Author: News Desk

Berlin : Billions of people around the world are set to welcome 2022, on a second New Year’s Eve marked by coronavirus restrictions. It will take 26 hours between 1000 GMT on Friday and 1200 GMT on Saturday for the entire globe to ring in the New Year, reports dpa international. The celebrations start in the island nation of Samoa, then going through Australia, Asia to Europe, South America, the US East Coast, California, Hawaii and to the uninhabited islets of Baker Island and Howland Island back in the Pacific. Many large parties and fireworks displays have been cancelled around…

Johannesburg :  The coronavirus-related slump in global air traffic that has continued in the outgoing year 2021 has been accompanied by a sharp reduction in casualties, according to accident researchers. “As things stand, we are at 168 fatalities for 2021, which is almost a halving of the numbers compared to 2020 and even 505 below the average of the last 25 years,” Jan-Arwed-Richter of the Hamburg-based Jet Airliner Crash Data Evaluation Centre (JACDEC). According to a JACDEC analysis prepared for the February issue of the aviation magazine Aero International and, 30 commercial aircraft were destroyed or irreparably damaged in airline…

Cairo : Arab League Secretary-General, Ahmad Abulgheit, today urged all Somali parties to abstain from escalation and spare their country possible wide-scale violence. The Arab League, in a statement, quoted Abulgheit as urging the Somali parties to place people’s interests above any other consideration and immediately engage in a national dialogue to preserve the state and pave way for holding general elections as soon as possible.

The Philippine death toll from Typhoon Rai passed the 400 mark, the disaster agency said on Friday, as thousands of displaced people prepare to see in the new year in tents. Rai was the 15th and deadliest typhoon to hit the South-East Asian nation this year, devastating the vast archipelago and affecting 4.5 million people. Reported deaths had reached 405, mostly the result of drowning, fallen trees and landslides, Ricardo Jalad, chief of the national disaster agency, told a news conference. He said 1,147 people had been injured and that 82 were still missing. More than 530,000 houses were damaged, a third of which…

Dubai : Atlantis, The Palm and Moet & Chandon partnered with Dutch events company Luuk Broos to built the world’s largest drinking glass pyramid. The  structure features 54,740 flutes and is 8.23 metres tall, breaking the previous Guinness World Record of 50,116 glasses, set in Madrid in 2017 at  the resort’s Asateer Tent. Lotte Broos, event manager of Luuk Broos, said they spent five days to build the structure,  she says. “For this tower, the stems of the glasses are actually a little higher than we’re used to and this made building it a lot harder to complete.” “We built the tower…

Bahrain : Three concepts have won the fourth edition of The Government Innovation Competition (Fikra), launched by His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister. The winning concepts were selected by a Committee of Government Ministers in combination with a public vote. The Ministerial Committee selected ‘Hawiyati Application’, presented by Mohammed Abdulrahman Al-Ansari and Sayed Ahmed Hameed Ahmed from The King Hamad University Hospital,  ‘Green by Grey’, presented by Hamad Badu from The Ministry of Works, Municipalities, and Urban Planning. ‘Nasmaek’ (We Hear You) presented by Muhannad Al Noaimi from The Ministry of…

Bahrain : As part of the Government of Bahrain’s ambitious Economic Recovery Plan, the Industrial Sector Strategy (2022-2026) was revealed today at a press conference at the Isa Cultural Centre. Speaking at the conference, the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, HE Zayed bin Rashid Alzayani, affirmed that the Strategy is a major pillar in the Economic Recovery Plan and will contribute towards achieving economic growth. He explained that the Economic Recovery Plan mandates the development of the production and services sectors in the Kingdom, of which the Industrial sector is an essential component. This, the Minister affirmed, comes as…

Athens : Greek divers have discovered the wreckage of an Italian submarine 80 years after it was sunk by the Allied Forces in the Aegean Sea during World War Two. The Jantina, which had sailed from the Greek island of Leros with 48 sailors on board, sank on July 5, 1941, after being hit by torpedoes fired by British submarine HMS Torbay, Reuters reported. She was discovered last month by Kostas Thoctarides, one of Greece’s best-known divers, and his team, south of the island of Mykonos at a depth of 103 meters using a remotely operated underwater vehicle, the ROV…

Bahrain : His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa today issued Royal Decree (123) of 2021, designating the Minister of Finance and National Economy as the minister responsible for the Shareholder’s duties at the Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company B.S.C (Mumtalakat), as stipulated in Mumtalakat’s by-law. The Prime Minister and ministers, each in their own capacity, shall implement the provisions of this decree, which takes immediate effect and will be published in the Official Gazette.

In the biggest haul of its kind in the country, Dubai Customs officers managed to foil an attempt to smuggle crushed Captagon pills worth Dh1.4 billion into the emirate. Authorities at Dubai Customs’ Jebel Ali and Telecom Centre analysed data regarding a shipment coming into Jebel Ali Port and inspected the container on arrival. It was then that they discovered 1.5 tonnes of the illegal stimulant. “Dubai Customs’ people are very professional and always on the lookout for any illegitimate and suspicious activity without disrupting shipment clearance operations,” said Sultan bin Sulayem, DP World group chairman & chief executive and chairman…