PARIS (Reuters) - France has received a request from Canada to extradite retired Roman Catholic priest Johannes Rivoire so he can face a charge of sexual abuse from when he worked in Canada’s North, a French diplomatic source said. Canada to extradite retired Roman Catholic priest Johannes Rivoire so he can face a charge of sexual abuse from when he worked in Canada’s North, a French diplomatic source said. Canada’s northern indigenous people, the Inuit, plan to press the Pope Francis while he is on a visit on Friday to help return Rivoire to Canada.   It was not clear what information France is seeking or when Canada made the request.

 

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SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea has held a large mask-free public event for the first time since declaring a COVID-19 emergency in May, honoring veterans of the 1950-53 Korean war just days after saying its coronavirus crisis was nearly over. Photos released by state media on Wednesday showed thousands of participants at the annual ceremony without masks, including senior ruling Workers’ Party officials and elderly uniformed veterans.

 

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MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A strong earthquake set off landslides and damaged buildings in the northern Philippines on Wednesday, killing at least five people and injuring dozens. In the capital, hospital patients were evacuated and terrified people rushed outdoors. The 7-magnitude quake was centered in a mountainous area of Abra province, said Renato Solidum, the head of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, who described the midmorning shaking as a major earthquake.

 

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ISLAMABAD (Al-Jazeera) -Pakistan’s top court has ruled to hand control of the country’s most populous province, Punjab, to a candidate backed by former Prime Minister Imran Khan, triggering political uncertainty in the South Asian nation amid a deepening economic crisis. The move ramps up pressure on the federal government, made up of a coalition of parties that removed Khan from the premiership in April, as it attempts to implement tough, and unpopular, economic reforms to stave off a financial crisis. In a short order, Pakistan’s Supreme Court ruled that a Khan-backed candidate for Punjab’s chief minister, Chaudhry Parvez Elahi, had been wrongfully denied victory in a vote last week, and ordered he be installed as the province’s premier before midnight on Tuesday.

 

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 BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A top European Union court has upheld a broadcast ban imposed on state-owned channel Russia Today (RT) as part of the bloc’s sanctions on Moscow. The judgement by the Luxembourg-based General Court threw out an appeal against the ban, which the EU imposed over accusations that the network spreads disinformation. The Kremlin reacted to the court’s decision by saying it was “extremely negative” and that Russia would take similar measures against Western media in response. In a call with reporters, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said RT was unable to work in Europe but he hoped it would find loopholes to resume broadcasting.