theworldmail.co.uk – Page 87 – International News

India introduces new rules to regulate online content

JUSTIN MARK February 25, 2021 No Comments

**FEB 25, 2021 @ 1800 GMT** | India’s Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, addresses a press conference in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2021. India on Thursday rolled out new regulations for social media companies and digital streaming websites to make them more accountable for the online content shared on their platforms, giving the government more power to police it. (AP Photo)

NEW DELHI (AP) — India on Thursday rolled out new regulations for social media companies and digital streaming websites to make them more accountable for the online content shared on their platforms, giving the government more power to police it.

The Information Technology Ministry said the new regulations would require social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter to swiftly erase content authorities deem unlawful. The regulations include a strict oversight mechanism that would allow the government to ban content affecting “the sovereignty and integrity of India.”

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US tops 500,000 virus deaths, matching the toll of 3 wars

JUSTIN MARK February 23, 2021 No Comments

**FEB 23, 2021 @ 1130 GMT | FILE** – In this Feb. 15, 2021, file photo, Patty Trejo, 54, left, looks at her intubated husband, Joseph, in a COVID-19 unit as registered nurse Celina Mande holds a smartphone showing a mariachi band performing for the patient at St. Jude Medical Center, in Fullerton, Calif. Trejo visited her husband for the first time since he was hospitalized more than a month ago. A survivor of COVID-19 herself, she invited a mariachi band to give him courage. Surrounded by hospital staff, family members and friends in the parking lot of the hospital, the band played her husband’s favorite song, “La mano de Dios,” or “The Hand of God.” “He needs to know that I still love him, and he needs to know he’s got to fight,” said Trejo. **(AP Photo)**

WASHINGTON, United States (AP) — The COVID-19 death toll in the U.S. topped 500,000 Monday, a staggering number that all but matches the number of Americans killed in World War II, Korea and Vietnam combined.

President Joe Biden held a sunset moment of silence and a candle-lighting ceremony at the White House and ordered American flags lowered at federal buildings for the next five days.

“We have to resist becoming numb to the sorrow,” Biden said. “We have to resist viewing each life as a statistic or a blur.”

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Italian ambassador among 3 killed in attack on Congo convoy

JUSTIN MARK February 22, 2021 No Comments

**FEB 22, 2021 @ 1700 GMT** | In this image taken from video, United Nations peacekeepers guard the area where a U.N. convoy was attacked and the Italian ambassador to Congo killed, in Nyiragongo, North Kivu province, Congo Monday, Feb. 22, 2021. The Italian ambassador to Congo Luca Attanasio, an Italian carabineri police officer and their Congolese driver were killed Monday in an attack on a U.N. convoy in an area that is home to myriad rebel groups, the Foreign Ministry and local people said. **(AP Photo)**

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — The Italian ambassador to Congo, an Italian Carabinieri police officer and their Congolese driver were killed Monday when gunmen attacked a U.N. convoy traveling to a school in eastern Congo, the Italian Foreign Ministry and residents said.

Luca Attanasio, serving at the Italian embassy in the country since 2017, Carabinieri officer Vittorio Iacovacci and their driver Moustapha Milambo were killed, officials said. Other members of the convoy were wounded and taken to a hospital, the World Food Program said.

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UAE weapons show draws major deals, traders amid pandemic

JUSTIN MARK February 21, 2021 No Comments

**FEB 21, 2021 @ 1800 GMT** | Al Fursan, or the Knights, a UAE Air Force aerobatic display team, perform during the opening day of the International Defence Exhibition & Conference, IDEX, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Sunday, Feb. 21, 2021. **(AP Photo)**

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — In spite of the surging coronavirus pandemic, major arms makers descended Sunday on a convention center in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, hoping to make deals with militaries across the Middle East.

The UAE unveiled $1.36 billion in local and foreign arms deals to supply its forces with everything from South African drones to Serbian artillery. Although the figure surpasses the 2019 show’s opening announcement, defense experts anticipate a drop in military spending this year as the pandemic and slumping global oil prices squeeze budgets in the Persian Gulf.

