Author: News Desk

Nigeria will reopen its airports for international flights from Aug. 29, its aviation minister said on Monday. The airports have been closed since March 23 to all but essential international flights as part of the country’s efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Aviation Minister Hadi Sirika said four flights would begin landing daily in Lagos, and four in Abuja, with strict protocols. “It is safe to fly, if we observe all those protocols in place,” Sirika said at a briefing in Abuja. Africa’s most populous nation, which recorded its first confirmed coronavirus case in late February, now has 49,068 confirmed…

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Monday said that the state’s gyms could open as soon as Aug 24 at 33% capacity as long as they enforce strict health measures, including mask-wearing, to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Localities must inspect every gym before it opens or within two weeks of it opening to ensure compliance with health guidelines, Cuomo told a news conference. As part of the state’s reopening plan for gyms, air ventilation systems must meet certain guidelines and people must sign in and out so that the gym maintains a ready contact-tracing list, Cuomo said. “Localities can…

The administrative and teaching staff will resume work on September 6 as previously announced, said the Bahrain education ministry. In a statement today, Public Relations and Media Director Dr. Fawaz Al-Sheroogui said that students would return to schools on September 16. ♦ Bahrain Education Ministry announces scholarships plan ♦ Bahrain to allow parents to choose learning options The Cabinet, which held its weekly session today, said that it had approved a proposal regarding the suspension of studies in public and private schools as a precautionary measure to prevent the spread of the COVID-19, which has already been achieved through decisions issued on the…

Finance ministers from the Group of Seven rich countries on Monday noted improved economic conditions in their economies, but underscored their concerns about the debt problems facing low-income countries, a U.S. Treasury spokesperson said. During a teleconference hosted by U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, the ministers repeated their call for all official bilateral creditors to fully implement the G20 debt freeze for the poorest countries, and agreed to consider additional options, including extending the initiative into 2021, the spokesperson said. The meeting also included the leaders of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, who have urged the Group…

Bahrain’s Ministry of Finance and National Economy has today reported positive signs of a return to growth across non-oil sectors, as the Kingdom continues to take measures which balance health policy objectives whilst minimising the economic impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic. The Ministry confirmed total exports increased by 2% between May and June, and by 12% between June and July, as business activity increases across the Kingdom. This was also evident by the monthly number of new commercial registrations (CR) created, with the number of company CRs up 59% in June and up a further 7% in July, while…

India’s electricity generation in the first 15 days of August rose for the first time since early March, provisional government data showed, as the country opened up industries and lifted restrictions to control the spread of coronavirus. Power generation rose 2.6% in the first 15 days of August compared with the same period of last year, a Reuters analysis of daily load despatch data from federal grid operator POSOCO showed, compared with a 1.8% fall in July. In the second half of last month, electricity generation declined 3.1%. Power use has picked up from previous months when India was under…

Indian politicians are trading barbs over a media report that Facebook’s content policies favoured Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party, putting the social network at the centre of a political storm in its biggest market by users. Lawmakers of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have accused the social media giant of censoring nationalist voices, after the opposition Congress seized on a Wall Street Journal report to seek a parliamentary investigation of Facebook employees’ alleged ties with the ruling party. Facebook was already a “Left-Congress-leaning platform,” said BJP lawmaker and former minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore. “This storm in a teacup is merely an…

Arcapita Group Holdings (“Arcapita”), the global alternative investments firm, and Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company (“Mumtalakat”), the sovereign wealth fund of the Kingdom of Bahrain, announced on Monday the sale of their stake in NAS Neuron Health Services L.L.C. (“NAS Neuron”), a leading provider of outsourced medical claims processing services in the GCC, to a leading US-based Fortune 500 company. The successful investment has exceeded target returns over a three-year holding period. In 2017, Arcapita and Mumtalakat partnered to acquire an equity stake in NAS United Healthcare Services LLC Over the past three years, the consortium supported the company’s execution of…

Robert Trump, the younger brother of U.S. President Donald Trump and a business executive who avoided the spotlight, died on Saturday night, a day after the president visited him in a New York hospital. President Trump announced the death in a statement. “It is with heavy heart I share that my wonderful brother, Robert, peacefully passed away tonight. He was not just my brother, he was my best friend,” the president said. “He will be greatly missed, but we will meet again. His memory will live on in my heart forever. Robert, I love you. Rest in peace,” Trump said.…

Even as the total population has dropped in the recent months, Omanis crossed the 60-percent mark on Saturday. According to the latest figures from the National Centre for Statistics and Information, the number of Omanis now form the bulk 60.60 per cent to reach 2.728,724 against 1,775,577 expatriates. The total population in the Sultanate now stands at 4,504,301 people. The highest expatriate numbers in the past five years was on April 26, 2017, when they accounted for 46 per cent of the population. The governorate of Muscat continues to be home for the highest number of 573,706 Omanis while the…