Author: News Desk

Bahrain remains the best place in the Gulf region for expats to live and work despite the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the latest InterNations Expat Insider survey. The 2021 survey, which samples key indices related to things like quality of life and cost of living, ranks Bahrain ahead of Qatar, the UAE, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. The InterNations survey showed Bahrain ranked highly across key indicators including quality of medical care, political stability, ease of settling in and job satisfaction. Just over 80 percent of expats in Bahrain are happy with medical care quality, compared with 71 percent globally…

Japan formally approved Moderna and AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccines on Friday. The decision comes just over two months before the pandemic-postponed Olympics, with growing disquiet in Japan about the country’s comparatively slow vaccine rollout. Nine regions including Tokyo are already under a virus state of emergency, with the measure now being expanded to Okinawa in the south. Until now, only the Pfizer-BioNTech was available in Japan, after being approved in February, and so far just two percent of the country’s 125 million residents are fully vaccinated. In a statement, the health ministry said the two additional formulas had been approved. But…

A new type of coronavirus believed to have originated in dogs was detected among patients hospitalized with pneumonia in 2017-2018, and maybe the eighth unique coronavirus known to cause disease in humans if it is confirmed as a pathogen, a study said. Researchers in the study, published in the Clinical Infectious Diseases journal on Thursday, said their findings underscored the public health threat of animal coronaviruses. The researchers said they had tested nasal swab samples taken from 301 pneumonia patients at a hospital in the east Malaysian state of Sarawak. Eight of the samples, mostly from children under 5 years…

Microsoft is pulling the plug on its once omnipresent browser, Internet Explorer, next year as it prepares to battle market leader Chrome with its slicker Edge browser. Launched in 1995, Internet Explorer became the dominant browser for over a decade as it was bundled with Microsoft’s Windows operating system that came pre-installed in billions of computers. The browser, however, started losing out to Google’s Chrome in the late 2000s and has become a subject of countless internet memes for its sluggishness in comparison to its rivals. https://youtu.be/Dc_PAIeI_U0 To compete better, Microsoft launched the Edge browser in 2015 that runs on…

Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook on Friday will take the witness stand to defend the App Store, a booming part of the iPhone maker’s business that “Fortnite” maker Epic Games says is a monopoly that Apple abuses. Cook is expected to spend more than two hours making what are likely to be his most extensive public remarks on the App Store business, which anchors Apple’s $53.8 billion services business. Epic has waged a public relations and legal campaign, arguing that Apple acts anticompetitively by only allowing apps it approves on the world’s 1 billion iPhones and by forcing developers to use…

Spain will allow all vaccinated travelers to visit the country from June 7, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Friday, as the tourism hotspot aims to revive its virus-battered travel industry. “From June 7, all vaccinated people and their families will be welcome in our country, Spain, regardless of their country of origin,” Sanchez said at an international tourism fair in Madrid. He also announced that British travelers would be allowed to visit Spain for holidays from next week. “From next Monday, the 24th of May, Spain will be delighted to receive British tourists again into our country,” Sanchez said. He said…

Cryptocurrency exchanges operating in Hong Kong will have to be licenced by the city’s markets regulator and will only be allowed to provide services to professional investors, according to government proposals published on Friday. Governments and financial regulators around the world are still assessing whether and how they should regulate the cryptocurrency industry. Investor protection and preventing money laundering are particular concerns. Cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ether have been on a roller-coaster ride this week which has raised further questions about their potential as mainstream investments. Dozens of cryptocurrency exchanges operate in Hong Kong, including some of the world’s…

The Nationality, Passports and Residence Affairs (NPRA) announced on Friday that entry to Bahrain will be restricted, effective Sunday, to citizens, GCC nationals and holders of residence visas from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal. In a statement today, NPRA announced that passengers arriving from the aforementioned countries will have to be quarantined for 10 days, present a certificate confirming the result of a negative PCR test containing a QR code, no more than 48 hours before their arrival. “Political Prisoner” concept does not exist in Bahrain: Interior Ministry Bahrain welcomes ceasefire in Gaza Strip The Nationality, Passports and…

The Ministry of Interior has dismissed baseless allegations made by Al Jazeera Channel in a report on its website. In a statement, the ministry said that the report “Activists reveal the suffering of political detainees in Bahrain with COVID-19 outbreaks” is part of its ongoing incitement against Bahrain and its people. Refuting the allegations, the ministry said: “First: The records of the “Reformation and Rehabilitation” in Bahrain doesn’t know the “political prisoners” concept that comes out of the imagination of those promoting it, such as the inciting channel that works against Bahrainis and knows only the language of violence and…

The CEO and co-founder of TikTok’s owner ByteDance has announced he will step down and transition to a new role by the end of the year. In a letter to employees, Zhang Yiming said he will be succeeded by fellow co-founder Rubo Liang. The move marks the biggest shake-up at the Chinese technology giant since its launch almost a decade ago. TikTok’s popularity has helped it become a global sensation but has also drawn scrutiny. “The truth is, I lack some of the skills that make an ideal manager. I’m more interested in analysing organizational and market principles, and leveraging…