World

Taipei: Five US lawmakers arrived in Taipei for a surprise visit on Sunday amid escalated tensions across the Taiwan Strait, following a trip earlier this month by Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the US House of Representatives. According to the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), which acts as the de facto US embassy, the two-day […]

London/Los Angeles: Author J K Rowling, best known for the fantasy book series “Harry Potter”, has received a death threat on Twitter after she condemned the attack on fellow British writer Salman Rushdie. Rushdie, who faced Islamist death threats for years after writing “The Satanic Verses”, was stabbed by a 24-year-old New Jersey resident identified […]

London: Across Europe, drought is reducing once-mighty rivers to trickles, with potentially dramatic consequences for industry, freight, energy and food production – just as supply shortages and price rises due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine bite, local media reported. Driven by climate breakdown, an unusually dry winter and spring followed by record-breaking summer temperatures and […]

Islamabad: At least 13 people were killed and five others injured after a truck fell over a passenger bus in Rahim Yar Khan city of Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province, local media reported. A passenger bus fell into a sinkhole at Feroza Central road and got stuck into it. The accident took place when a truck […]

London: A man has been jailed for nine weeks for allegedly stalking after planting a covert Apple AirTag tracker on his ex-girlfriend’s car, media reports say. According to DailyMail, Christopher Paul Trotman, 41, harassed his ex with constant phone calls and questions, before ordering an AirTag on Amazon and gluing it to her rear bumper to […]

London: Author Salman Rushdie has been taken off his ventilator and is talking as he recovers from being stabbed in the US. British-American writer Aatish Taseer said, in a since-deleted tweet, that the 75-year-old was “off the ventilator and talking (and joking)”, which was then confirmed by the author’s agent Andrew Wylie. Wylie had earlier […]

Accra: The last case of Marburg Virus Disease (MVD) confirmed in Ghana has recovered from the infection, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) said in a statement. The GHS added on Friday that the country has recorded three infected cases, and two other infected patients had died of the disease. “The only survivor of the three […]

Washington: US federal agents took away 11 sets of classified documents from the Florida residence of former President Donald Trump during an unprecedented search earlier this week, according to legal papers related to the search and the ongoing investigation unsealed by a court on Friday. These documents are part of a potentially criminal violation of the […]

Geneva: The World Health Organisation (WHO) has announced new names for variants of the monkeypox virus that are currently in circulation. This is to avoid causing any cultural or social offence, the WHO said in a statement. A group of global experts convened by the WHO decided on the new names, Xinhua news agency reported. Experts […]

New York: Salman Rushdie was on a ventilator with a damaged liver and may lose one of his eyes after the Mumbai-born controversial author was stabbed in the neck and abdomen by a man on stage at a literary event in upstate New York. Rushdie, who faced Islamist death threats for years after writing “The […]

Chautauqua (US): Salman Rushdie, the author whose writing led to death threats from Iran in the 1980s, was attacked and apparently stabbed in the neck on Friday by a man who rushed the stage as he was about to give a lecture in western New York. An Associated Press reporter witnessed a man confront Rushdie […]

Paris: French researchers have documented the first case of a dog with confirmed monkeypox virus infection that might have been acquired through human transmission. Published in medical journal The Lancet, a team from the Sorbonne University in Paris recorded the case of monekypox virus in two men who have sex with men: an HIV-positive Latino man, […]

San Francisco: Google has received a go-ahead from the Federal Election Commission (FEC) in the US to keep politician campaign emails from being marked as spam. Google will now allow candidates and political party committees to apply for its programme that would make their messages exempt from Gmail’s spam detection systems, reports The Verge. “I have […]

Barcelona: Tech giant Amazon has been under investigation by regional labour authorities over its subcontracting practices for a number of years in Catalonia, Spain. According to local press reports, the latest fine for Amazon of $3,303,408 approx. follows a penalty of over $826,040 approx. it received in 2020, for similar breaches of labour laws, reports […]

United Nations: The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) called for action to curb cryptocurrencies in developing countries in three policy briefs. While private digital currencies have rewarded some, and facilitate remittances, they are an unstable financial asset that can also bring social risks and costs, the UN trade and development body warned on Wednesday. […]

Beijing: China on Wednesday announced that it has concluded its military drills after more than a week-long training near Taiwan, simulating an attack on the self-ruled island. The PLA Eastern Theater Command said it had successfully completed various missions during recent drills around Taiwan and effectively tested the troops’ joint operation combat capacity, state media […]

Toronto: Rocket parts left in orbit from space launches have a six to 10 per cent chance of severely injuring or killing a human being in the next decade, according to a study. Researchers from the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Canada noted that governments need to take collective action and mandate that rocket […]

World Biofuel Day is an annual event that is held every year on August 10 to spread awareness about the usage of unconventional sources of fuels over fossil fuels. The Government of India has been celebrating the event since 2015. History It is celebrated to honor the inventor of the diesel engine – Sir Rudolf […]

Karachi: Journalist organisations across Pakistan on Wednesday strongly condemned the arrest of ARY News head Ammad Yousaf and demanded his immediate release. The journalists’ bodies and press clubs termed the arrest of ARY News senior Vice President an act of victimization and said that journalists will call for a nationwide protest if Ammad Yousaf is […]

Tokyo: Japan’s population totaled 125.93 million as of January 1, 2022, representing the largest drop in the overall number and by percentage since comparable data were recorded in 1950, the latest government data revealed on Wednesday. As deaths exceeded births and Covid-19 border controls restrict the entry of foreigners, Japan’s overall population fell to 125,927,902, […]

Beijing: China has detected a new zoonotic virus named Langya henipavirus, with potential to cause acute liver and kidney infection. About 35 people have reportedly been affected, according to an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) by scientists from China and Singapore. The study showed that the new Langya henipavirus (LayV) […]

Kiev: At least 11 people were killed in missile attacks overnight in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region not far from the Russia-occupied Zaporizhzhya nuclear plant, the local military said on Wednesday. “A tragic night in the Nikopol area the Russian army killed 11 people and injured 13,” the head of the Dnipropetrovsk military administration Valentyn Reznichenko said […]

United Nations: India has voiced support for diplomatic efforts of the UN as well as Egypt that led to a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza and urged all parties to de-escalate the situation to ensure it does not spiral out of control. “After a year of relative calm, tensions have risen again […]

Washington: Jill Biden is helping National Geographic promote its upcoming documentary series on U.S. national parks. The first lady introduces each installment of “America’s National Parks,” a five-night series scheduled for broadcast on consecutive nights beginning Aug. 29. She introduces the series from the Grand Canyon and encourages people to visit. “America’s national parks are […]