Author: News Desk

MELBOURNE: Sydney will get 50,000 more doses of the Pfizer vaccine this week to battle its worsening COVID outbreak, Canberra said on Saturday, reversing a rebuff by the Australian government and other states the previous day of a plea for more supplies. Australia reported 176 new locally acquired COVID cases on Saturday, a third consecutive daily record with nearly all cases in the state of New South Wales, centred in the country’s largest city, Sydney. Officials fear the outbreak could jeopardize the rest of the country. Defying a statewide stay-at-home order, however, 3,500 mostly maskless protesters clashed with police in…

Tunisia: Tunisian President, Kais Saied, yesterday extended the state of emergency imposed across the country for another six months. “The nationwide state of emergency has been extended 6 months from July 24, 2021, to January 19, 2022, by means of a presidential decree, published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Tunisia on Friday, state-run Agence Tunis Afrique Press (TAP) reported. According to TAP, the state of emergency has been in place since November 24, 2015, following the terrorist attack on a presidential guard bus in the capital, which left 12 dead and 16 injured.

Florida: The Miami-Dade County fire and rescue department on Friday declared an end to its search for human remains in the rubble of a Florida condominium tower that collapsed on June 24, killing at least 97 people. Authorities said one victim was still believed to be unaccounted for. The Miami-Dade Police Department will continue to sift through what is left of the debris pile for additional remains and personal effects, officials said in a statement. The fire department’s round-the-clock operation at the beachfront site of the Champlain Towers South condo, in the Miami suburb of Surfside, was demobilized four weeks…

Beijing: Internet giant Tencent was ordered by regulators to end exclusive contracts with music copyright holders, adding to increased enforcement of anti-monopoly and other rules as Beijing tightens control over booming online industries. Tencent controls more than 80% of “exclusive music library resources” following its 2016 acquisition of China Music Group, the State Administration for Market Regulation said Saturday. It said that gives Tencent the ability to get better terms than competitors receive or limit rivals’ ability to enter the market, The Associated Press (AP) reported. Tencent Holdings Ltd., best known abroad for its WeChat messaging service, has a sprawling…

Bahrain: His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, today sent a congratulatory cable to the President of the Republic of Tunisia, HE Kais Saied, on the occasion of his country’s Republic Day. His Royal Highness sent a similar cable to the Prime Minister of Tunisia, HE Hichem Mechichi.

India: Prime Minister Narendra Modi  wished his Japanese counterpart Yoshihide Suga for the Olympics which got underway in Tokyo and said “we look forward to a season of incredible performances by the world’s best sportspersons”. Wishing Japanese Prime Minister  Suga and Japan the very best for Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, Modi tweeted, “We look forward to a season of incredible performances by the world’s best sportspersons!”

Tokyo: Football legend Herschel Walker has a lot to say about Olympians protesting the American flag and kneeling before games, as spectators have observed in recent days during the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. “People think I’m very harsh when I say this,  Walker said in an exclusive  Interview to a media, “This is the United States of America, and if people don’t like the rules here — and there’s no doubt we can make some things better — but if people don’t like the rules here, why are you here? “He questioned whether the Olympics is “the right place” for Americans to protest their…

Tokyo: Naomi Osaka called lighting the Olympic cauldron one of the greatest achievements of her life. “Undoubtedly the greatest athletic achievement and honor I will ever have in my life. I have no words to describe the feelings I have right now but I do know I am currently filled with gratefulness and thankfulness,” she wrote in a tweet. The tennis star will be representing Japan in the Olympics.

LONDON:  Britain’s rapid economic bounce-back from the coronavirus pandemic slowed sharply in July as a new wave of cases forced hundreds of thousands of workers to self-isolate under government rules to limit the spread of the disease. Supermarkets and hauliers say staff shortages are making it hard to restock shelves and deliver goods, and Friday’s monthly purchasing managers’ index (PMI) data gave the first clear evidence of the scale of the impact. The IHS Markit/CIPS flash composite PMI dropped to 57.7 in July from 62.2 in June. A reading above 50 indicates growth in the economy but the reading was…

Berlin: Spain and the Netherlands will be classified as high incidence areas by the German government starting Tuesday following a surge in the number of coronavirus infections there in recent weeks, said dpa international. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for disease control and prevention made the announcement on Friday based on the infection numbers. Anyone returning to Germany from countries under that classification have to quarantine for 10 days if they have not been vaccinated or have recovered from Covid-19. However, the quarantine can be shortened by testing negative for the coronavirus after five days. According to the German travel…