Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologized Monday for not responding to invitations from an indigenous tribe in British Columbia to mark Canada's inaugural National Truth and Reconciliation Day event. 

Instead of attending the Sept. 30 ceremony with the Tk'emlúps te Secwe̓pemc tribe, Trudeau spent the day vacationing with his family in another part of British Columbia.

Trudeau admitted his error in person Monday during a joint news conference with Tk'emlúps te Secwe̓pemc Chief Rosanne Casimir.

"It was a mistake, and I understand that it made a very difficult day even harder," Trudeau said. "You didn't have to invite me back, I know that. Thank you for doing so."

The day was set aside as an official federal government commemoration day to acknowledge the historical treatment of the various indigenous tribes in Canada -- forced attendance for about 150,000 children at 139 Indian residential schools beginning in the early 1800s.

Thousands were subjected to cruel treatment and sexual abuse, and some died and were buried in unmarked graves which are just now being probed. The Tk'emlúps te Secwe̓pemc announced in late spring that there were more than 200 unmarked graves at a former residential school where the tribe's children were sent. The last school closed in the 1990s. The day is also set aside to remember the thousands of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls.

While Trudeau attended a special ceremony marking Truth and Reconciliation Day on Parliament Hill on Sept. 29, he did not acknowledge two invitations sent to him by the Tk'emlúps te Secwe̓pemc to speak with residential school survivors on Sept. 30.

Casimir said the tribe was deeply disappointed at the snub.

"The shock, anger and sorrow and disbelief was palpable in our community," she said. "Today is about making some positive steps forward and rectifying a mistake."

Casimir asked Trudeau for three things -- full access to student attendance records from the residential schools, funding for a center for survivors of the schools, and help in exploring for all unmarked graves.

Trudeau said there will be as much money as necessary available to search for graves "right across the country."/agencies

Iraq has arrested a suspect responsible for a bombing in Baghdad’s Karrada district in 2016 which left 323 people dead and 250 wounded, the prime minister said Monday.  

Mustafa al-Kadhimi said on Twitter that “5 years after the terrorist bombing of Karrada, our brave forces succeeded in capturing the terrorist Ghazwan Alzawbaee in a complex intelligence operation outside the country. He is the primary culprit behind the Karrada atrocity and many others.”

At the time, Daesh/ISIS claimed responsibility for the Karrada suicide bombing.

"This terrorist carried out many criminal operations against the Iraqi people and the security forces," Maj. Gen. Yahya Rassoul, the spokesman for the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, said in a statement.

“The most prominent of these operations are the detonation of a booby-trapped vehicle in the Karrada area in 2016, and the supervision of a twin bombing in Baghdad in the same year by a suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt, followed by the detonation of a booby-trapped vehicle containing another suicide bomber.”

A week ago, Al-Kadhimi announced the arrest of Sami Jasim al-Jaburi, the deputy of former Daesh/ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, during a cross-border security operation.

In 2017, Iraq declared victory over Daesh/ISIS by reclaiming all territories the terrorist group controlled since the summer of 2014, which was estimated to be about a third of the country’s territory.

The group, however, still maintains sleeper cells in large areas in Iraq and occasionally launches sporadic attacks./aa

Total wealth of American billionaires jumped by 70.2% during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report released Monday.

America’s billionaires total wealth climbed to almost $5.02 trillion on Oct.15, from just below of $1.95 trillion on March 18, 2020 when COVID-19 became a global pandemic, according to the report by the Institute for Policy Studies Program on Inequality (IPS) and Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF).

This leads to the country's richest to increase their collective wealth by $2.07 trillion during those 19 months, their dataset showed.

Tesla CEO and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, 50, came on top of the wealth list by seeing exponential growth of 751%, or $184.7 billion, as his wealth skyrocketed to over $209.3 billion, from just $24.6 million, during that period.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, 57, came second on the list. The former CEO's wealth has grown to $192.2 billion, from $113 billion, for a $79.2 billion, or 70%, increase.

Third came Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates' wealth rose to $132.4 billion, from $98 billion -- a 35.1%, or $34.4 billion gain.

In addition to the wealth of American billionaires, their numbers have also increased. While there were a total of 614 bank accounts with 10-figure deposits in March 2020, now there are 745 of them as of October 2021.

The pandemic, however, has also increased the uneven income distribution among US population as well.

"The $5 trillion in wealth now held by 745 billionaires is two-thirds more than the $3 trillion in wealth held by the bottom 50% of US households estimated by the Federal Reserve Board," the report said.

Almost 89 million Americans have lost jobs during the pandemic, the report said.

There were 7.7 million unemployed individuals in the world's largest economy as of September, according to latest data by the Labor Department./aa

The US remains in active consultations with Turkey over resolving an ongoing row concerning Ankara's expulsion from the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, the State Department said on Monday.

Spokesman Ned Price said the Biden administration is engaged with Turkey over "an F-35 dispute resolution," but said he would not "prejudge the outcome of" those discussions.

"I don't want to go into private conversations between the Turkish government and this administration so I will leave it at that," he said.

The US under former President Donald Trump removed Turkey from the F-35 steal joint strike fighter program in 2019 over Ankara's purchase of Russia's advanced S-400 anti-air system, which US officials maintain poses risks to the F-35s, including the possibility that Russia could covertly use the system to obtain classified details on the jet.

