5 dead in house fire in the Philippine capital

Residents check a damaged house in Manila’s Tondo district in the Philippines on Sunday. Five people died before dawn on Sunday after fire engulfed a residential area in Manila’s Tondo district in the Philippines. The victims were trapped in their burning house, according to a report by Luisito Santos on Dobol B sa News TV.Xinhua

IAEA reaches deal with Iran

The U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Sunday it had struck a deal with Iran to cushion the blow of steps Tehran plans to take this week that include ending snap inspections, with both sides agreeing to keep “necessary” monitoring for up to three months.

The announcement by International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi, made at Vienna airport after a weekend trip to Iran, confirmed that Tehran would go ahead with its plan to slash cooperation with the agency today.

The pact aims to keep Iran at arm’s length from being able to make nuclear arms, which Tehran says it has never wanted to build.

India dam disaster toll rises to 67

Authorities in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand said on Sunday the death toll in the dam disaster has risen to 67 and the search for missing people was underway.

“As of now, a total of 67 bodies and 28 human body parts have been retrieved from different places,” reads a statement issued by police. “Out of these 37 bodies and one body part has been identified.”

Police said DNA profiling of the unidentified bodies have been carried out. According to police, missing reports of 204 persons have been filed so far at Joshimath police station. “So far DNA samples of 96 relatives and 73 bodies have been sent for matching to forensic science laboratory (FSL) Dehradun,” the statement said.

Biden declares major disaster in Texas

U.S. President Joe Biden has declared a major disaster in the southern U.S. state of Texas so as to allow the federal government to provide more resources and assistance to the state heavily hit by severe winter storms, the White House said on Saturday.

Of the around 70 deaths attributed to the inclement weather nationwide, more than a dozen were people who perished in homes that had lost their heat, and most of those were in Texas. They include an 11-year-old boy who died in his bed in Conroe, near Houston, and two older men were found dead in their homes in the small West Texas town of Buffalo Gap in Taylor County.

EU steps up efforts to fight COVID-19 variants

The European Union (EU) has stepped up its efforts to detect and fight COVID-19 variants by bringing together various stakeholders to develop new and adapted vaccines.

A new project called “HERA Incubator” will gather researchers, biotech companies, manufacturers and public authorities in the EU and globally to detect new coronavirus variants, provide incentives to develop new and adapted vaccines, speed up the approval process for these vaccines, and ensure the scaling up of manufacturing capacities.

UN chief hails US return to Paris Agreement

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday hailed the re-entry of the United States into the Paris Agreement on climate change and called for global action to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

“Today is a day of hope, as the United States officially rejoins the Paris Agreement. This is good news for the United States, and for the world,” Guterres told a virtual event to mark the U.S. re-entry.

“So today, as we mark the United States re-entry into this treaty, we also recognize its restoration, in its entirety, as its creators intended,” he said. “Welcome back.”(SD-Agencies)