USA

SURFSIDE, Fla. (AP) — Rescue crews found another body in the rubble of a collapsed 12-story condominium tower near Miami on Saturday, raising the death toll to five as they raced to recover any survivors after fighting back fire and smoke deep inside the concrete and metal remains.

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava announced the heightened toll at an evening news briefing, saying the identification of three bodies had dropped the number of unaccounted for down to 156. She said crews also discovered other unspecified human remains.

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 26 (APP): The head of the UN health agency expressed concern on Friday over the coronavirus’ delta variant, which he called “the most transmissible” mutation to date.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World health Organization (WHO) told journalists at a regular briefing in Geneva that delta has been identified in at least 85 countries and is “spreading rapidly among unvaccinated populations”.
The Delta variant was first identified in India in April.

UNITED NATIONS, June 26. /TASS/: Russia’s numerous attempts to achieve reconciliation in Syria encounter political counteraction from other states, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN Vassily Nebenzia said on Friday.

WASHINGTON, June 26. /TASS/: The US intelligence has no clear answers about the nature of 143 out of 144 mysterious flying objects, spotted in 2004-2021, according to an unclassified section of a US intelligence report released on Friday.

The document, headlined ‘Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena,’ was prepared by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. It contains information about incidents reported between November 2004 and March 2021. The process of gathering and analyzing information continues.

WASHINGTON, June 25 (Reuters) - The head of Afghanistan’s peace council said on Friday that long-stalled talks on a political settlement to decades of strife should not be abandoned despite surging Taliban attacks, unless the insurgents themselves pull out.

“I think we shouldn’t shut the door unless it’s completely shut by the Taliban,” Abdullah Abdullah, chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation, told Reuters in an interview. “We can’t say no to talks despite a lack of progress or in spite of what’s happening on the ground.”

WASHINGTON, June 25 (Xinhua) -- The United States' flawed approach to China could cause conflict, and Washington must give up containing China and start accommodating the Asian country, said Project Syndicate in a report published on Wednesday.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s political star was dimmed by allegations he sexually harassed women and misled the public about COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes.

But will that hurt him with campaign donors?

Some of the Democrat’s most reliable political contributors — including unions, wealthy executives and Democratic Party officials — say they still plan to give money to his expected campaign for a fourth term in office.

ROCKTON, Ill. (AP) — An explosion and massive fire at a chemical plant in northern Illinois that filled the sky with black smoke and forced the evacuation of hundreds of homes for days was started accidentally during maintenance work, a senior fire official said.

Rockton Fire Chief Kirk Wilson said in a press release Friday that the June 13 fire at the Chemtool plant near Rockton started when contractors were replacing insulation on an elevated heat transfer piping network. The system heats vessels used in the manufacture of lubricating greases.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Three years after the deadliest attack on a newsroom in U.S. history, residents who were shaken by the assault on their local newspaper that killed five people are hopeful that an end to the gunman’s dragging court case is finally near.

Opening statements in the second phase of a trial are scheduled for Tuesday to determine whether Jarrod Ramos was legally sane at the time of the mass shooting.

26 June 2021; MEMO: The Biden administration has hinted that it does not recognise Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, in a policy reversal viewed as a "significant blow" to the occupation state. The south-western Syrian territory was seized by Israel's war of aggression in 1967 but its sovereignty over the region has never been recognised by the international community.