Heat wave claims 54 lives in Canada
AFP, Montreal
The number of deaths in a week-long eastern Canadian heat wave has reached 54, officials said on Friday. Most of the victims linked to the “overwhelming heat” were in the Montreal area, which recorded 28 fatalities, metropolitan health authorities told AFP in an email.
The other victims were reported in the southwest of the French-Canadian province, the Quebec health ministry said.
Cambodia kicks off poll campaign
AFP, Phnom Penh
Cambodian political parties on Saturday kicked off a three-week-long campaign for a controversial general election later this month, which strongman Hun Sen is poised to sweep after the main opposition were disbanded and their senior members driven into self-exile.
Hun Sen – who has ruled Cambodia for 33 years – told a sea of supporters dressed in matching T-shirts adorned with the logo of his ruling party, that his government would ensure peace, economic growth and raise salaries for the key garment worker sector every year.
Teenager gang raped in Indian school
Xinhua, New Delhi
A teenage girl in India’s eastern state of Bihar complained she was raped by students and teachers including principal for over seven months at her school, police said Saturday. The 13-year-old in her police complaint said she was blackmailed and gang-raped by the accused for the past seven months.
“The girl in her complaint has mentioned that she was raped for seven months by 18 people, which include 15 students, two teachers and her school principal,” a police official said.
Roadside bomb kills Afghan
district governor
Xinhua, Firoz Koah
A district governor was killed after his vehicle ran over a mine in Afghanistan’s western Ghor province Saturday, provincial police spokesman Mohammad Iqbal Nizami said.
“A mine planted by militants on a road in Charsada district struck the vehicle of district governor Mohammad Ibrahim today morning killing him on the spot,” Nizami told Xinhua from provincial capital Firoz Koah.
Iran executes 8 over deadly IS attacks in Tehran
AFP, Tehran
Iran has executed eight people convicted over two deadly attacks claimed by the Islamic State group in Tehran last year, the judiciary’s news agency said Saturday. The Iranian men were convicted of collaborating directly with the IS jihadists who carried out the attacks on June 7, 2017, Mizan Online reported. “They supported them financially and procured arms, while being informed of the aims and the intentions of the terrorist group,” the agency said.