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With no crowds, Louvre gets rare chance to refurbish

JUSTIN MARK February 20, 2021 No Comments

**FEB 20, 2021 @ 1500 GMT** | Workers at the Louvre museum transport a painting called ‘Christ on the Cross Adored by Two Donors’ by Spanish painter El Greco, as it returns from an exhibition at the Chicago Institute, in the Louvre museum, in Paris, Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2021. (AP Photo)

PARIS (AP) — The 518-year-old Mona Lisa has seen many things in her life on a wall, but rarely this: Almost four months with no Louvre visitors.

As she stares out through bulletproof glass into the silent Salle des Etats, in what was once the world’s most-visited museum, her celebrated smile could almost denote relief. A bit further on, the white marble Venus de Milo is for once free of her girdle of picture-snapping visitors.

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Asia stocks follow Wall St. down after weaker US jobs data

JUSTIN MARK February 19, 2021 No Comments

FEB 19, 2021 @ 1800 GMT | A worker clears snow from the front of the New York Stock Exchange in the Financial District, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021, in the Manhattan borough of New York. **(AP Photo)**

BEIJING (AP) — Asian stock markets followed Wall Street lower on Friday after disappointing U.S. jobs and economic data. Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Australia all declined.

Overnight, Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index lost 0.4% for its third straight daily decline.

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Russia rejects European rights court’s order to free Navalny

JUSTIN MARK February 18, 2021 No Comments

**FEB 18, 2021 @ 1400 GMT |** In this photo taken from a footage provided by the Babuskinsky District Court Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2021, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, center, enters a cage to attend a hearing on his charges for defamation in the Babuskinsky District Court in Moscow, Russia. Navalny is accused of defaming a World War II veteran who was featured in a video last year advertising constitutional amendments that allowed an extension of President Vladimir Putin’s rule. (Babuskinsky District Court Press Service via AP)

MOSCOW (AP) — Europe’s top human rights court has ordered Russia to release jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, a ruling quickly rejected Wednesday by Russian authorities who are bent on isolating the Kremlin’s most prominent foe.

The decision by the European Court of Human Rights had demanded that Russia free Navalny immediately and warns that failing to do so would mark a breach of the European human rights convention.

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A joke, a jab: South Africa starts vaccinating with leader

JUSTIN MARK February 17, 2021 No Comments

**FEB 17, 2021 @ 1700 GMT** | South African President Cyril Ramaphosa receives a Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, South Africa, Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2021. Ramaphosa was among the first in his country to receive the vaccination to launch the inoculation drive in the country. (Pool via AP)

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Cracking a joke about his fear of needles, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday became one of the first people to receive a COVID-19 vaccination in the country that has by far the highest confirmed virus caseload in Africa.

“Can I close my eyes?” Ramaphosa bantered as a health worker injected him with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in a live broadcast on South African television.

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Trump looks to reassert himself after impeachment acquittal

JUSTIN MARK February 15, 2021 No Comments

**FEB 15, 2021 @ 1000 GMT | FILE** – President Donald Trump gestures to supporters en route to his Mar-a-Lago Florida Resort on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump took in the win at Mar-a-Lago, surrounded by friends and family. His lawyers celebrated with hugs and smiles. One joked, “We’re going to Disney World!”

Now acquitted in his second Senate impeachment trial, Trump is preparing for the next phase of his post-presidency life. Feeling emboldened by the trial’s outcome, he is expected to reemerge from a self-imposed hibernation at his club in Palm Beach, Florida, and is eyeing ways to reassert his power.

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Czechs re-declare state of emergency to keep restrictions

JUSTIN MARK February 14, 2021 No Comments

**FEB 14, 2021 @ 1500 GMT** | Medical workers move a covid-19 patient at a hospital overrun by the covid pandemic in Cheb, Czech Republic, Friday, Feb. 12, 2021. The Czech government has imposed a complete lockdown of the three hardest-hit counties to help contain the spread of a highly contagious variant of the coronavirus. The meeasures will became effective Friday for the two counties in western Czech Republic on the German border Cheb and Sokolov and another county in the northern part of the country Trutnov located on the border with Poland. **(AP Photo)**

PRAGUE (AP) — The Czech government on Sunday re-declared a state of emergency for next two weeks to tackle the coronavirus pandemic in one of the European Union’s hardest-hit nations.

The decision comes in defiance of the lower house of Parliament, which has refused the minority government’s request to extend the powerful tool that gives the Cabinet the extra powers needed to impose nationwide restrictions and limit people’s travel and rights.

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