Author: News Desk

A “no-spectator games” remains an option for the Tokyo Olympics, which open officially in just four weeks, the president of the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee said on Friday. The admission by Seiko Hashimoto comes only four days after she announced on Monday that up to 10,000 local fans would be allowed into venues – with numbers not to exceed 50% of venue capacity regardless of indoor or outdoor events. Organizers put off the decision on local fans for several months, and fans from abroad were banned months ago. The move to allow fans went against many medical experts who have…

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Rescue workers scouring the debris of a collapsed condo building in a Miami suburb said they heard sounds in the rubble overnight, as officials on Friday raised the number of people unaccounted for to 159 and the confirmed death toll to four. Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told reporters that three more bodies were pulled from the wreckage overnight. Another person was reported to have died on Thursday. The mayor also increased the number of presumed missing after authorities put the number at 99 on Thursday. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Assistant Fire Chief Ray Jadallah said they heard sounds in the…

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The first cases of Covid-19 likely occurred in China between early October and mid-November 2019, according to new data modelling that suggests the virus spread around the world far more quickly than was previously realized. The first case was likely to have been on November 17, researchers said, in an analysis published in the journal PLOS Pathogens. Officially, the first cases of Covid-19 were recorded in early December 2019, in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, although experts have long thought the virus was spreading between people before that. This is also the view held by the team of World…

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Israel reintroduced the mandatory wearing of face masks indoors on Friday in a bid to counteract rising coronavirus infection rates. The measure was almost completely lifted in mid-June, but from Friday everyone was required to wear a face mask again indoors, the Health Ministry said. People are only exempt from the rule when exercising or at home. It also doesn’t apply to small children. The ministry also recommended wearing a mouth-and-nose covering during large outdoor events like the Pride Parade taking place in Tel Aviv on Friday. For the first time since April, Israel recorded over 100 daily new Covid-19…

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MIAMI BUILDING COLLAPSE: At Least One Dead, 99 Unaccounted For At least one person has died and dozens are unaccounted for after the collapse overnight of a 12-storey residential building north of Miami, Florida, officials say. The number of those not yet located has risen from 51 to 99, Miami-Dade police say, with 53 now accounted for. It is unclear how many people were in the building at the time. The complex in the town of Surfside was built in 1980. Out of 130 units, about half were affected by the collapse. A number of Latin American migrants have been reported…

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At least one person has died and dozens are unaccounted for after the collapse overnight of a 12-storey residential building north of Miami, Florida, officials say. The number of those not yet located has risen from 51 to 99, Miami-Dade police say, with 53 now accounted for. It is unclear how many people were in the building at the time. https://youtu.be/SxLuGgn8FOI The complex in the town of Surfside was built in 1980. Out of 130 units, about half were affected by the collapse. A number of Latin American migrants have been reported missing by their consulates. Rescuers pulled 35 people…

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About 4,000 individuals, including men, women and youngsters aged between 16 and 21, have their jail terms commuted into alternative penalties since the beginning of the implementation of the Alternative Penalties and Procedures Law, and until last month, Head of the Execution Prosecution at the Public Prosecution, Mohammed Al-Musallam, has revealed. Al-Musallam affirmed that the Public Prosecution, the Interior Ministry and the Justice, Islamic Affairs and Endowments Ministry are exerting tremendous and continuous efforts to enforce the law and integrate the beneficiaries of alternative penalties into reformation and rehabilitation programmes commensurate with their age and conditions, in accordance with the…

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The U.S. economy grew at a solid 6.4% rate in the first three months of the year, setting the stage for what economists believe may be the strongest year for the economy in about seven decades. Growth in the gross domestic product, the country’s total output of goods and services, was unchanged from two previous estimates, the Commerce Department said Thursday, an acceleration from the 4.3% pace of the fourth quarter. Economists believe that economic growth has continued to accelerate in the current quarter, which ends this month, as vaccinations become widespread and Americans eager to get outside are being…

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The European Parliament on Thursday approved a landmark law to make the European Union’s greenhouse gas emissions targets legally binding, paving the way for a policy overhaul to cut planet-warming pollution faster. https://youtu.be/-w9j48o8v9s Negotiators from the Parliament and the EU’s 27 member countries reached a deal in April on the climate law, which puts tougher emissions-cutting targets at the heart of EU policymaking. Guterres said the zero-emission target was “gaining momentum”, and called on countries and private sectors to make this target their “new normal”.

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Anti-virus creator John McAfee found dead in cell Anti-virus software entrepreneur John McAfee has been found dead in a Barcelona prison cell, just hours after a Spanish court agreed to extradite him to the US to face tax evasion charges. The Catalan Justice Department said prison medics tried to resuscitate him, but were not successful. It said in a statement that “everything indicates” Mr McAfee took his own life. A controversial figure, Mr McAfee’s company released the first commercial anti-virus software. In October 2020, he was arrested in Spain, and accused of failing to file tax returns for four years,…

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