France-UK must step up cooperation on migrants: French Pres Macron

  PARIS, Nov 20 (NNN-AGENCIES) — France must reinforce cooperation with Britain on the thorny question of migrant Channel crossings, French President Emmanuel Macron said, accusing London of “oscillating between partnership and provocation”.    The longstanding dispute has intensified in recent days after record numbers of migrants crossed the Channel…

Covid-19: German state Bavaria cancels all Christmas markets over virus

  MUNICH (Germany), Nov 20 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The German state of Bavaria cancelled all of its popular Christmas markets this year due to a surge in coronavirus infections as part of broader restrictions to fight the pandemic.    “The situation is very, very serious and difficult,” state premier Markus Soeder…

Hundreds try to cross EU border despite easing of crisis

    SOKOLKA (Poland), Nov 20 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Hundreds of migrants have again tried to cross the border from Belarus into Poland, Warsaw said, despite signs of the crisis easing after migrants left a makeshift encampment.   Polish border guards said there were attempted crossings by two groups on what is…

G7 calls for Belarus to end migrant crisis immediately

  LONDON, Nov 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) – G7 foreign ministers urged Belarus Thursday to end a migrant crisis on its border with Poland, accusing it of callously engineering the stand-off and putting lives at risk.   “We call on the regime to cease immediately its aggressive and exploitative campaign,” Britain, Canada,…

Colombia nun freed after 4-year captivity in Mali returns home

Colombian nun Gloria Cecilia Narvaez arrives at El Dorado International Airport in Bogota BOGOTA, Nov 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A Colombian nun who was kidnapped and held by armed groups in Mali for more than four years has returned home.Sister Gloria Cecilia Narvaez, 59, was greeted by a dozen fellow nuns,…

Canada death toll set to rise as floods ravage Pacific coast

A view of flooding in the Sumas Prairie area of Abbotsford British Columbia, Canada ABBOTSFORD (Canada), Nov 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Canada is sending the military to help evacuate and support communities hit by “catastrophic” flooding with the death toll expected to rise after record rainfall on the Pacific coast triggered…

Covid-19: German hospitals sound alarm in pandemic surge

  FREISING (Germany), Nov 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — With intensive care beds filling up and health staff running short, a hospital in Bavaria’s Freising made an unprecedented decision to transfer a coronavirus patient to northern Italy for treatment. Through the highs and lows spanning 18 months of the pandemic, Germany had…

US, Gulf countries accuse Iran of causing ‘nuclear crisis’

  WASHINGTON, Nov 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United States and its Arab allies in the Gulf accused Iran of causing a nuclear crisis and destabilizing the Middle East with ballistic missiles and drones.   The warning came in a joint statement issued after a meeting of the US and Gulf…

Twenty-five civilians killed in Niger’s lawless west

  NIAMEY, Nov 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Suspected jihadists killed 25 civilians in Niger in a lawless desert region near the border with Mali, local officials said.   Niger, the world’s poorest country by the benchmark of the UN’s Human Development Index, faces jihadist insurgencies both on its western flank abutting…

US: Two men found guilty of Malcolm X murder to be exonerated after admission by authorities of a historic miscarriage of justice

  NEW YORK, Nov 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Two men found guilty of the 1965 assassination of civil rights leader Malcolm X are to have their convictions thrown out, one of them posthumously, in an admission by US authorities of ahistoric miscarriage of justice.   Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance will…