Author: News Desk

A business group in Dubai plans to keep a tradition alive by distributing 100 ‘Gulf Gift’ boxes to severely distressed and ‘deserving’ returning expats. Speaking to Khaleej Times, “Over the last 50 years, it is a custom that has become part of the cultural fabric for expats to bring home a suitcase full of consumer items specifically associated with life in the Gulf. In fact, every time an Indian from the Gulf returns home, re-opening the suitcase was a ritual” said Faris Faizal, sales director of Emirates Companies House, Twar Centre and the project coordinator of the ‘Gulf Gift’ box.…

Saudi police busted two human trafficking rings in the two holy cities of Mecca and Medina, the Saudi news agency SPA reported. The first gang was smashed in Mecca where police arrested 298 people of different nationalities involved in collecting money by beginning during the month of Ramadan, spokesman for the Mecca region police Brig. Mohammad Al Ghamdi said. In Medina, security agencies arrested a ring of 79 members of different nationalities also involved in racking up money through begging in Ramadan. “Legal procedures have been taken against them,” spokesman for the Medina region’s police Brig. Hussain Al Qahtani said…

Bahrain has become the first country in the world to offer COVID-19 test results by WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. The announcement comes as governments across the globe experiment with launching their own official chat channels, including Singapore, New Zealand and the World Health Organisation. Bahrain’s results service, which is available in English and Arabic, has been launched by the Kingdom’s Ministry of Health as part of efforts to combat the ongoing global health crisis. The chatbot delivers up-to-date information on the spread of the Coronavirus and provides direct links to YouTube guidance videos as well as the country’s official Covid-19…

Moscow’s health department said authorities conducted autopsies on 100% of suspected coronavirus victims and confirmed that 639 people died directly of coronavirus complications in April, in a statement on Wednesday. The health department hit back at media reports saying it was under-reporting Covid-19 fatalities, saying its data was “absolutely open,” but acknowledging that it only counts deaths that were found through postmortem autopsy to have been caused directly by coronavirus complications. “In other cases, it’s impossible to put Covid-19 as the cause of death,” the health department said, acknowledging the April spike in mortality rates. City health officials argue that a mandatory autopsy is performed…

The Ministry of Health has registered 253 new COVID-19 cases among 215 expatriate workers, 29 contacts of active cases and 9 are travel-related. The Ministry of Health continues to increase its testing capacity, carrying out 8160 COVID-19 tests within the past 24 hours. The Ministry of Health records 15 additional recoveries from COVID-19, increasing total recoveries in Bahrain to 2,220. The recovered cases have been discharged from dedicated treatment centres. Bahrain tested a total of 211,127 until now. There are 3,839 active cases. These include 3,833 stable cases and 6 critical cases. 2,220 people have been discharged. Only 10 deaths have…

Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro warned that more restrictive social isolation measures would break the country and said there wouldn’t be enough money to pay public sector workers. This comes one day after Brazil reported a record number of new confirmed coronavirus cases. Bolsonaro said quarantine measures already introduced by many governors across the country were making the crisis worse. “Brazil is turning into a country of poor people.” He warned, “there won’t be enough money to pay public sector workers.” On Wednesday evening, the Health Minister reported that the number of confirmed cases had risen 11,385 from the day before -…

Around 18,000 Indians living in Bahrain have registered on the Indian Embassy’s online platform to return to their homeland through the Vande Bharat Mission amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. “Approximately 18,000 people have registered on the Indian Embassy’s online platform.” Mr. Norbu Negi, Chargé d’Affaires of the Indian Embassy told to the Starvision News on Thursday (May 14). The third repatriation flight from Bahrain will be on Tuesday (May 19) to Telangana, which will be departing from the Bahrain International Airport to Rajiv Gandhi International Airport with 177 passengers at 1:30 PM (BAH time). The 4th repatriation flight from Bahrain and also…

131 of the prisoners released from the jails will be evacuated from Bahrain. The evacuation will take place on Sunday. The evacuation will be from the Bahrain International Airport to Cochin International Airport.

The Kuwait Health Ministry announced on Thursday the recovery of 188 people from the coronavirus (COVID-19), bringing the tally to 3,451. A ministry press statement said analyses and medical examinations and tests proved that these cases were cured of the coronavirus. The recovered will be transferred to the hospital recuperation ward, pending their discharge within the next few days, it noted. Kuwait has also issued a full curfew till May 30 to help curb the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). [bkinfobox textcolor=”#000000″ backgroundcolor=”#ffffff” title=”” infobox_align=”aligncenter”] [/bkinfobox]

The single-day increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in Russia fell below the 10,000 mark to 9,974, taking the overall tally to 252,245, the country’s coronavirus response centre said on Thursday. The single-day increase fell for the first time over the past 12 days, Xinhua news agency reported. The death toll climbed by 93 to 2,305, while 53,530 people have now recovered, including 5,527 over the last 24 hours, the centre said. Moscow, the country’s worst-hit region has confirmed 4,712 new cases in the past 24 hours, taking its total to 130,716. Russia’s consumer rights and human well-being watchdog…