BEIJING (Reuters) -- China’s defense ministry said on Monday Canadian military jets have stepped up reconnaissance and provocations against China, endangering the Asian country’s national security. The ministry said it opposes Canada’s provocative actions. Wu Qian, spokesman at the Chinese defense ministry, said the Chinese military took reasonable measures to deal with Canada’s actions and have made ‘solemn representations’ via diplomatic channels. Canada’s military last week accused Chinese warplanes of harassing its patrol aircraft as they monitor North Korea sanction evasions, sometimes forcing Canadian planes to divert from their flight paths.

 

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LAGOS (AFP) -- Gunmen with explosives stormed a Catholic church and opened fire in southwest Nigeria on Sunday, killing at least 50 worshippers and wounding others, the government and police said. The violence at St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo town in Ondo State erupted during the morning service in a rare attack in the southwest of Nigeria, where takfiri terrorists and criminal gangs operate in other regions. No group claimed responsibility for the attack. The motives and the exact death toll were not immediately clear, but President Muhammadu Buhari condemned the “heinous killing of worshippers”. State police spokeswoman Ibukun Odunlami said the gunmen also attacked the church with explosives, leaving an unknown number of worshippers dead. Gun and bomb attacks are rare in Ondo state, but Nigeria’s military is battling a 12-year-old takfiri insurgency in the northeast, gangs in the northwest and separatist agitation in the southeast.

 

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MOSCOW (AFP) -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was forced to cancel a visit to Serbia on Monday after several of its neighbors prevented his plane from passing through their airspace, officials said. Lavrov had been due to hold talks with top officials in Belgrade, one of Moscow’s allies in Europe since the launch of its military offensive in Ukraine earlier this year. “The countries around Serbia have closed the channel of communication by refusing to authorize the overflight of the plane of Sergei Lavrov who was headed to Serbia,” Russian news agencies quoted ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying. “The Russian delegation should have arrived in Belgrade for talks. But the EU and NATO member countries closed their airspace.” Serbian daily Vecernje Novosti reported that Bulgaria, Macedonia and Montenegro had refused access to their airspace. A Russian diplomatic source told news agency Interfax there had been no choice but to cancel the visit.

 

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BRASILIA (Reuters) -- Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his newly wed wife Janja tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday and will remain isolated for the next few days, the leftist leader and front-runner for the October election said on Twitter. They are both well, Lula with no symptoms and his wife with mild symptoms, the message said. The tweet included the diagnosis issued by his doctor Roberto Kalil. Recent polls show Lula has increased his advantage over far-right incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro, with pollster Datafolha finding 48% of voters backing him. Lula, a 76-year-old widower, last month married sociologist Rosangela da Silva, 55, known as Janja.

 

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JAKARTA (AFP) -- Australia’s new prime minister and Indonesia’s president rode bamboo bicycles together on Monday as they held talks to boost ties, as Canberra embarks on a diplomatic charm offensive aimed at countering what it sees as China’s growing assertiveness in the region. Anthony Albanese hailed relations with Indonesia and vowed to strengthen them on his first bilateral trip since being elected last month, choosing Southeast Asia’s biggest economy as an early stop in what has become a tradition for new Australian premiers. After a guard of honor, Indonesian President Joko Widodo presented Albanese with a bicycle at the presidential palace in Bogor -- a city south of capital Jakarta -- where the pair removed their jackets, donned helmets and rode around the grounds. Albanese confirmed he would attend the G20 summit, which Indonesia will host in November, despite reservations from predecessor Scott Morrison about sitting around the table with Russian President Vladimir Putin after his invasion of Ukraine. The Labor leader discussed advancing opportunities on trade, climate change and regional security with Widodo, who last visited Australia in early 2020.

 

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MUMBAI (Reuters) -- The death toll has risen to 26 after a bus fell into a gorge in India’s northern state of Uttarakhand with 30 people on board, with four of those rescued in critical condition, a police official said on Monday. The updated toll in Sunday’s bus crash was provided to Reuters by Arpan Yaduvanshi, a police superintendent in the state’s district of Uttarkashi, where the accident took place. The bus was travelling from the district of Panna in the central state of Madhya Pradesh at the time, the official added. Rescue operations had been launched, with the injured being taken to hospital, Home Minister Amit Shah said, adding on Twitter that the national disaster response force had been dispatched.