Author: News Desk

National Guard  Religious Affairs Advisor Dr. Shaikh Rashid bin Mohammad Al Hajri announced the winners of  the National Guard Commander’s Holy Quran recitation competition. The competition was held in Ramadan based on the directives of National Guard Commander General His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Isa Al Khalifa and under the follow-up of National Guard Staff Director Major General Shaikh Abdulaziz bin Saud Al Khalifa. Dr. Al Hajri stressed the Kingdom’s efforts in teaching the Holy Quran and the importance of this annual competition and encouraging the National Guard competitors.

The Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR) has confirmed that Nawah Energy Company (Nawah) has started the regular nuclear refuelling phase and maintenance of Unit 1 of Barakah Nuclear Power plant. During this phase, new nuclear fuel assemblies will be added and a number of maintenance and testing activities will be carried out for equipment used for power production, safety-related systems and others. In a statement, FANR said it is currently conducting its regulatory oversight activities including review and inspection programmes at Barakah Nuclear Power Plant Unit 1 refuelling and maintenance phase to ensure all activities associated are as required…

The General Presidency for the Affairs of the Grand Mosque and the Prophet’s Mosque has allocated, in several sites as well as women’s praying sections at the Grand Mosque, smart guidance robots to issue fatwas. The robots also provide necessary information, clarify rituals performance, highlight fatwas, and answer inquiries by visitors by communicating remotely with scholars. Another feature of the robot is the possibility of live interpretation and translation in multiple languages. The robot is equipped with a 21-inch touch screen, supported by 11 languages – Arabic, English, French, Russian, Persian, Turkish, Malay, Urdu, Chinese, Bengali, and Hausa, Saudi Press…

A Ukrainian mayor described hours of “hard” interrogations when held for almost a week by Russian forces last month and said he had appealed to the pope for help to stop a war that had wrecked swathes of his city in southern Ukraine. “It was a dangerous six days because I understood that for Russians my life and the lives of civilians were worth zero,” Ivan Fedorov, mayor of Melitopol which is now under Russian control, said in Rome on Sunday, a month after his release. Ukraine said Fedorov was abducted on March 11 after Russian forces seized Melitopol, which…

Pro-Russian Ukrainian politician Viktor Medvedchuk appealed in a video released by Ukraine’s security service on Monday to be handed over to Moscow in a prisoner swap for Ukrainian forces and civilians trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol. Medvedchuk made the appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a video published by the SBU security service on Facebook. It was unclear how freely Medvedchuk was speaking in the video. He said was a making a “plea for the Ukrainian side to exchange me for the defenders of Mariupol and its citizens who are there today…

Russia said on Monday it had launched mass strikes overnight on the Ukrainian military and associated military targets, using its air force, missile forces, artillery and air defence systems to hit hundreds of targets across its southern neighbour. The Russian defence ministry said in a statement that air-launched missiles had destroyed 16 Ukrainian military facilities overnight, including five command posts, a fuel depot and three ammunition warehouses, as well as Ukrainian armour and forces. It said those strikes took place in the Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions and in the port of Mykolayiv, and that the Russian air force…

Authorities in Ukraine’s Western and Southern regions of Lviv and Dnipropetrovsk reported multiple explosions on Monday, while a Reuters reporter heard a series of blasts in Kyiv, as Russia’s invasion of the country continues. Six people were killed and eight wounded in Lviv where missiles struck military facilities and a car tire service point, regional governor Maksym Kozystkiy said. Separately, authorities said some of the missiles hit areas close to a railway station and other railroad facilities, briefly disrupting normal traffic. According to media outlet Suspilne, two people were wounded in the Dnipropetrovsk attacks. In Kyiv, a Reuters reporter heard…

Four civilians were shot dead while trying to flee by car from the town of Kreminna in Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region during a Russian attack, regional governor Serhiy Gaidai said in a post on messaging app Telegram on Monday. A fourth person was seriously injured, he said. Reuters could not independently verify the information.

Ukraine has completed a questionnaire which will form a starting point for the European Union to decide on membership for Kyiv, Ihor Zhovkva, deputy head of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office, said. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen handed the questionnaire to Zelenskiy during her visit to Kyiv on April 8th, pledging a speedier start to Ukraine’s bid to become a member of the EU following Russia’s invasion of the country. “Today, I can say that the document has been completed by the Ukrainian side,” Zhovkva told the Ukrainian public broadcaster Sunday evening. The European Commission will need to issue…

Manama: The General Directorate of Traffic is cooperating with Talabat Company to offer training for its drivers. The service is part of the General Directorate’s dedication to promoting the safety of road users. Deputy Director-General of Traffic Col. Mohammed Al Daraj said that the directorate offers multi-lingual training courses and organises awareness campaigns to inform about traffic rules and limit wrong practices. The training for the company comes in relation to the increasing number of delivery drivers from various companies. The Deputy Director-General valued the cooperation of Talabat with the directorate and its dedication to directing its drivers to follow traffic rules. Talabat…