Author: News Desk

A ministerial decision in Saudi Arabia is set to allow private sector companies to cut salaries by up to 40 percent with the possibility of terminating contracts given the difficult economic circumstances surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, Asharq al-Awsat reported. Citing a copy of the decision, Asharq al-Awsat reported on Monday that Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development agreed to changes to the Kingdom’s labor system that would include allowing an employer to reduce an employee’s salary by up to 40 percent of the actual wage for a period of six months. The new regulations would also allow…

The world’s largest coffee chain Starbucks said on Monday that 85 percent of its United States stores will have reopened in some form by the end of the week. Starbucks chief executive officer Kevin Johnson made the announcement in a letter to customers and partners, adding that 90 percent of stores will be open by early June, however, many stores have modified operations and hours, Deutsche press agency (DPA) reported. “After seven weeks of sheltering at home in the US, we have embraced an approach of monitoring, rapidly adapting to, and even shaping, the ‘now normal,'” Johnson said. Last week the…

The Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB) has entered into a proactive initiative with GrowIN Portugal, a platform that helps entrepreneurs incorporate, fund, expand and move their startups to Portugal. The agreement will serve to promote cooperation between the two organisations, particularly with regard to supporting startups globally during the ongoing pandemic by connecting the two startups ecosystems. To this end, both parties have agreed to:  Collaborate on the promotion of key events and opportunities in their respective markets;  Promote opportunities for developing the startup markets in their respective countries; Support startups by arranging introductory meetings with key ecosystem stakeholders in both…

His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa received at Al-Safriya Palace Interior Minister General Shaikh Rashid bin Abdulla Al-Khalifa, in the presence of HM the King’s Personal Representative HH Shaikh Abdulla bin Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa and Royal Court Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al-Khalifa. The Interior Minister was accompanied by Undersecretary for National, Passports and Residence Affairs Shaikh Rashid bin Khalifa Al-Khalifa, Public Security Chief General Tariq bin Hassan Al-Hassan, Information and Electronic Government Authority (iGA) Chief Executive Officer Mohammed Ali Al-Qaed, Undersecretary Shaikh Nasser bin Abdulrahman Al-Khalifa and Customs President Shaikh Ahmed bin Hamad Al-Khalifa. They all expressed…

The Bahrain Ministry of Health has announced 7 new recoveries from COVID-19 and registered 69 new active cases of which 34 are expatriate workers and 35 are contacts of active cases Bahrain tested a total of 149,586 until now. There are 1,781 active cases. These include 1,780 stable cases and 1 critical case. 1,744 people have been discharged. Only 8 deaths have been reported until now. This takes the total cases in Bahrain to 3,533. Read the New Guidelines in Bahrain – Click Here About the COVID-19 Deaths Read more about the eighth death – Click Here Read more about…

A total of 335,000 residents in Abu Dhabi’s Mussaffah area will be screened for coronavirus over the next two weeks. The testing will be undertaken as part of the National Screening Project, which aims to provide widespread COVID-19 testing in the country. To support the efforts, the Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (Seha), the emirate’s public health provider, has launched a new screening centre that will increase daily testing capacity by 80 per cent. In a statement sent today, Seha said the new centre, which will span 3.500 square metres, will allow for contactless registration, triaging and swabbing. Nurses will…

Iran is reopening mosques in parts of the country deemed at low risk from the coronavirus, as it says almost 80,000 people hospitalized with the illness have recovered and been released. Health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour says 74 new fatalities bring to 6,277 the total number officially recorded in Iran since it reported its first cases in mid-February. The country recorded 47 deaths yesterday, its lowest daily count in 55 days. Another 1,223 cases of COVID-19 infections were recorded in the past 24 hours, Jahanpour said, raising the total to 98,647. Today, mosques were allowed to reopen to worshipers in…

The Kuwait Ministry of Education has stopped work in all its sectors after discovering a single coronavirus infection case among the staff. Stoppage covered all studios where long-distance teaching lessons were recorded said Faisal Al-Maqseed, the Assistant Undersecretary and official spokesman of the Ministry in a press statement on Monday. Some sectors of the ministry have pursued work to tackle necessary issues, in the shadow of the coronavirus crisis, where the state imposed a general lockdown affecting the public sector and various fields in the country. The whole ministry building was sterilised after discovering the single case, he added.

The Government of India will be facilitating the return of Indian nationals stranded abroad on compelling grounds in a phased manner, a government statement confirmed on Monday. “Travel will be arranged by aircraft and naval ships. Standard Operating Protocol (SOP) has been prepared in this regard,” read the statement. “Indian Embassies and High Commissions are preparing a list of distressed Indian citizens. This facility would be made available on payment-basis. Non-scheduled commercial flights would be arranged for air travel. The travel would begin in a phased manner from May 7,” the statement added. https://twitter.com/cgidubai/status/1257291347469275136?s=20 Medical screening of passengers would be done…

Emirates SkyCargo will relaunch full-scale operations to 67 destinations from this week, including 15 cities in Europe and six in the Americas. “Over the last six to eight weeks, we have had to work around-the-clock to move essential cargo to destinations where they were most needed,” said Nabil Sultan, Emirates Divisional Senior Vice President, Cargo. “We started with just about a dozen cities served by our Boeing 777-300ER passenger freighters at the end of March. But within the space of a month we have scaled our operations to a point where we now have more than 65 destinations as part of…