constitution, prime ministers are barred from ruling for more than eight years.

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Egyptian NGOs complain of being shut out of Cop27 climate summit

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Civil society groups say covert screening process excluded government’s critics

A group of Egyptian civil society organisations have been prevented from attending the Cop27 climate summit by a covert registration process that filtered out groups critical of the Egyptian government.

Egypt’s foreign, environment and social solidarity ministries privately selected and screened NGOs that would be permitted to apply for one-time registration for Cop27, a separate process from applications for official observer status, which closed last year.

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Angolans go to polls in most competitive election in decades

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Ruling MPLA party faces major challenge from opposition parties, with turnout expected to be high

Angolans are voting in an election in which the ruling People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) faces the most significant challenge from opposition parties for decades.

More than 14 million people in the oil and diamond rich country are eligible to vote, with a high turnout likely after polls showed the main opposition party closer to victory than many expected.

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China issues alert as drought and heatwave put crops at risk

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Local authorities told to take measures and ‘use every unit of water carefully’ in effort to save autumn harvest

A drought in China is threatening food production, prompting the government to order local authorities to take all available measures to ensure crops survive the hottest summer on record.

On Tuesday, four government departments issued an urgent joint emergency notice, warning that the autumn harvest was under “severe threat”. It urged local authorities to ensure “every unit of water … be used carefully”, and called for methods included staggered irrigation, the diversion of new water sources, and cloud seeding.

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Vietnam declares being LGBTQ+ is ‘not an illness’ in victory for gay rights

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Campaigners hail landmark decision as a ‘huge paradigm shift’ in attitudes towards sexuality

Being gay, bisexual or transgender should not be considered an illness and cannot be treated, the Vietnam government has announced in “a huge paradigm shift” in LGBTQ+ rights in the country.

The Ministry of Health said medical professionals should treat LGBTQ+ people with respect and ensure they are not discriminated against.

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Kenya elections bring new wave of female leaders to the fore

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Record win for women is a cause for celebration as acrimony over the presidency continues

More women won parliamentary seats in Kenya’s elections this month than ever before.

The National Gender and Equality Commission said Kenyans elected 30 female MPs, up from 23 in 2017, seven female governors, up from three in 2017, and three female senators, the same number as in 2017.

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Papua New Guinea brings in minister for coffee

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Prime minister says new appointment shows the government’s commitment to expanding key agriculture industries

The Papua New Guinean prime minister has announced his cabinet, which contains not only some new faces, but some new positions as well, including a minister for coffee.

The post – believed to be a world first – shows the government’s commitment to expanding key agriculture industries, said the prime minister James Marape, who won re-election earlier this month after an election plagued by violence and allegations of voter fraud. For the first time Marape also named a minister for palm oil.

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Florida: Charlie Crist wins Democratic primary to challenge Ron DeSantis

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Former Republican governor who became a Democratic congressman edges out Nikki Fried to face the Donald Trump protégé in November

Charlie Crist will challenge Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, in November after trouncing Nikki Fried, the state agriculture commissioner, in Tuesday’s Democratic primary.

Crist, a former Republican governor of Florida who switched parties and became a Democratic congressman, fought a campaign touting his experience in office and opposition to the 15-week abortion ban signed by DeSantis.

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Zelenskiy warns Russia of strong response to independence day attacks

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Ukrainian president defiant as officials report Moscow is preparing strikes on capital and infrastructure

Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that any attacks by Russia on the country’s independence day would be met with a powerful response as Ukraine prepared to mark 31 years since the end of Soviet rule.

The Ukrainian president’s defiant message followed warnings from western and Ukrainian officials that Russia was preparing to once again attack the capital, Kyiv, on the date that also marks six months since the 24 February invasion. The US on Tuesday urged all its citizens to leave the country, saying it believed Russia would target civilian and government infrastructure in the next few days.

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Security guard awaiting trial euthanised by prison authorities in Spain

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Marin Eugen Sabau granted right to assisted death due to chronic pain he felt after shootout with police

Spanish prison authorities have euthanised a man who had shot and wounded four people in December and was subsequently wounded in a shootout with the police, rendering him paralysed and begging to be allowed to die while awaiting trial.

Courts allowed the man’s assisted death after rejecting several appeals by his victims, who argued that he should face justice. The case reached the constitutional court, which refused to deliberate on it, saying there had been no violation of fundamental rights.

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Famed Churchill portrait stolen from hotel and replaced with fake

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An employee at the Château Laurier in Ottawa spotted something amiss with ‘Roaring Lion’ portrait by photographer Yousuf Karsh

Police in Canada are investigating the “brazen” heist of a famed Sir Winston Churchill portrait after the original photograph was mysteriously swapped for a fake.

Last week, an employee at the Château Laurier hotel in Ottawa, noticed something amiss with a portrait known as the “Roaring Lion” which was taken after the wartime leader addressed the Canadian parliament in 1941.

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Kyiv accuses Moscow of mass abduction of Ukrainian children

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Foreign ministry says Russia has transferred more than 1,000 children from Mariupol for illegal adoptions in Siberia

Kyiv has accused Moscow of having organised illegal mass adoptions of Ukrainian children after transferring them from occupied territories to Russia.

Since the beginning of the war, Kyiv has been accusing Moscow of “deporting” Ukrainians, saying Ukrainians from occupied territories have been forced to go to Russia rather than other regions of Ukraine.

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