Author: News Desk

TOKYO :  A tour boat with 26 people aboard was missing in the frigid waters of northern Japan on Saturday, hours after sending a distress call that it was sinking, the coast guard said. No survivors have been found after more than 10 hours of intense search involving six patrol boats, five aircraft and divers. The coast guard said it will continue the search through the night. The 19-ton Kazu 1 made an emergency call in early afternoon, saying the ship’s bow had flooded and it was beginning to sink and tilt while traveling off the western coast of Shiretoko…

Ukraine :  Russian forces in Ukraine tried to storm a steel plant housing soldiers and civilians in the southern city of Mariupol on Saturday while attempting to crush the last corner of resistance in a place of deep symbolic and strategic value to Moscow, Ukrainian officials said. The reported assault on the eve of Orthodox Easter came after the Kremlin claimed its military had seized all of the shattered city except for the Azovstal plant, and as Russian forces pounded other cities and towns in southern and eastern Ukraine. A 3-month-old baby was among six people killed when Russia fired cruise missiles at the…

Bahrain :  On behalf of His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, opened the 48th Bahrain Annual Fine Arts Exhibition this evening, at the Bahrain National Theater. On behalf of HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad, HH Shaikh Mohammed bin Salman expressed his appreciation for the honour of opening the exhibition, and his pride in the creative contributions made by the exhibition’s Bahraini and resident artists, as one Team Bahrain. HH Shaikh Mohammed bin Salman noted that the annual exhibition has provided a…

Bahrain : The government’s eKey service has witnessed a surge in demand during the pandemic, with more than 190,000 new users registering since the beginning of March, 2020, Information & eGovernment Authority (iGA) Director of Government Systems Support & Maintenance iGA’s ID Card Service Center said. With the total number of users now topping 572,000, there have been more than 30 million successful eKey entries accessing safe and secure electronic services since the start of the pandemic. AlHashemi said the eKey offers access to eServices through the National Portal, bahrain.bh, as well as other electronic government channels, eliminating the need…

Bahrain : Minister of Labour and Social Development, Jamil bin Mohammed Ali Humaidan, the Board Chairman of the Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA), met with the US Ambassador to the Kingdom of Bahrain, Steven Bondy. They discussed bilateral relations and ways of boosting cooperation between the two friendly countries, mainly in the labour and social care fields.

Washington :  Twitter says it will no longer allow advertisers on its site who deny the scientific consensus on climate change, echoing a policy already in place at Google. “Ads shouldn’t detract from important conversations about the climate crisis,” the company said in a statement outlining its new policy Friday, reports AP. There was no indication that the change would affect what users post on the social media site, which along with Facebook has been targeted by groups seeking to promote misleading claims about climate change. The announcement coinciding with Earth Day came hours before the European Union agreed upon…

Bahrain : The Maan” (Together) programme against violence and addiction has obtained the ISO 31000:2018 certificate in risk management. Interior Ministry Undersecretary for Nationality, Passports and Residence Affairs, Chairman of the Anti-violence and Addiction Committee, Shaikh Hesham bin Abdulrahman Al Khalifa received “Maan” director Ali Ahmed Amini who presented the certificate. He also submitted a copy of the programme’s general risk management methodology guide that includes the applicable policy in the system and the necessary records and forms approved for implementation. Undersecretary Shaikh Hesham bin Abdulrahman Al Khalifa commended the programme’s commitment to work in accordance with the highest international standards…

Polling stations across France are set to open on Sunday as President Emmanuel Macron, 44, faces far-right challenger Marine Le Pen, 53, in an election battle. Preparations were under way on Saturday to set up polling stations as voters waited to elect the nation’s next president. Sunday’s vote is a rematch of the 2017 presidential election run-off, as incumbent centrist Mr Macron faces Ms Le Pen, after a first-round vote earlier this month. Polls suggest Mr Macron is leading against Ms Le Pen, but a big question mark remains over how many of France’s 48.7 million eligible voters will go to…

Beijing : Officials in Shanghai promised Friday to ease anti-virus controls on truck drivers that are hampering food supplies and trade, while Hong Kong’s government announced the end of a 2-year-old ban on non-residents flying into the city as its outbreak fades. Streets in Shanghai were largely empty despite an easing of restrictions that confined most of its 25 million people to their homes. Many residents still were barred from leaving their neighborhoods. A deputy mayor, Zhang Wei, promised “every effort” to resolve problems that prompted complaints about lack of food and fears the shutdown of China’s most populous city…

UN chief Antonio Guterres will visit Moscow on Tuesday for peace  talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. UN spokeswoman Eri Kaneko said  Putin will host a reception in Moscow,   Mr Guterres will  hold  a “working meeting and lunch” with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to “further discussions” on halting Europe’s worst war in decades. He will discuss “what steps can be taken right now in order to silence the guns, in order to help the people and in order to allow the people who need to get out to get out and have safe passage”, Ms Kaneko told. The UN has been largely…