Author: Starvision News Desk

Khartoum, Aug 29 (IANS) General Commander of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan has started running state affairs in his other capacity as chairman of the Transitional Sovereign Council from Port Sudan, the capital city of the Red Sea State, amid increasing speculations that he intends to form a caretaker government, or a war government amid the ongoing military conflict.In his first speech since the violent conflict broke out between the SAF and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on April 15, Al-Burhan closed the door to any political settlement with the latter, reports Xinhua news agency.Addressing the…

Cairo, Aug 29 (IANS) The Egyptian Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation said the latest round of negotiations on the dispute involving the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Nile River concluded in Cairo with no “tangible results”.Stalled talks between Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan had resumed on Sunday in the Egyptian capital over the long-running dispute regarding the GERD, reports Xinhua news agency.After years of fruitless negotiations, “the new talks aimed to reach an agreement on the rules of filling and operation of the GERD”, the Ministry said in a statement late Monday.However, “tripartite talks did not witness any…

Berlin, Aug 29 (IANS) A strike ballot showed 52.3 per cent of the German Railway and Transport Union (EVG) members have voted in favour of a collective arbitration agreement, averting further train strikes.Meanwhile, unlimited strikes by employees of rail operator Deutsche Bahn (DB) were averted, as less than half of the union’s members voted in favour, reports Xinhua news agency. A 75-per cent approval is required to kick off another round of major strikes.”This means that we have a collective agreement based on solidarity that will bring a significant increase, in some cases of more than 50 per cent, especially…

Honolulu, Aug 29 (IANS) Energy firm, the Hawaiian Electric Company has pushed back against a lawsuit filed by Maui County over the devastating wildfires in the island that have claimed at least 115 lives.”We were surprised and disappointed that the County of Maui rushed to court even before completing its own investigation,” Shelee Kimura, president and CEO of Hawaiian Electric, said in a statement.She adde tdhat the company believes “the complaint is factually and legally irresponsible”, reports Xinhua news agency.Maui County had filed the lawsuit on August 24 against Hawaiian Electric Company, alleging that the company, a for-profit, investor-owned utility…

Sanaa, Aug 29 (IANS) Unknown gunmen kidnapped two foreign nationals working with the international charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Yemen’s central province of Marib, a security official said on Tuesday.The official told Xinhua news agency said the abducted foreigners were identified as nationals from Germany and Myanmar, both serving under the MSF banner.While acknowledging it has lost contact with its staff members in Yemen, MSF refrained from providing additional information, citing concerns for the safety of the abducted workers.No group has claimed responsibility for the abduction so far.Kidnappings of foreign aid workers and journalists have been a recurring issue…

Islamabad, August 29 (IANS) The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday suspended former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s sentence in the Toshakhana case and ordered his release from jail.A division bench of the IHC, comprising Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Tariq Mehmood Jahangir, announced the much-anticipated reserved decision, The Express Tribune reported.The court said that the copy of the judgement will be available shortly.On Monday, the counsel for the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), the defendant in this case, concluded his arguments.A heavy contingent of police and paramilitary Frontier Constabulary is present inside and outside IHC premises, The Express Tribune reported. Separately,…

Islamabad, Aug 29 (IANS) As Pakistan is reeling from inflation and high taxes, a woman in Punjab province committed suicide after electricity was not restored at her home despite paying a bill of 10,000 PKR, a media report said on Tuesday.According to victim’s husband, he had sold household items and taken a loan to pay the bill but the Multan Electric Power Company (MEPCO) had not restored the supply that had been disconnected because of non-payment, The Express Tribune reported.He said that there was no money for food after paying the bill.The victim, a mother of four, was upset that…

Washington, Aug 29 (IANS) A shooting at the premises of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill left a faculty member dead and prompted students and others to shelter in place for hours, authorities said, adding that the suspect was in police custody.The incident took place on Monday at 1.02 p.m. at theCaudill Laboratories, and a suspect was taken into custody shortly after 2.30 p.m., CNN quoted Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz as saying at a news conference on Monday night.The killing is “devastating and the shooting damages the trust and safety that we so often take for granted in our…

New York, Aug 29 (IANS) A whopping 99 per cent of Covid deaths reported by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is not primarily caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, according to a media report.In the week ending August 19, the CDC’s Covid dashboard recorded 324 coronavirus deaths. Of this, the agency held just 1.7 per cent responsible for the Covid deaths. Only in New York, which saw a 55 per cent increase in Covid cases at the beginning of August, 2.1 per cent of Covid deaths had the virus as the main cause, Daily Mail reported. This is…

San Francisco, Aug 29 (IANS) In a move that would make caste bias illegal and strengthen social justice, the California State Assembly has passed the anti-caste discrimination bill with an overwhelming 50-3 margin.Introduced by Senator Aisha Wahab in March, SB 403 adds caste as a protected category to an existing law, the Unruh Civil Rights Act, which provides that all people in the state of California are entitled to the full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities, privileges, or services in all business establishments. Approved on Monday, the bill now moves to Governor Gavin Newsom who will sign it into law,…