Moscow, June 26 (IANS): Online voter turnout for the amendments to Russias Constitution topped 49.5 per cent on Friday, Deputy Chairman of Moscows Civic Chamber Alexei Venediktov said.   "The turnout at the online vote was 49.51 per cent at 6.30 a.m.. About 2,000 people voted on Thursday," TASS News Agency quoted Venediktov as saying.   The online vote began on Thursday and will end on June 30.   On March 11, the Russian State Duma (lower hous

Washington, June 26 (IANS): Native American groups are planning to protest against President Donald Trump's visit to Mount Rushmore at the start of the Fourth of July weekend, a media report said on Friday.   Mount Rushmore features the 60-feet high faces of four US Presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, the BBC reported.   The monument was carved into the granite rock face between 1927 and 1941.   B

London, June 26 (IANS): UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock has warned that the government will close beaches if people continue to ignore social distancing amid the coronavirus pandemic, it was reported on Friday.   A major incident was declared in Bournemouth on Thursday after thousands ignored health advice, with widespread anti-social behaviour, gridlocked roads and huge crowds on the hottest day of the year, the Metro newspaper reported.   Bournemouth East MP To

New Delhi/Washington, June 26 (IANS): The US has identified and listed 20 Chinese companies, including Huawei Technologies, which are controlled by the military regime in Beijing.   The listed companies are now prone to potential sanctions as part of the Donald Trump administration's efforts to prevent China from securing US investment and access to certain technologies.   Media reports said that the Pentagon issued a list of "Communist Chinese military c

New York, June 26 (IANS) US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has cited Chinese Peoples Liberation Army's (PLA) "deadly" confrontation with India as one of the reasons for Washington recalibrating its defence commitments in Europe and looking at countering emerging threats.   The threats from China to India and countries in Southeast Asia and the challenges in the South China Sea are going to dictate the allocation of defence resources as US cuts troop levels in G

Washington, June 26 (IANS) The overall number of global COVID-19 cases has topped 9.5 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 488,000, according to the Johns Hopkins University.   By Friday morning, the total number of cases stood at 9,583,144, while the fatalities increased to 488,740, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed in its latest update.   With 2,418,570 cases and 124,355 deaths, the US continues with th

Washington, June 26 (IANS) Former US National Security Advisor (NSA) John Bolton has claimed that President Donald Trump "has trouble with women leaders" and used former UK Prime Minister Theresa May as an example, it was reported.   In an exclusive interview with Sky News on Thursday, Bolton, who described Trump as a "talker" who "likes to talk", he said of May: "(She) is the kind of politician who says what she has to say, and there's

SEOUL, June 25 (Reuters):  Seventy years after the Korean War began, prospects for a peace treaty to officially end the conflict appear as distant as ever, as the two Koreas held low-key commemorations on Thursday amid heightened tension. The 1950-1953 Korean War ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty, leaving U.S.-led U.N. forces technically still at war with North Korea. South Korean leaders in 1953 opposed the idea of a truce that left the peninsula divided

BRUSSELS, June 25 (Reuters): The United States and European Union need a shared understanding of China to resist it, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday, calling Beijing a threat and accusing it of stealing European know-how to develop its economy.   Pompeo said he had accepted a proposal by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell to create a formal U.S.-EU dialogue on China and would travel to Europe soon to host the first session.   "The

GAZA, June 25 (Reuters): Vineyard owner Haidar al-Zahar recalls with joy the day in 2005 when Israel removed its settlers and troops from the Gaza Strip, part of a withdrawal that few Palestinians thought they would ever see.   "I felt like a prisoner who suddenly found himself a free man," he said.   A decade and a half later he is on the warpath as Israel considers whether to annex its Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank - 40 km (25 miles

WASHINGTON, June 25 (Reuters): The U.S. House of Representatives will vote on Thursday on sweeping Democratic police reform legislation that is opposed by President Donald Trump and Republicans, in the latest sign that congressional efforts to rein in police misconduct have hit an impasse.   The Democratic-controlled House is due to consider the legislation a month to the day after George Floyd's May 25 death in police custody set off worldwide protests against poli

KARACHI, Pakistan, June 25 (Reuters): Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) will ground a third of its 434 pilots on suspicion that they hold "dubious" licences and flying certificates, a company spokesman said on Thursday, prompting concern from international safety and transport bodies.   An inquiry into a crash in Karachi last month in which 97 people were killed pointed to the pilots not following procedures, while a government minister said the voice reco

Reuters   Doctors in Europe will soon be able to treat COVID-19 patients with Gilead's antiviral drug, remdesivir, after the healthcare regulator's endorsement put it on track to become the first therapy for the disease on the continent.   The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said on Thursday its human medicines committee (CHMP) recommended conditionally approving the drug for adults and adolescents from 12 years of age who are also suffering from pneumonia

BLANTYRE, June 25 (Reuters): Malawi opposition leader Lazarus Chakwera has what appears to be an unassailable lead in a presidential election re-run with 60% of the vote, according to a tally by state broadcaster MBC released on Thursday.   The Malawi Broadcasting Corporation said the tally was from all but three of 28 districts counted, and that it gave President Peter Mutharika 39% of votes. The opposition alliance claimed victory for Chakwera earlier on Thursday

HANOI, June 25 (Reuters): Under a pitch-black night sky, a group of Vietnamese farmers planted rice this week in a paddy field on the outskirts of the capital Hanoi using head lamps to illuminate the water-logged ground in front of them.   The farmers of the Tam Thanh commune say they have been forced to work at night in the fields to avoid searing temperatures that they say have got worse over the years.   "Temperature are rising one or two degrees (Cel

WASHINGTON, June 25 (Reuters): The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday enhanced the ability of President Donald Trump's administration to quickly deport illegal immigrants including asylum seekers with limited judicial review, handing him a victory in a case involving one of his signature issues in an election year.   The justices ruled in favor of the administration in its appeal of a lower court ruling that a Sri Lankan farmer named Vijayakumar Thuraissigiam had a righ

LONDON, June 25 (Reuters): The new leader of Britain's main opposition Labour Party, Keir Starmer, sacked a senior member of his policy team on Thursday after she shared an article which included a reference to what he called an "anti-Semitic conspiracy theory".   Starmer, who won election as the party's leader earlier this year, said education policy spokeswoman Rebecca Long-Bailey had been wrong to share the article.   The 57 year-old barr

KINSHASA, June 25 (Reuters): The second-largest Ebola outbreak on record is over after nearly two years and more than 2,200 deaths, Democratic Republic of Congo said on Thursday, even as a separate flare-up of the virus continued on the other side of the country.   Despite effective vaccines and treatments that dramatically boosted survival rates, the outbreak dragged on as first responders struggled to gain access to virus hotspots in Congo's restive east.  

MOSCOW, June 25 (Reuters): Russians began casting ballots on Thursday in a vote that could clear the way for President Vladimir Putin to stay in the Kremlin until 2036 if re-elected, a process that critics say is a constitutional coup.   Some election officials wore full protective suits, gloves and masks, and took voters' temperatures as seven days of voting got under way across the world's largest country.   Opponents have complained about the safet

BANGKOK, June 25 (Reuters): Thailand's army has joined the debate over history and democracy in the Southeast Asian nation by holding a ceremony on the same day that pro-democracy demonstrations were held at memorials to the 1932 revolution that ended centuries of absolute monarchy.   A military statement seen by Reuters on Thursday confirmed that army officials had honoured leaders of a failed 1933 insurrection known as Boworadet Rebellion in a ceremony inside the