Author: News Desk

India said on Sunday it had temporarily brought back officials from its consulate in Kandahar, a major city in southern Afghanistan, as Taliban fighters continue to gain control amid the withdrawal of international forces. “Due to the intense fighting near Kandahar city, India-based personnel have been brought back for the time being,” Arindam Bagchi, chief spokesperson at India’s foreign ministry, said in a statement. “India is closely monitoring the evolving security situation in Afghanistan,” Bagchi said, adding that India’s consulate in Kandahar was being run by local staff temporarily. India’s foreign minister on Friday called for a reduction of violence, saying…

A 90-year-old Belgian woman who died from COVID-19 in March had contracted two variants of coronavirus at the same time, which is believed to be the first documented case of its kind, a scientific congress and Belgian media said on Sunday. The case, discussed at this year’s European Congress on Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID), shows that it is possible to catch two COVID-19 variants simultaneously, the society that organised the congress said in a statement. The society said the woman became sick with Alpha and Beta types first identified in Britain and South Africa and her doctors said…

India is on track to overtake China as the world’s most populated country by 2027, according to the United Nations. And it’s facing a housing crisis. Home to 1.3 billion people, India has been witnessing an influx of people migrating from villages to cities in search of better job and education prospects. However, affordable housing remains an unresolved problem, which has lead to a mushrooming of illegal settlements and slums. https://youtu.be/PS4ZWJrk7jI 24-year-old Priya moved to Delhi from Rajasthan for work. “Like, because of, you know, job purposes, from villages, people have to shift to cities and I mean of course…

Tokyo Olympics will be held without spectators The Olympics will take place without spectators in host city Tokyo, organisers said on Thursday, as a resurgent coronavirus forced Japan to declare a state of emergency in the capital that will run throughout the event. Although widely expected, the move marked a sharp turnabout from just weeks ago, when organisers said they aimed to hold the global sporting showpiece with some spectators, and all but robs the July 23 to Aug. 8 Games of their last vestige of pomp and public spectacle. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said it was essential to prevent…

Haiti President Assassinated: PM declares ‘State of Siege’ Haiti’s President Jovenel Moïse has been killed and his wife injured in an attack on their home in the nation’s capital, Port-au-Prince. Unidentified gunmen stormed the property at 01:00 local time (05:00 GMT), interim PM Claude Joseph said. He has called for calm and declared a state of emergency nationwide. Mr Joseph called the shooting of the president a “heinous, inhuman and barbaric act”, saying the attackers were “foreigners who spoke English and Spanish”. Haiti’s official languages are Creole and French. Mr Moïse had led Haiti, one of the poorest nations in the…

Berlin: Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima visited Berlin’s Reichstag building housing the German parliament for a meeting with Bundestag President Wolfgang Schaeuble on Tuesday, said dpa international. The visit to the iconic building near the Brandenburg Gate kicked off the second day of the Dutch royals’ three-day state visit that focuses on Berlin. A meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel was scheduled for later in the day. They were also to attend a session of the Bundesrat, the upper house of the German parliament, where Willem-Alexander was to give an address. President Frank-Walter Steinmeier was to escort the royals to a concert in…

Amsterdam:  The Dutch royal family has strongly condemned an attack on high-profile Dutch crime reporter Peter R de Vries, who is fighting for his life after being shot in central Amsterdam on Tuesday evening. The incident was “an attack on journalism,” King Willem-Alexander said on Wednesday in an interview broadcast by NOS. Journalism is “a cornerstone of our democracy. This is also an attack on our constitutional state,” the king said. Speaking in front of Dutch journalists, the king also expressed his compassion. “It must be horrible when this happens to a colleague.” De Vries was shot after leaving a television studio in Amsterdam…

London: North America just experienced its hottest June since records began and Europe its second hottest, the EU’s climate change monitoring service said.  Last month was especially warm in the western United States and Canada, as well as in Finland and western Russia, the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service said in London, dpa reported. In the Finnish capital Helsinki, where records go back to 1844, the average June temperature has never been as high as this year. Russia’s capital, Moscow, recorded its warmest June day on record. It was also warmer than average in Siberia, although not as much as in…

The Bahrain National Handball team will play Estonia on Wednesday, the last friendly match before the team’s departure to Japan, where they will participate in the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, due to start later this month. The national team beat Estonia in two previous friendlies, and the third match will provide an opportunity for Icelandic coach, Aron Kristjansson, to evaluate the level of the players and select the final list. The current list includes 20 players, namely Hussain Al-Sayyad, Mohammed Abdulhussain, Mohammed Mirza Salman, Ali Mirza Salman, Jassim Al-Salatna, Mohammed Habib, Hassan Shehab, Ahmed Al-Maqabi, Ali Eid, Hassan Al-Samahiji, Mahdi…

Most COVID rules set to end in England, says PM Face masks will no longer be legally required and distancing rules will be scrapped at the final stage of England’s Covid lockdown roadmap, Boris Johnson has confirmed. The rule of six inside private homes will be removed and work-from-home guidance abolished as 16 months of on-off restrictions on daily life end. The PM said he expected the final step would go ahead as planned on 19 July. This will be confirmed on 12 July after a review of the latest data. Further updates on school bubbles, travel and self-isolation will…