News in Brief

Date: 29 July 2022 - 21:37

News ID: ۱۰۵۲۳۳

LONDON (Reuters) - Belarus recalled its ambassador to Britain on Friday in response to what it called “hostile and unfriendly” actions by London. In a statement, Belarus’ foreign ministry said Britain had adopted policies that were “systematically aimed at causing maximum damage to Belarusian citizens and legal entities,” citing sanctions on its companies, a ban on national airline Belavia and restrictions on Belarusian state media.

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OTTAWA (AFP) - The Canadian government has made clear that Pope Francis’ apology to Indigenous peoples for abuses in the country’s church-run residential schools didn’t go far enough, suggesting that reconciliation over the fraught history is still very much a work in progress. The official government reaction came as Francis arrived in Quebec City for meetings with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Governor General Mary Simon at her Quebec residence, the hilltop Citadelle fortress, on the second leg of Francis’ week-long visit to Canada. The government’s criticisms echo those of some survivors and concern Francis’ omission of any reference to the sexual abuse suffered by Indigenous children in the schools, as well as his original reluctance to name the Catholic Church as an institution bearing responsibility.

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ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Germany’s foreign minister on Friday criticized Turkey for disputing the sovereignty of Greek islands near its coastline and urged Greece to make sure it stamps out any illegal pushbacks of people at the border. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock was meeting Friday with officials in Greece and Turkey. The two NATO neighbors have been at odds for decades over sea boundaries, related drilling rights and the war-divided island of Cyprus, disputes that have brought them to the brink of war on several occasions.

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LONDON (Al-Jazeera) - Colombia and Venezuela will appoint new ambassadors in their respective capitals when Colombian President-elect Gustavo Petro takes office next month, authorities said, in an effort to rebuild diplomatic relations after years of tension. The decision was announced in a joint declaration on Thursday by Venezuelan Foreign Minister Carlos Faria and Colombian Foreign Minister-in-waiting Alvaro Leyva after a meeting in the border city of San Cristobal.

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA is launching two more mini helicopters to Mars in its effort to return Martian rocks and soil samples to Earth. Under the plan announced, NASA’s Perseverance rover will do double duty and transport the cache to the rocket that will launch them off the red planet a decade from now. Perseverance already has gathered 11 samples with more rock drilling planned. The most recent sample, a sedimentary rock, holds the greatest promise of containing possible evidence of ancient Martian life, said Arizona State University’s Meenakshi Wadhwa, chief scientist for the retrieval effort.