Author: Starvision News Desk

Moscow, July 4 (IANS) Russia intends to raise minimum wage by 18.5 per cent next year, according to a bill submitted for public discussion.The minimum wage in Russia is set at 16,242 rubles ($182) per month, reports Xinhua news agency. The Ministry of Labour and Social Protection has drawn up a bill to increase it to 19,242 rubles starting January 1, 2024, which will affect the wages of 4.8 million Russians.The Ministry also proposes to change the methodology for minimum wage calculation from 2025. For the moment, the minimum wage is calculated as 42 per cent of the median salary…

Beijing, July 4 (IANS) Water levels of seven rivers in Chongqing remained above the warning level on Tuesday after torrential rain battered most parts of the Chinese megacity since the previous day, local authorities said.A total of 24 districts and counties of the city reported rainstorms between 8 a.m. Monday and 8 a.m. Tuesday, with Baiyan Village in Wanzhou district recording the highest daily rainfall at 251.5 mm, according to Chongqing’s hydrological monitoring station.The station on Tuesday morning issued yellow alert for flooding in one river in Wanzhou and another in Qijiang district, as these rivers are expected to see…

Washington, July 4 (IANS) The US National Park Service (NPS) confirmed that a woman has died while hiking in the Grand Canyon as temperatures soared amid an ongoing heat wave. In a statement, the NPS saidsaid that at around 6.30 p.m. on Sunday evening, a park ranger received a report about a hiker who was in distress in the Tuweep area of Arizona’s Grand Canyon National Park, ABC News reported.Officials said the 57-year-old woman was on an 8-mile hike in the remote area of the park when she lost consciousness.”A ranger arrived on scene at approximately 1 a.m. on July…

Hong Kong, July 4 (IANS) The Chinese government has tightened controls over the exports of two key materials used to make computer chips, ahead of the Beijing trip of US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.China’s Commerce Ministry said it would control exports of eight gallium products and six germanium products from August 1 to protect its national security and interests.The move, according to the BBC, comes in the wake of Washington’s efforts to curb Chinese access to some advanced microprocessors.The metals are used in semiconductor, communications and military equipment. They are also key materials in products like solar panels, the report…

London, July 4 (IANS) Swedish data protection watchdog has fined two companies for using Google Analytics for web statistics, asking them, along with two more companies it audited, to stop using Google Analytics.The Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection (IMY) audited how four companies use Google Analytics for web statistics.IMY issued administrative fines against two of the companies. One of the companies has recently stopped using the statistics tool on its own initiative, while IMY orders the other three to also stop using it.Google Analytics is a tool for measuring and analysing traffic on websites.The companies audited were CDON, Coop, Dagens…

Moscow, July 4 (IANS) At least 10 flights heading to Moscow’s Vnukovo international airport were redirected on Tuesday after the Russian capital was targeted in an attempted drone strike, media reports said.Citing an emergencies service official, the state-run TASS News Agency said that two drones were intercepted in Novaya Moskva, an administrative district in Moscow, and a third in the Kaluga region, southwest of the Russian capital.”According to preliminary reports, three drones were heading towards Moscow at different moments in time. Two of them were jammed in Novaya Moskva and the third one in the Kaluga Region,” the official told…

Jerusalem, July 4 (IANS) Some 500 Palestinian families were allowed to leave the refugee camp in Jenin amid an ongoing Israeli military operation in the West Bank city, the media reported on Tuesday.As of Monday night, hundreds of Israeli soldiers were still operating inside Jenin, more than 20 hours after the Jewish state’s military launched the operation deemed to be one of the most extensive in the territory in recent years, the BBC reported.According to the Israeli military, there was no specific timeline for ending the operation, but that it could be “a matter of hours or a few days”.On…

Tehran, July 4 (IANS) Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani has said that Saudi Arabia will soon reopen its embassy in Iran’s capital Tehran, according to media reports.Speaking at a weekly press conference in Tehran on Monday, Kanaani did not give a specific date for the reopening of the Saudi embassy.He noted that Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi will take a trip to Saudi Arabia to boost bilateral relations, the date of which he said is yet to be decided, Xinhua news agency reported.In early June, Iran reopened its embassy in Riyadh as well as its consulate general and representative office…

Hong Kong, July 3 (IANS) In a first, a drug discovered and designed using artificial intelligence (AI) for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a chronic disease that causes scarring in the lungs, has entered human clinical trials.Hong Kong-based biotechnology company Insilico Medicine, in a statement, announced that the Phase II trial on oral dosage of INS018_055 is currently being conducted for over 12 weeks in China, and will later be expanded to test 60 people in the US and China. Once successful, the company aims to study a larger cohort. “With demonstrated potential against both fibrosis and inflammation,…

London, July 3 (IANS) A woman suffering from an ‘acute mental disorder’ has been jailed for killing a frail 83-year-old Indian-origin woman by repeatedly banging her head on the floor at a hospital in Birmingham.Vidya Kaur died in the early hours of January 22, 2021 in Birmingham City Hospital after fellow patient, Philomena Wilson (56), attacked her, the METRO reported.Wilson, who initially claimed to have no memory of the events, later pleaded guilty to manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility, and was jailed for seven years on Friday, with a further five years on licence.The Birmingham crown court was told…