AFP, Ottawa
Faced with an influx of asylum seekers from the United States, Canada is planning to substantially step up deportations of illegal migrants, Canada’s public broadcaster reported Wednesday.
A leaked email from a senior Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) official to staff, cited by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the goal is to deport some 10,000 persons a year, as much as a 35 percent increase over recent years.
UN urges end to US embargo on Cuba
Reuters, United Nations
The United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted its 27th annual resolution calling for an end to the U.S. economic embargo on Cuba after a failed bid by Washington to amend the text to push Cuba to improve its human rights record.
The U.N. vote can carry political weight, but only the U.S. Congress can lift the more than 50-year-old embargo. The United States and Israel voted against the resolution, 189 countries voted in favor and Ukraine and Moldova did not vote.
Jordan ministers resign over Dead Sea flood deaths
Reuters, Amman
Jordan’s education and tourism ministers resigned on Thursday after an investigation into the deaths of 21 people, mainly school children who were swept away in flash floods on a school outing in the Dead Sea region, state media said.
A parliamentary committee formed to investigate the Oct. 25 disaster found negligence by some ministries, prompting questions over the state of preparedness by government agencies to handle such emergencies.
Coalition attack
airbase in rebel-held Yemen capital
AFP, Riyadh
A Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen said Friday it attacked an airbase in the rebel-held capital Sanaa, a day after the Saudi-backed government offered to restart peace talks with the insurgents.
“This operation includes targeting of ballistic-missile launch and storage locations… bomb-making and assembly workshops and their support locations in Al-Dailami Airbase in Sanaa,” coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki said in a statement.
Amnesty urges Sudan to stop crackdown on journalists
AP, Cairo
Amnesty International on Friday urged the Sudanese government to halt what it describes as “relentless harassment, intimidation and censorship of journalists” in the country.
In a report documenting the arrests of at least 15 journalists by state security forces between January and October, the rights group says the media in Sudan are frequently targeted by the National Intelligence and Security Agency for their reporting, especially for publishing articles criticizing government policies.
