OTTAWA (Dispatches) - Canada’s former Chief of Defense Staff, Gen. Jonathan Vance, has been charged with obstruction of justice in an ongoing sex scandal in the nation’s military, the Department of National Defense announced. Allegations against Vance, who is accused of misconduct by two female subordinates, including during his time as the country’s commanding officer, were made public in February, setting off a political firestorm that has for months plagued the Canadian military and the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Sputnik reported.

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MOSCOW (Dispatches) - All 19 people on board a Russian Antonov An-28 passenger plane that vanished from radars in Siberia survived after the aircraft made a hard landing on Friday, the emergencies ministry said. The aircraft – operated by SiLA, a small airline offering regional flights in Siberia – went missing while flying from the town of Kedrovy to the city of Tomsk. However, the aircraft was located after helicopters were dispatched to search for it. The ministry said all 19 people on board had survived and were now being evacuated from the site.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Africa recorded a 43 percent rise in COVID-19 deaths week-on-week, as cases rise, hospital admissions increase rapidly and countries face shortages of oxygen and intensive care beds, the World Health Organization (WHO) said. The continent’s case fatality rate - the proportion of deaths among confirmed cases - stands at 2.6 percent against the global average of 2.2 percent, WHO Africa said in its weekly briefing. “Africa’s third wave continues its destructive pathway, pushing past yet another grim milestone as the continent’s case count tops six million,” Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa, said at the briefing. The surge in infections, which is partly driven by the presence of the highly transmissible Delta variant of the coronavirus in 21 African countries, is leaving a “brutal cost in lives lost” in its trail, she said.

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UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The number of migrants and refugees who died while attempting to reach Europe by sea more than doubled in the first half of this year compared to the same period in 2020, a new United Nations report showed. At least 1,146 refugees have died at sea between January and June while trying to reach Europe, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), a UN agency. The number of migrants and refugees trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe increased by 58 percent. However, the number of fatalities could be much higher as shipwrecks are often unreported, IOM said in its report.

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SAO PAULO/BOGOTA – (Dispatches) - More than 10,000 species of plants and animals are at high risk of extinction due to the destruction of the Amazon rainforest - 35 percent of which has already been deforested or degraded, according to the draft of a landmark scientific report published. Produced by the Science Panel for the Amazon (SPA), the 33-chapter report brings together research on the world’s largest rainforest from 200 scientists from across the globe. It is the most detailed assessment of the state of the forest to date and both makes clear the vital role the Amazon plays in global climate and the profound risks it is facing.