Author: News Desk

Russian forces have blown up a bridge linking the embattled Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk to another city across the river, cutting off a possible evacuation route for civilians, local officials said on Sunday. Sievierodonetsk has become the epicentre of the battle for control over Ukraine’s eastern region of Donbas. Parts of the city have been pulverised in some of the bloodiest fighting since the Kremlin unleashed its invasion on Feb. 24. Ukrainian and Russian forces were still fighting street-by-street there on Sunday, the governor of Luhansk province, Serhiy Gaidai, said. Russian forces have taken most of the city but Ukrainian…

Beijing’s most populous district Chaoyang announced three rounds of mass testing to quell a “ferocious” COVID-19 outbreak that emerged at a bar in a nightlife and shopping area last week, shortly after the city relaxed curbs imposed during an outbreak in April. City health officials said that so far there have been 166 confirmed cases linked to the outbreak that began at the Heaven Supermarket bar in the Sanlitun area on Thursday, 145 of them bar patrons. Mass testing would take place between Monday and Wednesday in Chaoyang district, where the bar is located, officials told a press briefing. The…

The leader of the Russian-backed separatist Donetsk region of Ukraine said on Sunday there was no reason to pardon two British nationals who were sentenced to death last week after being captured while fighting for Ukraine. A court in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic on Thursday found Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner – and Moroccan Brahim Saadoun – guilty of “mercenary activities” seeking to overthrow the republic. Britain says Aslin and Pinner were regular soldiers and should be exempt under the Geneva Conventions from prosecution for participation in hostilities. The pro-Russian separatists who control Donetsk say they committed grave crimes…

Bahrain’s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows increased by US$1.766 billion in 2021, marking a 73% year-on-year increase and surpassing the global FDI average growth, according to the 2022 World Investment Report issued by the United Nations Conference of Trade and Development (UNCTAD). According to the report, the Kingdom’s inward FDI stocks increased by 6% from 2020, reaching US$33.47 billion in 2021. With a GDP value of US $38.8 billion in 2021 according to the Information & eGovernment Authority of Bahrain, Bahrain’s FDI stock relative to GDP reached 86 %, ranking as the highest in GCC and surpassing the global average…

A UAE delegation of climate diplomats called for progressive climate action as an enabler for global stability, low-carbon economic progress and inclusive prosperity. The call went out during the Bonn Climate Change Conference for the 56th session of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC) subsidiary bodies from June 6-16. At the conference, countries that are parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have begun discussions to reinvigorate momentum for climate action and set the stage for the 27th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP27) in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt this November. The Bonn Climate…

U.N. member nations elected five countries to join the powerful U.N. Security Council on Thursday with no suspense or drama because all were unopposed — Ecuador, Japan, Malta, Mozambique and Switzerland. Winning a seat on the 15-member Security Council is considered a pinnacle of achievement for many countries because it gives them a strong voice on issues of international peace and security, reports AP. The results of the secret ballot vote in the 193-member General Assembly were Ecuador 190, Japan 184, Malta 185, Mozambique 192, and Switzerland 187. Even if a country is running unopposed, it must obtain the votes…

Japan’s government and central bank said on Friday they were concerned by recent sharp falls in the yen in a rare joint statement, the strongest warning to date that Tokyo could intervene to support the currency as it plumbs 20-year lows. The statement underscores growing concern among policymakers over the damage that sharp yen depreciation could inflict on Japan’s fragile economy by hurting business activity and consumers. But many market players doubt that G7 member Japan will step in soon to directly prop up the yen, a diplomatically fraught and potentially costly course of action that last occurred 20 years…

NATO’s deputy chief sees no immediate military threat to Sweden and Finland from Russia and is confident that the aspiring NATO members will join the alliance despite Turkey’s objections, he told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Friday. Finland and Sweden applied to join NATO last month in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but face opposition from Turkey, which accuses them of supporting and harbouring Kurdish militants and other groups it deems terrorists. “We are confident that Sweden and Finland will join our ranks,” Deputy Secretary-General Mircea Geoana said. “Allies have concerns. And Turkey has some concerns that are legitimate…

Ukrainian forces were holding their positions in intense street fighting and under day and night shelling in Sievierodonetsk, officials said, as Russia pushes to control the bombed-out city, key to its objective of controlling eastern Ukraine. Sievierodonetsk and its twin city Lysychansk, on the opposite bank of the Siverskyi Donets river, are the last Ukrainian-controlled parts of Luhansk province, which Russia is determined to seize as one of its principal war objectives. Ukraine’s Security Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov said on Thursday the situation in Sievierodonetsk was “extremely complicated” and Russian forces were focusing all of their might in the area.…

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Friday the European Union should offer the integration of all six nations of the Western Balkans into the EU by 2033 in what he called a “bold but necessary step”. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has lent a new sense of urgency to the need to tie Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Kosovo closer to the 27-member EU, in part to counter growing Russian and Chinese influence in the region. The link could entail full membership or an alternative community. In an article published in Politico ahead of a summit in Greece…