World News Roundup: British soldier charged over 1972 "Bloody Sunday" will not stand trial; Beirut blast judge to start questioning top politicians, news agency reports and more

A crowd chanted "no pride in genocide" before pulling down the statues of the monarchs. UK PM Johnson meets Germany's Merkel with COVID travel rules in focus British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and German Chancellor Angela met on Friday with COVID-19 travel restrictions high on the agenda as cases of the highly transmissible Delta variant surge in Britain.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

British soldier charged over 1972 "Bloody Sunday" will not stand trial

The only British soldier charged with murder about the "Bloody Sunday" killings of 13 unarmed Catholic civil rights marchers in Londonderry by British paratroopers in 1972 will not face trial, lawyers for families of the victims said on Friday. Soldiers from the Parachute Regiment opened fire on an unauthorized march in an Irish nationalist area in one of the most notorious incidents of Northern Ireland "Troubles". They killed 13 people and wounded 14 others, one of whom died later.

Gazprom holds back exports via Ukraine, pressing case for Nord Stream 2 -analysts

Analysts said that kremlin-controlled gas giant Gazprom has held off from booking additional gas supplies via Ukraine to meet surging demand in recent months, sending a clear sign it is waiting for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to be commissioned. Nord Stream 2, which runs on the bed of the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany, bypassing Ukraine, has faced criticism from the United States, which says it will increase European reliance on Russian gas. Washington imposed sanctions on the project in 2019, slowing its progress.

Beirut blast judge to start questioning top politicians, news agency reports

The judge in charge of the investigation into last year's Beirut port blast will start calling in top politicians for questioning, including caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab, Lebanon's national news agency reported on Friday. No date has been specified yet, the agency said.

Forced labour main human trafficking crime in Malaysia, U.S. says

Malaysia's predominant human trafficking crime is forced labour, the U.S State Department said on Friday, after downgrading the Southeast Asian country to the worst tier in its annual report on human trafficking. Malaysia fell to 'Tier 3' in this year's closely watched Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report as it continued to conflate human trafficking and migrant smuggling crimes, and did not adequately address or criminally pursue credible allegations on labour trafficking, the report said.

Statues of Queen Victoria, Queen Elizabeth toppled in Canada

Protesters have toppled statues of Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II in the Canadian city of Winnipeg as anger grows over the discovery of the remains of hundreds of children in unmarked graves at former indigenous schools. A crowd chanted "no pride in genocide" before pulling down the statues of the monarchs.

UK PM Johnson meets Germany's Merkel with COVID travel rules in focus

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and German Chancellor Angela met on Friday with COVID-19 travel restrictions high on the agenda as cases of the highly transmissible Delta variant surge in Britain. The meeting, hosted at Johnson's Chequers country residence on what will be Merkel's last trip to Britain as chancellor, was officially aimed at deepening relations.

Delta variant sweeps Asia, prompting curbs as vaccination remains tepid

The highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus is surging through Asia this week, with record numbers of infections in Australia and South Korea, prompting some countries to tighten curbs and others to hasten vaccination. The variant, first detected in India in December last year, has spread to about 100 countries and the World Health Organisation warned recently that it could soon become the dominant form of the virus. It is also driving a spike in cases in Japan, casting a pall over this month's Olympic Games.

Ethiopia denies blocking aid to Tigray where WFP trucks waited days to unload

Ethiopia on Friday denied blocking humanitarian aid to its northern Tigray region where hundreds of thousands face starvation, and said it was rebuilding infrastructure amid accusations it is using hunger as a weapon. The Tigray People's Liberation Front, provincial authorities which Ethiopian forces and troops from neighbouring Eritrea had driven out last year, returned to regional capital Mekelle this week to cheering crowds, in a dramatic reversal of eight months of war.

Era ends, war looms as U.S. forces quit main base in Afghanistan

American troops pulled out of their main military base in Afghanistan on Friday, leaving behind a piece of the World Trade Center they buried 20 years ago in a country that the top U.S. commander has warned may descend into civil war without them. "All American soldiers and members of NATO forces have left the Bagram air base," said a senior U.S. security official on condition of anonymity.

Iraqis protest over power, water cuts amid heat wave

Hundreds of Iraqis protested in Baghdad on Friday over worsening power and water cuts as temperatures exceeded 50 degrees Celsius in some parts of Iraq. At Friday prayer in the Sadr City district of Baghdad, men sweated and prayed under parasols, then held a protest criticizing the government for not providing its citizens with enough electricity.