Author: News Desk

Beijing :  China’s global trade surplus surged to $676.4 billion in 2021, likely the highest ever for any country, as exports jumped 29.9% over a year earlier despite semiconductor shortages that disrupted manufacturing. The country’s monthly trade surplus in December swelled 20.8% over a year earlier to a record $94.4 billion, customs data showed Friday. China piled up a series of monthly export surpluses in 2021 but they prompted less criticism from the United States and other trading partners than in earlier years while their governments focused on containing coronavirus infections. Exports rose to $3.3 trillion in 2021 despite shortages…

Dallas :  A single page of artwork from a 1984 Spider-Man comic book sold at auction  for a record $3.36 million. Mike Zeck’s artwork for page 25 from Marvel Comics’ “Secret Wars No. 8” brings the first appearance of Spidey’s black suit. The symbiote suit would eventually lead to the emergence of the character Venom. The record bidding, which started at $330,000 and soared past $3 million, came on the first day of Heritage Auctions’ four-day comic event in Dallas. The previous record for an interior page of a U.S. comic book was $657,250 for art from a 1974 issue…

Seoul : North Korea on Friday fired at least one possible ballistic missile in its third weapons launch this month, officials in South Korea and Japan said, in an apparent reprisal for fresh sanctions imposed by the Biden administration for its continuing test launches. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the weapon was fired toward the east but did not immediately say where it landed or provided other details. Japan’s Prime Minister’s Office and the Defense Ministry also said they detected the North Korean launch and said it was possibly a ballistic missile. The Japanese coast guard issued a…

LONDON :  Queen Elizabeth II has stripped Prince Andrew of all his honorary military titles and royal roles in charities and other civic groups, Buckingham Palace said Thursday, amid a growing furor over allegations he sexually abused a teenage girl supplied to him by financier Jeffrey Epstein. More than 150 British navy and army veterans had written to the queen asking her to strip her second son of all his military ranks and titles after a U.S. judge said Wednesday a sex assault lawsuit against the prince could go ahead. In a joint letter issued by the group Republic, they…

MOSCOW : Russia raised the stakes Thursday in its dispute with the West over Ukraine and NATO’s expansion when a top diplomat refused to rule out a military deployment to Cuba and Venezuela if tensions with the United States escalate. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said he could “neither confirm nor exclude” the possibility of Russia sending military assets to Latin America if the U.S. and its allies don’t curtail their military activities on Russia’s doorstep. “It all depends on the action by our U.S. counterparts,” the minister said in an interview with Russian television network RTVI, citing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s…

WASHINGTON :  The Supreme Court has stopped the Biden administration from enforcing a requirement that employees at large businesses be vaccinated against COVID-19 or undergo weekly testing and wear a mask on the job. At the same time, the court is allowing the administration to proceed with a vaccine mandate for most health care workers in the U.S. The court’s orders Thursday during a spike in coronavirus cases was a mixed bag for the administration’s efforts to boost the vaccination rate among Americans. The court’s conservative majority concluded the administration overstepped its authority by seeking to impose the Occupational Safety…

A Dubai nanosatellite on a mission to improve the emirate’s utility network blasted off into orbit on Thursday evening. The Dewasat-1 cubesat successfully launched on board a SpaceX rocket at about 7.30pm UAE time from Florida’s Kennedy Space Centre. Its spectacular departure from Earth was streamed live on YouTube. The UAE satellite was one of more than 100 on board the SpaceX Falcon 9. It successfully separated from the rocket about an hour after lift-off. The Dubai Water and Electricity Authority announced its Space-D programme last year. It is an effort to improve operations, maintenance and the planning of its networks by using nanosatellite technology. This involves launching…

Bahrain : The Information & eGovernment Authority (iGA) issued its foreign trade report of Fourth quarter 2021, encompassing data on the balance of trade, imports, exports (national origin), and re-exports. The value of imports increased by 18%, reaching BD1.406 billion during fourth quarter 2021 compared to BD1.191 billion for the same quarter the previous year. The top 10 countries accounted for 71% of the value of imports, with the remaining countries accounting for 29%. According to the report, China ranked first when it came to imports to Bahrain, with a total of BD204 million, Brazil was second with BD180 million,…

Tokyo : The Japanese minister responsible for containing COVID-19 while steering the world’s third largest economy toward growth says he is confident he can carry out that precarious “balancing act.” “We know infectious diseases aren’t going away ever,” Daishiro Yamagiwa said Wednesday at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo. “Co-existing with them while revitalizing the economy toward growth is our job,” he said. Japan had managed to cut new infections to very low levels last fall, then loosening precautions mean to keep the virus at bay. But medical experts warn it should expect a surge of COVID infections in…

Bahrain : Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications Kamal bin Ahmed Mohamed affirmed that the 2022-2026 Telecommunications, ICT, and Digital Economy Sector Strategy is a major pillar in the Economic Recovery Plan and will contribute towards achieving the Kingdom’s comprehensive economic growth and development. The minister explained that the Economic Recovery Plan mandates the development of the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector in the Kingdom. He affirmed that the sector’s development is in line with various initiatives put forth to achieve the Kingdom’s comprehensive development goals, led by HM King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa. He added that the ICT…