Author: News Desk

Bahrain :  HH Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa, First Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Council for Youth and Sports, Chairman of the General Sports Authority and President of Bahrain Olympic Committee, hailed the exceptional performance of Bahrain national MMA team member Saud Salman in the U-18 World MMA Championship which is organised by International Mixed Martial Arts Federation (IMMAF) in Bulgaria. Saud claimed the third position in the 31kg category, and HH Shaikh Khalid congratulated him on this great achievement which reflects his capabilities and potential. “We are proud of our national team members’ participation in the U-18 World…

Tokyo :  Hopes are still alive for Bahrain national handball team to continue making history at the 32nd Olympic Games, currently held in Tokyo, after clinching their first-ever Olympic victory against hosts Japan yesterday, 32-30. The national handball team will take on their Egyptian counterparts on Sunday at 05:00 am Bahrain time in the fifth and last round of the group stage. Bahrain’s victory in yesterday’s match against Japan had revived the Warriors’ hopes for booking a sport in the last eight should they beat Egypt in their Sunday match provided that Japan beat Portugal or draw with them. The…

Tokyo : Hong Kong police have arrested a man after he allegedly booed the Chinese national anthem while watching an Olympics award ceremony inside a shopping mall, authorities said on Friday. The 40-year-old man was accused of “insulting” the anthem when watching a live stream of an award ceremony on Monday, which showed Hong Kong fencer Edgar Cheung winning the first gold medal for the city in 25 years. When the Hong Kong flag was raised and the March of the Volunteers was played through a live stream, the man — who identified himself as a journalist — was accused of “insulting” the anthem, police said. He was…

Tokyo : Ethiopia’s Selemon Barega won the men’s 10,000m gold at the Tokyo Olympics on Friday after a thrilling sprint on the final lap. Barega moved to the front of the lead pack with 400 meters to go and kicked clear in the closing stages, finishing in a time of 27:43.22 ahead of Ugandan duo Joshua Cheptegei and Jacob Kiplimo. With temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius and the humidity levels high, any chances of a fast time seemed slim, even with world record holder Cheptegei in the field. The 21-year-old Barega joins a prestigious list of Ethiopian runners to win…

Tokyo : The team was disqualified earlier today from the inaugural 4 x 400 meter mixed relay following an erroneous baton changeover in the heats. The event — featuring teams of two men and two women competing against each other in any order they choose — is making its debut at the Games. The American team, comprising Elija Godwin, Lynna Irby, Taylor Manson and Bryce Deadmon, is hotly tipped for a medal since they won gold at the 2019 world championships.

US: The White House has raised concerns with top Israeli officials about allegations that spyware sold by Israeli surveillance company NSO Group has been used by governments around the world to monitor journalists and activists and – potentially – government officials with close ties to the US. Brett McGurk, a top Biden administration adviser on the Middle East, raised questions privately about NSO in a meeting last week with Zohar Palti, a senior Israeli defence ministry official, according to reports by Axios and the Washington Post. Palti reportedly told McGurk that the controversy was being taken very seriously and that Israel was examining…

New Zealand :  New Zealand introduced on Friday legislation that proposes up to five years in prison for practices intended to change a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression, known as LGBT conversion therapy. The proposed measures were aimed at ending such practices, which do not work, are widely discredited and cause harm, Justice Minister Kris Faafoi said in a statement. “Conversion practices have no place in modern New Zealand. They are based on the false belief that any person’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression is broken and in need of fixing,” Faafoi said. “Health professionals, religious leaders and human rights advocates here and…

Turkey : The death toll from wildfires on Turkey’s southern coast has risen to four and firefighters were battling blazes for a third day on Friday after the evacuation of dozens of villages and some hotels. More than 70 wildfires have broken out this week in provinces on Turkey’s Aegean and Mediterranean coasts as well as inland areas, President Tayyip Erdogan said, adding that 14 were still burning. Planes from Russia and Ukraine helped battle the flames and another from Azerbaijan was joining them. “As of midday, with the arrival of the planes, we are turning in a positive direction,”…

Tokyo : Nigerian athletes protested in Tokyo on Friday after they were disqualified from the Olympics for failing to meet anti-doping testing requirements, reports said. Ten would-be Olympians were banned from competing in the track and field competition after Nigerian sports officials allegedly failed to properly register them for three mandatory out-of-competition tests, The Ministry of Sports and the Athletics Federation of Nigeria said the athletes’ tests did not meet collection and analysis standards and the Athletics Integrity Unit, which handles the anti-doping program for the sport, said the athletes didn’t meet the testing requirements, the outlet reported. “The AFN bears responsibility…

Bahrain :  First Deputy President of the Bahrain Handball Federation, Dr. Khalid bin Abdulrahman Al-Haidan, has extended deepest congratulations to HM the King’s Representative for Humanitarian Work and Youth Affairs and Chairman of the Supreme Council for Youth and Sports (SCYS), HH Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, and to the SCYS First Deputy Chairman, General Sports Authority Chairman and Bahrain Olympic Committee President, HH Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa, on the victory of the Bahrain National Handball Team in the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. Al-Haidan asserted that the historic win is the fruitful outcome of HH Shaikh Nasser’s…