Massive blasts leave Beirut devastated

A general view shows the damage at the site of blasts in Beirut’s port area in Lebanon on August 5. Two huge explosions rocked Port of Beirut on August 4, shaking buildings all over the city while causing massive casualties and damage. The explosions have caused at least 100 deaths and left more than 4,000 injured, with many more missing.SD-Agencies

Belarus’ Lukashenko wins sixth term

Election officials in Belarus said the country’s longtime leader Alexander Lukashenko has won his sixth consecutive presidential term, taking over 80 percent of the votes.

The country’s central election commission announced on Monday that all the ballots have been counted and Lukashenko took 80.23 percent of the votes, while his main opposition challenger Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya had only 9.9 percent.

Tsikhanouskaya, a former English teacher, rejected the official figures, saying: “I will believe my own eyes, the majority was for us.”

64 killed in rain spells across Pakistan

At least 64 people were killed, and dozens of others were injured in heavy monsoon rain-triggered flash floods and different rain-related incidents, during the last three days in different regions of Pakistan, said a report from the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) on Sunday evening.

According to the report released by the NDMA, at least 19 children and nine women are among those who lost their lives in different rain-related incidents in areas ranging from the north to the south of the country.

The country’s northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province was the worst-hit region with 25 deaths followed by southern Sindh with 12 deaths.

Nagasaki marks 75 years since atomic bombing

The Japanese city of Nagasaki on Sunday commemorated the 75th anniversary of its destruction by a U.S. atomic bomb, with its mayor and the head of the United Nations warning against a nuclear arms race.

Nagasaki was flattened in an atomic inferno three days after Hiroshima — twin nuclear attacks that rang in the nuclear age and gave Japan the bleak distinction of being the only country to be struck by atomic weapons.

Survivors, their relatives and a handful of foreign dignitaries attended a remembrance ceremony in Nagasaki where they called for world peace.

Brazil makes grim milestone of COVID-19 deaths

Brazil surpassed a grim milestone of 100,000 deaths from COVID-19 on Saturday night, and five months after the first reported case the country has not shown signs of crushing the disease.

The nation of 210 million people has been reporting an average of more than 1,000 daily deaths from the pandemic since late May.

The Health Ministry said there had been a total of 3,012,412 confirmed infections with the new coronavirus — death and infection tolls second only to the United States.

Russian jet intercepts US spy plane over Black Sea

A Russian Su-27 fighter jet was scrambled over the Black Sea on Sunday to intercept a U.S. Navy radio-technical reconnaissance aircraft, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

“On Aug. 9, Russian airspace control systems detected an air target approaching the Russian state border over the neutral waters of the Black Sea,” the ministry’s Zvezda broadcasting service said.

The crew of the Su-27 fighter jet identified the aerial object as a U.S. Navy EP-3E Aries radio reconnaissance aircraft, it added.

(SD-Agencies)