Author: News Desk

China has decided to cancel the 2021 spring climbing season from the Tibetan side of Mount Everest, the world’s tallest peak, because of coronavirus concerns, the official Xinhua news agency said on Saturday. It cited a notice on Friday from the General Administration of Sport, following a severe pandemic situation. The Himalayan nation of Nepal, which is so short of oxygen canisters it has asked mountaineers to bring back their empties, has issued a record 408 permits to climb Everest in the April-May season after last year’s closure. In contrast, a total of 21 Chinese climbers had secured approval for climbs in…

Foreign direct investment (FDI) into the United Arab Emirates rose to $19.88 billion in 2020, up 44.2% from the previous year, the government said on Saturday. Contributing to this figure were large deals carried out by the state-run Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC), state news agency WAM said. Economy minister Abdullah al-Marri said the UAE would move forward with initiatives to increase the efficiency of the business environment, strengthen investor confidence, increase opportunities in priority sectors, and unify efforts to improve competitiveness at local and federal levels. Read More: UAE approves emergency use of Pfizer vaccine for 12-15 year…

The Industry, Commerce and Tourism Ministry, represented by the Inspection Directorate, has announced the closure of a restaurant in the Muharraq Governorate for one week. The decision was taken following an inspection visit by the Industry Ministry’s team, in cooperation with the Interior and Health ministries. The inspectors found that the restaurant was violating the provisions of ministerial edict 51/2021 on the health requirements to be followed at restaurants and cafés. They decided to close the outlet temporarily for flouting the mandatory health measures to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. Outlets with minor violations were urged to rectify…

An uncrewed Chinese spacecraft successfully landed on the surface of Mars on Saturday, state news agency Xinhua reported, making China the second space-faring nation after the United States to land on the Red Planet. The Tianwen-1 spacecraft landed on a site on a vast plain known as Utopia Planitia, “leaving a Chinese footprint on Mars for the first time,” Xinhua said. Chinese President Xi Jinping issued a message of congratulations to all the people involved in the mission. “You were brave enough for the challenge, pursued excellence and placed our country in the advanced ranks of planetary exploration,” he said.…

3 mosques in the Capital Governorate have been shut down temporarily for failure to comply with COVID-19 health regulations concerning Eid Al-Fitr prayer. The Ministry of Justice, Islamic Affairs and Endowments, in coordination with the National Taskforce for Combating Coronavirus (COVID-19), decided to close the mosques for two weeks to enable the competent teams to track infections, carry out the disinfection operation and ascertain proper compliance and implementation of the precautionary procedures. The ministry called on all to assume the religious and national responsibility and fully adhere to the health regulations to ensure the safety of all citizens and residents.…

Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives elected Donald Trump’s candidate Elise Stefanik to their leadership, succeeding Liz Cheney, who they ousted earlier this week for criticizing the former president’s continued false claims of election fraud. Stefanik, a 36-year-old congresswoman from New Yorkstate, rose to prominence with her fierce defense of Trump during his first impeachment trial, while Cheney angered her Republican colleagues by rejecting what she called Trump’s “big lie” about his November loss to Democratic President Joe Biden. The secret-ballot vote boosted Trump’s dominance over the party even after it lost its majorities in the House and Senate, as well as the…

Wealthier nations should postpone plans to give children and teenagers Covid vaccines and instead donate supplies to low-income countries, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) says. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Friday urged countries to supply more vaccines to the global fair-access scheme Covax. The international distribution of Covid vaccines remains vastly uneven. Since the first vaccines were approved in December, wealthier countries have bought up most of the supply. Many are racing to vaccinate as much of their population as possible. Speaking at a virtual conference in Geneva on Friday, the WHO’s Dr Tedros said he understood why…

There has been a growing demand for cancellation of CBSE’s Class12 Board exams this year in view of the surging Covid-19 infections across India. According to the Times of India, sources in the ministry of education (MoE) say there is a likelihood of the exams being scrapped. A senior ministry official said, “Given the current situation, there is possibility of scrapping the exams altogether. CBSE will review the situation and probably would have to work out an alternative assessment scheme for the Class12 students.” “The pandemic situation at present is at least four times worse than last year and schools are likely to stay…

Saudi authorities have started enforcing a decree requiring workers in certain commercial activities to get vaccinated against COVID-19 or undergo weekly testing for detecting the virus, local media reported. The move adopted by the Ministry of Municipal and Village Affairs applies to workers at restaurants, coffee shops, all types of food stores, barber shops and women’s beauty centres. The decree took effect as of Thursday, the first day of the Islamic month of Shawwal. Negative result The ministry said that workers in these businesses must get vaccinated against the highly contagious disease, or show a weekly negative result through PCR…

Ireland’s health service operator shut down all its IT systems on Friday to protect them from a “significant” ransomware attack, crippling diagnostic services, disrupting COVID-19 testing and forcing hospitals to cancel many appointments. Ireland’s COVID-19 vaccination programme was not disrupted as it is on a different system, but the attack was affecting IT systems serving all other local and national health provision, the head of the Health Service Executive (HSE) said. The HSE shut down the IT systems as a precaution to protect as much information as possible and was assessing how the attack would affect other services, Chief Executive…