Briefly

CANADA

PM gambles on going to voters 2 years early

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Sunday called for a snap national vote on Sept 20, less than two years after he led the Liberal Party to a second term in government. The announcement also came more than two years before he would be required to call an election under a fixed election date law. He said voters must make choices in terms of which party is best to lead the country toward recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, now in its fourth wave in Canada. Under his government's watch, Canada has achieved high vaccination rates, with almost 82 percent of eligible Canadians aged 12 and older having received at least one dose as of Aug 7, and 70 percent fully vaccinated.

NIGERIA

Flood-linked crashes cause 21 fatalities

At least 21 people were killed on Sunday when a bus and a truck fell into a broken culvert on a road in Nigeria's northern state of Jigawa, according to local police. The accident occurred on a road near Radabi village in the Gwaram local government area after a bus and an unregistered truck fell into a broken culvert covered with floodwater, said a police spokesman in Jigawa. He said 21 of the passengers were confirmed dead by a doctor after they were rushed to a local hospital. One of the passengers has survived. The police have launched an investigation into the accident.

Xinhua