AMONG the headlines for Thursday, 29 July 2021, a total of 56 COVID-19 cases were detected in Parliament as of yesterday, according to health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

He said the cases involved two MPs, six escort officers and 48 officials from various government agencies.

In a statement, Dr Noor Hisham said, according to investigations and risk assessments, the positive cases do not have links to one another.

Meanwhile, investigations were also being conducted to detect close contacts of these cases, with four close contacts detected so far.

Also, five Iraqi soldiers were killed today when their helicopter crashed during a ‘combat mission’ north of Baghdad.

According to the military, the helicopter came down near Amerli in Salaheddin province, in an area where Iraqi troops have carried out repeated operations against suspected Islamic State (IS) sleeper cells.

Listen to the top stories of the day, reporting from Astro AWANI newsroom — all in 3-minutes.

We bring you the headlines, weekdays at 5 pm.

Stay informed on astroawani.com for these news and more.