Author: News Desk

Bahrain : Northern Governor, Ali bin Al-Shaikh Abdulmohsen Al-Asfoor, has extended, on behalf of all the citizens of the Al-Lawzi region, deepest thanks and gratitude to His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, following HRH’s orders to swiftly document all flood-damages and compensate for those affected by the rainfall, as well as directives to develop sustainable drainage solutions in areas where rainwater has accumulated. The governor commended the speedy implementation of the orders of HRH the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, by crediting the compensation amounts to the accounts of the affected…

Geneva : The World Health Organisation says that coronavirus vaccine boosters should now be offered to people, starting with the most vulnerable, in a move away from its previous insistence that boosters were unnecessary for healthy adults and an acknowledgment that the vaccine supply is improving globally; At a press briefing on Friday, the U.N. health agency said it was now recommending booster doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, beginning in the highest-priority groups, about four to six months after receiving the first two doses, in line with guidance from dozens of countries that embarked upon booster programs months ago. Last…

Hardeep Singh, 29, and fellow Indian Hardev Singh were two of the three men killed in the deadly blast in Abu Dhabi on Monday. The Pakistan embassy confirmed on Friday that Mamoor Khan was the third man who died in the strike, and that his body reached Peshawar airport on Wednesday. An Indian embassy spokeswoman said two bodies had also been repatriated on Thursday.  Hardeep’s relative Gagandeep Singh, 33, said that his cousin’s nickname among the family was “ladla” — meaning “my loved one”. “We were more than brothers. He was the youngest in the family and we all loved…

New Delhi : The Delhi High Court Friday said it will hear on February 3 a plea by Delhi State Legal Services Authority (DSLSA) seeking the execution of the order directing Juhi Chawla and two others to deposit ₹ 20 lakh as costs in its favour on a lawsuit against the 5G technology. Counsel for the Bollywood actress told Justice Amit Bansal that an appeal against the single judge order is pending before a division bench, which will be considered on January 25, and urged the court to defer hearing on the execution petition for the time being. Lawyer Saurabh Kansal, appearing…

TOKYO :  Restaurants and bars will close early in Tokyo and a dozen other areas across Japan beginning Friday as the country widens COVID-19 restrictions due to the omicron variant, which has caused cases to surge to new highs in metropolitan areas. The restraint, which is something of a pre-state of emergency, is the first since September and is scheduled to last through Feb. 13. With three other prefectures — Okinawa, Hiroshima and Yamaguchi — under similar measures since early January, the state of restraint now covers 16 areas, or one-third of the country. While many Japanese adults are fully…

New York : As he starts his second term as U.N. secretary-general, Antonio Guterres said Thursday the world is worse in many ways than it was five years ago because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis and geopolitical tensions that have sparked conflicts everywhere — but unlike U.S. President Joe Biden he thinks Russia will not invade Ukraine. Guterres said in an interview with The Associated Press that the appeal for peace he issued on his first day in the U.N.’s top job on Jan. 1, 2017 and his priorities in his first term of trying to prevent conflicts…

Survivors of the Houthi strike on an Abu Dhabi oil storage plant have described the moment the ground shook and fire filled the air, peppering their bodies with shrapnel and killing three colleagues. The attack on the civilian facility has been condemned by world leaders and diplomatic efforts are under way to add Yemen’s Houthi group to the US list of terrorist groups. Ramjan Mohamed Rath from India and Saeed Noor Jabar Khan from Pakistan recall the deafening explosion. “It was a dangerous, frightening, terrifying sound. I have never heard such a loud sound in my life,” Mr Rath told  from his…

Chennai : The Chennai Police Commissioner on Thursday said that actor Siddharth has been summoned over his defamation case against badminton ace Saina Nehwal over PM Modi’s security breach in Punjab. “Actor Siddharth has been summoned (over his controversial tweet on badminton player Saina Nehwal). We’ve actually received 2 complaints; another one is on defamation in a legal frame, not a criminal case. We only need his statement,” said Chennai Police Commissioner Shankar Jiwal. “Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are thinking about how to get the statement. We have summoned actor Siddharth”, confirmed the Chennai Police Commissioner.

BEIRUT :  A rocket attack on a northern Syrian town controlled by Turkey-backed opposition fighters killed six civilians and wounded over a dozen people on Thursday, Syrian rescuers and a war monitor said. Both blamed U.S-backed Syrian Kurdish forces for the attack. The town of Afrin has been under control of Turkey and its allied Syrian opposition fighters since 2018, following a Turkey-backed military operation that pushed Syrian Kurdish fighters and thousands of Kurdish residents from the area. Since then, Afrin and surrounding villages have been the site of attacks on Turkish and Turkey-backed targets. Ankara considers Kurdish fighters who…

OSLO : A prosecutor in Norway said Thursday that a far-right extremist who killed 77 people in 2011 still is “a very dangerous man” and therefore a poor candidate for release after 10 years in prison, as Norwegian law permits. On the final day of a three-day parole hearing, prosecutor Hulda Karlsdottir said in her closing argument that Anders Behring Breivik “has not shown any genuine remorse in court” and his behavior there is part of a “PR stunt.” “In the clear view of the prosecution, Breivik’s request for parole should not be granted,” Karlsdottir said. Breivik professed white supremacist views and flashed Nazi…