Boost for candidate in bid to succeed Merkel
The leadership of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party has backed party chairman Armin Laschet’s bid to become the centre-right candidate for Germany’s next leader, one of his deputies said.
The development gives him an advantage after he and a rival both declared their ambitions.
The Union bloc aims to decide quickly on its candidate after months of shadow-boxing between Mr Laschet, the head of Mrs Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, and Markus Soeder, who leads its smaller Bavaria-only sister party, the Christian Social Union.
Mr Laschet and Mr Soeder – the governors of Germany’s two most populous states, North Rhine-westphalia and Bavaria respectively – both officially declared on Sunday that they are prepared to run, but insisted that they will quickly find a harmonious solution.
They did not specify how they will do so.
Mr Laschet’s support in the CDU is a decisive factor because his is by far the bigger of the two parties.
Mr Laschet, 60, was elected as CDU leader in January and has not enjoyed a honeymoon, most recently garnering criticism for appearing to dither over how to manage a resurgence in virus cases.
Kalbarri: A destructive cyclone has damaged several towns on Australia’s western coast, shattering windows, snapping trees and knocking out power.
Tropical Cyclone Seroja crossed the Western Australia state coast south of the tourist town of Kalbarri with winds gusting up to 106mph shortly after dark on Sunday, officials said.
There are no reports of any injuries.
Around 70 per cent of buildings in Kalbarri, a town of 1,400 people 360 miles north of the state capital Perth, had been damaged, Department of Fire and Emergency Services Commissioner Darren Klemm said.
About 30% of that damage was “significant”, he added.
Government utility Western Power reported 31,500 customers had lost power.
New Delhi: India has reported another record daily surge in coronavirus infections to overtake Brazil as the second-worst hit country in the world.
The 168,912 cases added in the last 24 hours pushed India’s total to 13.5 million, while Brazil has 13.4 million, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University in the US.
India also reported 904 deaths in the past 24 hours, taking its total to 170,179, which is the fourth highest toll behind the United States, Brazil and Mexico.
Hospitals across the country are becoming overwhelmed with patients, and experts worry the worst is yet to come.
Cairo: Egyptian prosecutors have said gross negligence by railway employees was behind a deadly train crash that caused an outcry across the country.
Drugs were also allegedly involved, officials added.
The March 26 crash of two passenger trains in the province of Sohag, about 270 miles south of Cairo, was the latest in a series of deadly railway accidents in the Arab world’s most populous country. At least 18 people died and 200 others were injured.