US official: Powerful storms new normal

Damaged vehicles are seen after a tornado hit Bowling Green, Kentucky, the United States, on Saturday. At least 84 people died after dozens of tornadoes swept through several U.S. states overnight, officials said. Powerful storms like these are the “new normal” in an era of climate change, and the severity, duration and magnitude of the storms were “unprecedented,” Deanne Criswell, administrator of the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, told CNN on Sunday. Xinhua

S. African president tests positive for COVID

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is receiving treatment for mild COVID-19 symptoms after testing positive for the disease on Sunday, his office said.

Ramaphosa started feeling unwell and a test confirmed COVID-19, a statement from the presidency announced.

He is self-isolating in Cape Town and is being monitored by the South African Military Health Service, the statement said. He has delegated all responsibilities to Deputy President David Mabuza for the next week.

Ramaphosa, 69, is fully vaccinated. The statement didn’t say whether he had been infected with the Omicron coronavirus variant. Last week, Ramaphosa visited four West African countries.

Iran leader says ‘good agreement’ reachable

If the United States lifts anti-Iran sanctions, a “good agreement,” which Iran is looking for, will be reached in nuclear negotiations, Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi said on Saturday.

“The Islamic Republic participated in the negotiations with dignity, and showed by presenting the text proposals that it is serious in the negotiations,” Raisi was quoted as saying by the presidential website.

The Iranian president, who was making the remarks at a meeting of ambassadors and heads of missions of Iran to the neighboring countries, said that “if the other side is determined to lift the sanctions, a good agreement will be reached and we are looking for that.”

Underlying his administration’s policy for improving relations with the neighboring states, he noted that Iran’s neighborhood policy and relations with neighbors to counter and neutralize sanctions is a strategic, not a tactical move.

US authorities win latest bid to extradite Assange

U.S. authorities have won their bid to overturn a British judge’s ruling that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should not be extradited to face charges in the United States, on the basis of assurances given about his treatment there.

The 50-year-old Australian has been charged in the United States under the Espionage Act for his role in publishing classified military and diplomatic cables.

Friday’s ruling by two senior judges overturns the ruling of a British judge in January that granting the U.S. request to extradite Assange would be “oppressive” by reason of his mental health. Assange’s lawyers said in a statement on Friday that they would appeal the decision.

Scholz now Germany’s new chancellor

Olaf Scholz has been voted in as Germany’s new chancellor, bringing to an end Angela Merkel’s four terms at the helm of Europe’s largest economy.

Chinese President Xi Jinping called for promoting China-Germany relations to a new level in a congratulatory message to Scholz on his election.

Taking the opportunity of celebrating the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Germany next year, China is willing to consolidate and deepen political mutual trust, expand exchanges and cooperation in various fields with Germany, Xi said.

Kids aged 5-14 ‘show highest COVID-19 rates’

The World Health Organization’s office for Europe said last week that children in the 5 to 14 age group now account for the highest rates of reported COVID-19 infection in the region.

WHO Europe regional director Dr. Hans Kluge also argued that vaccine mandates should be “an absolute last resort,” and said that COVID-19 deaths remain “significantly below previous peaks.” But he said that coronavirus cases and deaths have more than doubled in the last two months in the 53-country region stretching to central Asia.

He stressed the continued threat from the Delta variant and the new Omicron variant.(SD-Agencies)