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Biden administration over a Nevada lithium mine, environmentalists are poised to return to court with a new approach accusing US wildlife officials of dragging their feet on a year-old petition seeking endangered species status for a tiny snail that lives nearby. The Western Watersheds Project said in its formal notice of intent to sue that the government's failure to list the Kings River pyrg as a threatened or endangered species could push it to the brink of extinction. It says the only place the snail is known to exist is in 13 shallow springs near where Lithium Americas is building its Thacker Pass Mine near the Oregon line. US President Joe Biden has made ramped-up domestic production of lithium a key part of his blueprint for a greener future.

Ambedkar, the principal architect of India's Constitution, outside India was formally inaugurated in a Maryland suburb of the US capital here. Amidst chants of «Jai Bhim», more than 500 Indian-Americans from various parts of the United States and some from India and other countries attended the unveiling ceremony of the 19-feet tall «Statue of Equality». Heavy rain and drizzle did not deter the enthusiasm and energy of the participants, many of whom drove for as long as 10 hours to attend what they described as a historic event.

Golmei Gaiphulshillu Kabui has become the first tribal woman appointed as a judge in the Manipur High Court. Kabui is a Naga woman from Manipur. The swearing-in ceremony is expected to take place on Monday. Her appointment was made by the Union Ministry of Law and Justice.

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Emily Rose

My Journey: Transforming Dreams into Actions. But it remained a pipe dream with the late president coming in ninth out of 25 candidates. Unfortunately, there had only been eight slots available.

UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) has warned that Gaza has run out of water. In a tweet shared by UNRWA, the UN agency has said that the situation in Gaza is of ‘life and death’, even as Palestinians in the densely populated Gaza strip struggle holding onto survival.

AFL chairman Richard Goyder will convene the AFL Commission on Monday for the first time since flagging his intention toretire as Qantas chairman, and will reiterate his intention to stay on in the role for another two years.

By Jorgelina do Rosario

American aerospace giant Lockheed Martin has secured a contract from the US Navy to manufacture eight Sikorsky MH-60R SEAHAWK helicopters for the Spanish Navy (Navy). These helicopters are equipped with state-of-the-art mission systems and sensors specially designed for anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare.

Sri Lanka restarted a ferry service between Nagappatinam in Tamil Nadu and Kankesanthurai (KKS) near Jaffna on Saturday—nearly four decades after it was suspended--as part of efforts to put in place connectivity initiatives that would push South Asian integration. A vessel named ‘Cheriyapani’ left Nagappatinam for Kankesanthurai with 50 passengers and was scheduled to return by evening with passengers from Sri Lanka. The ferry service initiative was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesignhe during the latter’s visit to India in July. The high-speed ferry, operated by the Shipping Corporation of India, has a capacity of 150 passengers. It can cover the distance of about 60 nm (110 Km) between Nagapattinam and KKS in about three and a half hours under good weather conditions, officials said. Ferry services between India and Sri Lanka were suspended in the 1980s for security reasons.

INDIA bloc parties raised the pitch for early implementation of women's reservation in Parliament and legislatures at a conference in Chennai on Saturday. Speaking at the Women's Rights Conference, organized by DMK's women's wing, former Congress president Sonia Gandhi said, «The Women's Reservation Bill was introduced by the UPA government at the Centre and was passed in Rajya Sabha. We could not pass it in Lok Sabha because of lack of consensus.

Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla told European Parliament vice-president Nicola Beer in a bilateral meeting here on Saturday. Birla said this in protest against European Parliament's July resolution on the human rights situation in India in the backdrop of violence in Manipur.

Israel to stop its attacks on Gaza, warning that the war might expand to other parts of the Middle East if Hezbollah joins the battle, and that would make Israel suffer «a huge earthquake.» Hossein Amirabdollahian told reporters in Beirut that Lebanon's Hezbollah group has taken all the scenarios of a war into consideration and Israel should stop its attacks on Gaza as soon as possible. Israel considers Hezbollah its most serious immediate threat, estimating it has some 150,000 rockets and missiles, including precision-guided missiles that can hit anywhere in Israel.

Prime minister Narendra Modi on Saturday asserted that India will leave «no stone unturned» in its efforts to organise the 2036 Olympics as the government expressed a strong desire to host the biggest sporting event in the world. Modi declared open the 141st Session of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), where India will present its roadmap for hosting the quadrennial extravaganza. The IOC session is being held in the country after a gap of 40 years. The last Olympic Session was held in India in 1983 in New Delhi. PM Modi also said that India wishes to host the 2029 Youth Olympics. «Indians are very excited about hosting the Olympics Games.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday asserted the INDIA alliance would fight for the implementation of the Women's Reservation Bill passed recently by the Parliament. Addressing the ruling DMK's Women's rights conference here, she said the late Rajiv Gandhi brought the historic 33 per cent reservation for women in Panchayati raj, the local self-governments which spurred an entirely new phenomenon of women leadership at the grassroots level. It was a vital stepping stone towards the reservation on a similar one thirds of seats in the legislative bodies which the Congress pioneered in Parliament and outside. Now the Women's Reservation Bill has finally been passed due to «our relentless persistence and efforts; of all of us, not just the Congress.» However, «as we all know it is still a long way to come.» She recalled the interventions made in the Parliament by opposition MPs on the actual implementation of the Bill, whether it would be in one year, two or three years. «We have no idea,» she said and added though some men are happy, «we are not, we women are not.» She asserted «we are going to fight,» for the implementation of Women's Reservation Act. The Women's Reservation Bill introduced by the UPA-II was passed by the Rajya Sabha but a lack of consesus prevented it from being passed in the Lok Sabha.

By Yasin Ebrahim

By Sharon Bernstein

By Moira Warburton, David Morgan and Katharine Jackson

Qantas says a flight scheduled to leave Tel Aviv on Sunday transporting Australians fleeing the war was cancelled because it is too unsafe to fly, after Israel warned of an imminent ground invasion of Gaza.

Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged Israel's right to self-defence in the face of Hamas' attacks of “unprecedented brutality," and stressed the creation of an “independent Palestine state with East Jerusalem" as its capital. As reported by ANI citing TASS, “Russia proceeds from the postulate, a negotiated solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has no alternatives," said Putin while speaking at the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) summit here on Friday. Also Read:Israel-Hamas War LIVE Updates: Israel strike kills senior Hamas military commander Murad Abu Murad “The negotiations' goal should be the implementation of the United Nations' two-state formula, which implies the creation of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, coexisting in peace and security with Israel, which, of course, as we have seen, has come under an attack of unprecedented brutality.

PARIS (Reuters) — French President Emmanuel Macron has ordered 7,000 soldiers to be mobilised for increased security patrols, his office said on Saturday, a day after a teacher was stabbed to death in an Islamist attack.