Washington, July 31 (IANS) US Vice President Kamala Harris will hold her first rally with her yet-to-be-named running mate in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on August 6.

The candidates under consideration include Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, US Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, a spokesperson for her campaign said, Xinhua news agency reported.

Harris and her pick will appear together in places of six other battleground states next week after Philadelphia, including western Wisconsin; Detroit; Raleigh, North Carolina; Savannah, Georgia; Phoenix and Las Vegas.

The list of candidates narrowed on Monday with North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer both indicating they were out of the VP sweepstakes.

–IANS

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Moscow, July 31 (IANS) Russia on Wednesday “strongly condemned” the assassination of the head of the Hamas Politburo, Ismail Haniyeh as a result of a missile strike on his residence in Tehran.

Addressing mediapersons, Deputy Director of the Information and Press Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry Andrey Nastasin asserted that it is obvious that the “organisers of this political assassination” were aware of the dangerous consequences this action would have for the entire region.

“There is no doubt that the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh will have an extremely negative impact on the course of indirect contacts between Hamas and Israel, within the framework of which mutually acceptable conditions for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip were being agreed upon,” said Nastasin.

The attack was carried out during the Hamas leader’s stay in Iran, where he was officially invited to participate in the inauguration ceremony of Iran’s newly-elected President Masoud Pezeshkian.

“Once again, we strongly urge all parties involved to exercise restraint and refrain from steps that could lead to a dramatic degradation of the security situation in the region and provoke a large-scale armed confrontation,” said the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Deputy Director.

Moscow also condemned Israel’s strike in Beirut, calling it a “flagrant violation” of the Lebanese sovereignty and the norms of international law.

“We express our deep concern at the growing threat of a sharp deterioration of the situation in the Middle East,” stated Nastasin.

–IANS

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Beirut, July 31 (IANS) Hezbollah said Wednesday that civil defence teams were still searching for Fouad Shokor, a senior military advisor to Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in the rubble after he was attacked by an Israeli drone in southern Beirut a day earlier.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said on Tuesday that an Israeli drone conducted a targeted strike on a position near the Shura Council of Hezbollah in Dahieh, a southern suburb of Beirut, “eliminating Fouad Shokor.”

While not confirming Shokor’s death, Hezbollah, a Lebanese militant group and political party, said that since the incident, civil defence teams have been working diligently but slowly to remove the debris due to the condition of the destroyed floors.

Shokor was also the director of Hezbollah’s precision missile project and held the position of second-in-command within the organisation, Xinhua news agency reported.

Israel threatened over the past days to launch a military operation that will make Hezbollah pay a heavy price after a missile fell Saturday in the town of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights, killing 12 people and wounding several others. Hezbollah said it had “absolutely nothing to do with the incident” and dismissed the allegations as false.

Tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border escalated on October 8, 2023, following a barrage of rocket attacks launched by Hezbollah toward Israel in solidarity with Hamas’ attack on Israel one day before. Israel then retaliated by firing heavy artillery toward southeastern Lebanon.

–IANS

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Yangon, July 31 (IANS) A total of 113 basic education schools were temporarily closed due to massive flooding in Pantanaw and Kyonpyaw townships of Ayeyarwady region in recent days, the state-run daily Myanmar Alinn reported on Wednesday.

In Pantanaw township, 97 schools, including 67 primary schools, have been closed since July 18 due to heavy rain and the rising water level of Ayeyarwady River, the report said, Xinhua news agency reported.

The missed school days for the schools in the townships that were temporarily closed will be made up on upcoming school holidays after reopening, it said.

According to the country’s Department of Meteorology and Hydrology, the water level of the Ayeyarwady River in some towns has exceeded their warning marks in recent days.

–IANS

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Hanoi, July 31 (IANS) Six people have been killed due to torrential rain and landslides in Vietnam’s northern region, the country’s National Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control reported on Wednesday.

Downpour-triggered landslides and floods killed two people in Ha Giang province, two in Dien Bien province, one in Thai Nguyen and another in Bac Giang in the past week, Xinhua news agency reported.

Two others were injured in Bac Kan province while one was still missing in Son La province.

Meanwhile, 82 houses in the region collapsed or were flooded, over 71 ha of rice was damaged, and 51 locations with 5,308 cubic meters of soil and rocks were eroded, said the committee.

The National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting predicted that heavy rains will continue in the northern region in the next few days.

–IANS

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