Author: News Desk

All Pakistani pilots working for Vietnamese airlines have valid and legitimate licences and none have been involved in a flight incident or safety threat, the government said on Saturday. Vietnam last month grounded all Pakistani pilots working for local airline amid concern from global regulators that some pilots may have been using dubious licences. ♦ Pakistan validates licenses of 166 pilots working in foreign countries “All licenses administered by the Pakistani aviation regulator are legitimate and valid. There are no fake licenses, as mentioned by the media,” a government statement said, citing a note from the Pakistani Embassy to the Vietnamese…

UAE records 289 cases from coronavirus in the past 24 hours, taking the total cases in the country to 56,711. The new cases were found after conducting more than 46,000 coronavirus tests across the country. It’s one of the lowest daily cases since May. The death toll stays at 338, as one new death was reported. Meanwhile, 469 new recoveries were also announced, bringing the total recoveries to 48,917. This means that over 86 percent of the confirmed cases have fully recovered from the virus. Dubai has announced a new package to help the economy cope with the effects of the…

Kuwait has reported 683 new coronavirus cases, taking the total confirmed cases in the country to 58,904, according to the health ministry. 3 patients died of the virus in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of deaths to 407. Kuwait has the world’s 34th highest number of coronavirus infections just over Ukraine. Meanwhile, 639 new recoveries have been reported in the country, raising the total recoveries to 49,020. Kuwait has done 4,370 NP swab tests in the past 24 hours, as the country ramps up its efforts to test more people and detect cases early. So far, the country has conducted…

The government of India has agreed to allow U.S. air carriers to resume passenger services in the U.S.-India market starting July 23, the U.S. Transportation Department said on Friday. The Indian government, citing the coronavirus, had banned all scheduled services, prompting the U.S. Transportation Department in June to accuse India of engaging in “unfair and discriminatory practices” on charter air carriers serving India. The Transportation Department said it was withdrawing an order it had issued requiring Indian air carriers to apply for authorization prior to conducting charter flights, and said it had approved an Air India application for passenger charter…

Fire erupted Saturday inside a gothic cathedral in the western French city of Nantes, but firefighters brought the blaze under control within hours, emergency services said. Officials said the cathedral’s organ was destroyed and its platform could collapse, but added that the damage was not comparable to last year’s fire at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. Fire crews were alerted just before 08:00 am (0600 GMT) to the blaze at the Cathedral of St Peter and St Paul and around 100 personnel rushed to the scene. After two hours, emergency teams managed to contain the fire at the gothic structure, built…

Oman has registered ten deaths and a huge drop of 1,311 new cases of coronavirus, of which the majority of the cases are from citizens by 1,078 and the rest 233 from foreigners. This takes the total COVID-19 cases in the sultanate to 65,504. The death toll reached 308 after reporting the new deaths. ♦ Oman to start allowing citizens to travel abroad Meanwhile, 1,322 new recoveries were announced, bringing the total to 42,772. 3,976 tests were conducted across the sultanate in the past 24 hours. So far 266,845 COVID-19 tests have been conducted. In March, Oman began to introduce lockdowns…

Former Australian wicketkeeper and International Cricket Council match referee Barry Jarman has died, aged 84. Jarman played 19 tests between 1959 to 1969 and captained Australia for a one match on the 1968 Ashes tour in England when regular skipper Bill Lawry was injured. “We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Barry Jarman, the 33rd captain of the Australian Men’s Test team, aged 84,” Cricket Australia said on Twitter. “We pass our deepest sympathies to his wife Gaynor and children Kristen, Gavin, Jason and Erin.” Jarman is one of only five wicketkeepers to have captained Australia’s men’s…

Twitter said on Saturday that hackers were able to download account information for up to eight accounts involved in the hack of its systems this week, but said none of them were verified accounts. The company said the unidentified attackers targeted 130 accounts, and were able to reset passwords to take control of 45 of them and tweet from those accounts. Hackers accessed Twitter’s internal systems to hijack some of the platform’s top voices including U.S. presidential candidate Joe Biden, reality TV star Kim Kardashian, former U.S. President Barack Obama and billionaire Elon Musk and used them to solicit digital currency.…

Brazilian Central Bank President, Roberto Campos Neto, said on Thursday that the economic recovery seems to be shaped more like a “V” and, despite the expectation of a 6.4% GDP contraction this year, the outlook seems to be improving. Speaking in a webcast organized by Itau Unibanco, Campos Neto said consumption spending is likely to grow in coming weeks as emergency aid payments are scheduled to go until November and more credit programs targeting small and mid-sized companies are launched.

India on Thursday said its diplomats protested and left a meeting arranged by Pakistan in Islamabad with an Indian man condemned to death on charges of spying, saying an agreement to allow “unimpeded” consular access had not been honoured by Pakistani officials. Former Indian Naval Commander Kulbhushan Jadhav was arrested in 2016 in Pakistan’s southwestern province of Baluchistan and convicted of espionage and sabotage by a Pakistani military court a year later. India took the matter to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which ordered a stay on Jadhav’s execution in 2019, as well as consular access for India. Pakistan…