DNA

MISSISSAUGA, JUNE 22 : A Canadian-Pakistani, reportedly suffering from schizophrenia, was shot dead by Canadian police in Mississauga on Sunday.

The Special Investigations Unit said that the police were called to an apartment to ‘check on the well-being of a man’.

The 62-year-old man’s family called police because he was not taking his medication.

When police entered the apartment, they found Ejaz Chaudhry, the deceased, holding a knife. Upon seeing this, police fatally shot him dead.

The Pakistani community in Canada has expressed concern over the incident while police have launched an inquiry into the situation.

Malawi : Malawians return to the polls on Tuesday for a rerun of the presidential election five months after the constitutional court annulled the results of a disputed vote last year.

Incumbent President Peter Mutharika had initially been declared the winner of the May 2019 election with a slim victory of 38.5%.

But opposition leaders challenged the results in court citing massive irregularities. Judges agreed with them and nullified the results in February and ordered a repeat of the election.

The opposition has now united under a single candidate and will take on President Mutharika – who is running for a second term in office.

For months now, Malawians have been under a political crisis unlike any other they have faced in their history. It’s been more than a year since they turned out in their millions to vote in a new parliament and a president.

But in the run up to Tuesday’s repeat polls, the country has been bitterly divided. There have been widespread anti-government protests and violence that threatened to plunge Malawi into an even deeper crisis.

The chairperson of the country’s electoral commission also stepped down and a new team to oversee the election has been put in place.

The vote will pit incumbent Peter Mutharika and veteran politician Lazarus Chakwera a former evangelist who has united the opposition under a coalition looking to unseat the ruling Democratic Progressive Party which was formed in 2004 by the current president’s brother.

In many ways this election will also be held under different rules after the constitutional court ruled that the first-past-the-post system was unconstitutional.

Whoever wins the race, will have to heal the deep divisions in Malawi and end the vicious cycle of violence witnessed over the past year. Tackling corruption, poverty reduction and unemployment are also other key electoral issues.

Malawians hope their voice will be heard and that Tuesday will in some ways mark the turning point for the country.

Brasilia : Brazil registered its 50,000th death from the coronavirus outbreak on Sunday, underlining Latin America’s desperate struggle to contain the disease, as Europe’s gradual emergence from lockdown was marked by Spain reopening its borders.

Brazil is the second worst-affected country behind the United States, and the spread of COVID-19 is accelerating across Latin America, with Mexico, Peru and Chile also hard-hit as death tolls soar and healthcare facilities are pushed toward collapse.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who has been fiercely criticized for comparing the virus to a “little flu,” argues the economic impact of shutdowns is often worse than the virus itself.

But Mexico City has delayed reopening markets, restaurants, malls, hotels and places of worship, with the country now recording over 20,000 COVID-19 deaths.
Highlighting the region’s woes, Peru passed 8,000 deaths on Sunday despite preparing to reopen shopping malls on Monday.

In contrast, primary and secondary school children will return to class in France on Monday, and cinemas and theaters will also reopen.

One cinema in Paris opened just after midnight to mark the occasion, with audiences cheering the opening credits.

“We booked immediately. It’s not our usual schedule, but it will create a nice memory after these difficult weeks,” one cinema-goer named Loriane.

On Sunday, traffic flowed again across the Spain-France border in a watershed moment for the millions of businesses and workers across Europe who have suffered from the economic downturn.

“We wanted to be in Spain for the sun, the beach, tapas, and I’m already wearing my swimsuit under my clothes,” said Frenchwoman Sylvia Faust, who crossed into Spain with her 17-year-old daughter.

– Spain welcomes tourists –

Beijing is also battling a new outbreak of over 200 cases.

The authorities have taken more than two million test samples and banned imports of chicken from an American producer, suspecting the virus could have been in contaminated food.

COVID-19 has now killed more than 465,000 people and infected almost nine million worldwide.

Although the spread has slowed in Europe, it remains the worst-affected continent, with more than 2.5 million cases.

Spain has been among Europe’s hardest-hit nations, but on Sunday it lifted a slew of restrictions in a bid to get its tourism industry back up and running.

As well as opening its land border with France, Spain also welcomed EU nationals, those from the passport-free Schengen zone and Britons at seaports and airports — without enforcing quarantine periods.

Around 100 flights from European countries landed at Spain’s airports.

“We must remain on our guard and strictly follow hygiene and protection measures,” Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Saturday, stressing that the danger has not passed.

In the Netherlands, police clashed with protesters frustrated over the government’s coronavirus response and made dozens of arrests in the center of The Hague.

Police said the protest, attended by hundreds, was peaceful until a group of football fans clashed with riot police at the nearby Central Station, throwing stones and bottles.

On Sunday, France celebrated its annual music festival marking the summer solstice, with bands playing in cafes, restaurants and on streets across the country.

In Germany, however, concert halls and other institutions still face an uncertain future, with social distancing rules forcing them to slash their events calendars and drastically reduce capacities.

On the eastern fringes of Europe, cases have spiked again in Azerbaijan, forcing the government to institute another lockdown — much to the irritation of workers.

“The government again cages us in like zoo animals and gives not a damn for the consequences,” taxi driver Shahin Mamedkuliyev.