Turkey has maintained it only turned to the Russian system after it failed to reach terms during protracted negotiations with the US over the acquisition of Raytheon's Patriot surface-to-air missile systems. Ankara has additionally said the S-400 poses no risk to the F-35.

Turkey ordered some 100 F-35s, and its defense sector played prominently in the development and manufacture of the fifth-generation stealth fighter jets.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday said the US proposed the sale of F-16 fighter jets as compensation for Turkey's $1.4 billion payment for F-35s.

Asked about the comments, Price referred the matter to the Turkish government./aa

At least 43 people were killed when suspected gunmen stormed a marketplace in northern Nigeria on Monday, according to a local official.

"We just finished a meeting with some stakeholders, and I have confirmed that we unfortunately lost 43 people to that incident," Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, the governor of Sokoto state, said in a statement.

Tambuwal said security forces were dispatched to the region, adding more forces should be deployed to deal with security problems.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari condemned the incident, saying the days of those responsible for the attack are numbered.

Earlier, Sokoto government spokesman Muhammad Bello said the assault was carried out by unidentified attackers in the Goronyo region.

He said the attack also left many wounded.

Sokoto is often targeted by armed groups. Twenty people were killed and many others wounded in a similar armed attack on Oct. 10.

In another deadly attack on Oct. 8, 11 people were killed, including children and a mosque imam, and others wounded when suspected gunmen from the outlawed Yan Sakai vigilante group stormed a market in Mamande village in the Gwadabawa local government area of the state./aa

US stock exchanges closed mixed on Monday, but the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq climbed back to positive territory to extend their winning streak to the fourth consecutive day.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq increased 124 points, or 0.84%, to close at 15,021 as AMC Entertainment and Coinbase jumped 5.6% and 4.5%, respectively. Apple shares were up 1.2% after the firm released its new products of MacBook Pro, M1 chip, AirPods, and HomePod.

The S&P 500 was up 15 points, or 0.34%, to 4,486. Tesla stock price increased 3.2%.

The Dow Jones, however, was down 36 points, or 0.1%, to 35,258 as the blue-chip index ended its three-day winning streak. Shares of Walt Disney and IBM lost 3% and 1.6%, respectively.

Despite a decline earlier with positive sentiment, the VIX volatility index, known as the fear index, was up again by adding 0.12% to 16.32.

The dollar index was almost unchanged at 93.96, while the yield on 10-year US Treasury notes rose 0.8% to 1.589%.

Oil prices reversed course to show some losses, with international benchmark Brent crude trading at $84.14 with a 0.8% decline, and US benchmark West Texas Intermediate was at $81.53 – a 0.24% decrease.

Precious metals were down, with gold losing 0.17% to $1,764 per ounce and silver trimming 0.36% to $23.2.

After hitting $60,000 on Friday for the first time in six months, since April 18, price of Bitcoin was trading around $61,450 for a 1.6% gain.

US-based ProShares, which provides specialized exchange-traded products, announced earlier that it plans to launch the much-anticipated first Bitcoin-linked exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the New York Stock Exchange, with a ticker BITO, on Tuesday.

"BITO will offer investors an opportunity to gain exposure to bitcoin returns conveniently, through a brokerage account. BITO can be bought and sold like a stock and eliminates the need for an account at a cryptocurrency exchange and for a crypto wallet," the company said in a statement.

ETFs, which are similar to mutual funds, are types of investment funds that can be traded on stock exchanges, and they can hold assets such as stocks, bonds, currencies, and commodities./aa

Former Chelsea and Galatasaray star Didier Drogba on Monday was announced as the World Health Organization (WHO) goodwill ambassador for sport and health.

"His efforts off the pitch are equally impressive, including his role in promoting peace in Ivory Coast, and using his name, his profile and his own resources to promote health and fight poverty. I am delighted to welcome Didier Drogba as a WHO goodwill ambassador for sport and health," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a special event.

Drogba said that it was a "great honor" to be appointed as a WHO goodwill ambassador.

The former Ivory Coast international added that he is "determined to work in partnership with WHO, FIFA, civil society, the youth, the private sectors, and other stakeholders to reach out as many football fans as possible" to increase physical activity and provide healthy lifestyles particularly for youth.

In 2007, when he was an active football player, Drogba became UNDP goodwill ambassador to raise awareness for economic, infrastructural and development challenges in Africa and in the globe.

Drogba began his career in France where he played for Le Mans, Guingamp and Olympique Marseille. However, it was following his move to Chelsea that he started to establish himself as one of the greatest forwards of the 21st century.

He scored 164 goals in 381 appearances for Chelsea.

His most important strike was an equalizer in the 2012 UEFA Champions League final against Bayern Munich, which led to Chelsea winning this title for the first time.

The 43-year-old also played for Turkey's Galatasaray in 53 matches to score 20 goals between 2013 and 2014. He helped the Istanbul club reach the Champions League quarterfinals in 2013.

He won four English Premier League titles with Chelsea (2005, 2006, 2010, and 2015).

The two-time African Football of the Year was the Turkish champions with Galatasaray in 2013.

Drogba played for his native Ivory Coast in the 2006, 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cup tournaments.

He scored 65 goals in 105 international caps for the Ivory Coast.

Drogba retired from playing the game in 2018./agencies