World News in Brief: June 15

The Lao government has asked the National Assembly to consider and approve some of the key macro-economic targets that were revised for 2022 to stabilize the economy.

Italy is on the verge of removing its final coronavirus health restrictions, though masks may still be mandatory on public transportation and in hospitals, a top health official said Tuesday. (Image for Illustration)
Italy is on the verge of removing its final coronavirus health restrictions, though masks may still be mandatory on public transportation and in hospitals, a top health official said Tuesday. (Image for Illustration)

* Indonesian President Joko Widodo announced a cabinet reshuffle on Wednesday, appointing a new trade minister following controversy over a series of policy flip-flops on palm oil exports.

* An upper house election will be held in Japan on July 10, the Cabinet of Prime Minister Kishida Fumio decided Wednesday.

* Bulgaria's main opposition party filed a no-confidence motion against the government of Prime Minister Kiril Petkov on Wednesday over its economic policy, a move that could topple the ruling coalition after just six months in office.

* China's economic performance will improve further in June due to policy support, Fu Linghui, a spokesman at the National Bureau of Statistics, said on Wednesday, adding that policies to stabilise economic growth are gaining traction.

* UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday called on all financial institutions to ditch fossil fuel financing.

* Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro arrived in Doha on Tuesday for an official visit and will meet with Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani on Wednesday, Qatar's state news agency (QNA) reported.

* The two-state solution is the only way to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Ishtaye stressed in Ramallah on Tuesday.

* Israel and the European Union will sign a natural gas export deal on Wednesday during a regional energy conference in Cairo, Israel's Energy Ministry said.

* Australia's industrial relations tribunal has approved a minimum wage increase of 5.2 percent in response to rapidly rising inflation.

* Bangladesh's highest economic policy-making body has approved an electricity network project worth 61.79 billion taka (about 700 million USD) to enhance the electricity network in Dhaka and Mymensingh divisions.

* A humanitarian corridor will be opened on Wednesday to evacuate civilians in the Azot chemical plant in the strategic city of Sievierodonetsk in eastern Ukraine, the Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday.

* Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday that he had discussed defense cooperation with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

* Ukraine and the European Union have agreed on the final text of a deal on road transport liberalization, the Ukrainian Infrastructure Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

* The African Union (AU) said the combined aftershocks of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine conflict are "profoundly affecting" growth prospects of the African continent.

* The Malta Development Bank on Tuesday launched a 150-million-euro (156 million US dollars) Emergency Liquidity Support Guarantee Scheme for businesses in response to the Ukraine crisis.

* As Britain's economy grapples with the impact of a record number of job vacancies, a labor market expert has warned that the problem may continue for another three to five years.

* Airports in Zurich and Geneva began to ramp up service on Wednesday after a technical problem with the air traffic control system halted takeoffs and landings for hours.

* China reported 235 new coronavirus cases for June 14, of which 77 were symptomatic and 158 were asymptomatic, the National Health Commission said on Wednesday.

* India's COVID-19 tally rose to 43,245,517 on Wednesday, as 8,822 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours across the country, showed the federal health ministry's latest data.

* Germany recorded more than 100,000 new COVID-19 infections within one day for the first time since April, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases said on Tuesday.

* Canada will suspend its requirement to be vaccinated against COVID-19 for domestic travel and to work in the civil service from June 20, the federal government said on Tuesday, after provinces lifted most health restrictions in recent months.

* Mongolia has received a total of 42,060 foreign tourists in the first five months of this year, up 391.7 percent from the same period last year, the country's Ministry of Environment and Tourism said Wednesday.

* Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) has said that the South Asian country expects to attract around 800,000 tourists in the coming months of the year.

* Mexico has recorded a total of five monkeypox cases so far, and there is no evidence that it could develop into pandemic levels, Undersecretary of Prevention and Health Promotion Hugo Lopez-Gatell said Tuesday.

* Spain is currently in the middle of the worst June heatwave in the last 20 years, with all but two of the country's 17 Autonomous Communities on alert for extremely high temperatures.

* Heavy rain since Sunday had affected a total of 548,000 people in east China's Jiangxi Province as of 5 p.m. Tuesday, the provincial flood control headquarters said.

* Advisers to the US Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday unanimously recommended that the agency authorise Moderna's COVID.

* Moderna plans to invest around 500 million euros ($520.60 million) in a new laboratory in Spain to boost its production of vaccines, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Tuesday.

Xinhua/Reuters/VNA