News in Brief (2022-08-27)

August 27, 2022 00:00:00

Million Covid deaths in 2022: WHO

GENEVA, Aug 26: The World Health Organization (WHO) announced Thursday that a million people had died from Covid-19 in 2022, calling it a "tragic milestone" when all the tools existed to prevent deaths. Nearly 6.45 million deaths have been reported to the WHO since the virus was first detected in China in late 2019. But WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus questioned whether the world was really on top of the pandemic, this far in. —AFP

Two plead guilty in scheme to sell Biden's daughter's diary

NEW YORK, Aug 26: Two Florida residents have pleaded guilty in a scheme to peddle a diary and other items stolen from President Joe Biden's daughter to the conservative group Project Veritas for $40,000, prosecutors said Thursday. Aimee Harris and Robert Kurlander "sought to profit from their theft of another person's personal property," Manhattan US Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement. Harris, a 40-year-old from Palm Beach, and Kurlander, 58, of nearby Jupiter, face the possibility of up to five years in prison. — AP

Japan police chief to resign over Abe shooting death

TOKYO, Aug 26: Japan's national police chief said Thursday he will resign to take responsibility over shortfalls in security that an investigation by his own agency showed did not adequately safeguard former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe from a fatal shooting of at a campaign speech last month. National Police Agency Chief Itaru Nakamura's announcement came as his agency released a report blaming flaws in police protection - from planning to guarding at the scene - that led to Abe's assassination July 8 in Nara in western Japan. — AP

Pope asks North Korea to invite him to visit

SEOUL, Aug 26: Pope Francis has asked Pyongyang to invite him to North Korea, saying in a televised interview on Friday that he would not turn down a chance to visit and work for peace. A potential papal visit to the isolated, nuclear-armed country was previously floated in 2018 when Seoul's former president Moon Jae-in embarked on a round of diplomacy with Pyongyang's leader Kim Jong Un. — Arab News