Author: News Desk

Speaker Fawzia bint Abdullah Zainal held a talk session with Indonesian People’s Representative Council Speaker Puan Maharani, during her participation in the 144th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly. The Speaker affirmed the keenness to strengthen Bahraini-Indonesian cooperation and expressed pride in the development of relations thanks to the support of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and Indonesian President Joko Widodo. She valued the government efforts headed by His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, to strengthen partnership and to boost bilateral relations. Zainal praised Bahrain’s legislation and advanced regulations that…

Russia’s security policy dictates that the country would only use nuclear weapons if its very existence were threatened, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told CNN in an interview on Tuesday. The comment, nearly four weeks after Russia sent its forces into Ukraine, came amid Western concern that the conflict there could escalate into a nuclear war. Peskov made the comment in an English-language interview when asked whether he was confident President Vladimir Putin would not use nuclear weapons. “We have a concept of domestic security and it’s public, you can read all the reasons for nuclear arms to be used. So…

British inflation shot up faster than expected last month to hit a new 30-year high, worsening a historic squeeze on household finances that finance minister Rishi Sunak is under pressure to ease in a budget update later on Wednesday. The Office for National Statistics said consumer prices rose by 6.2% in February after a 5.5% rise in January, its highest rate since March 1992. The median forecast in a Reuters poll of economists had pointed to a reading of 5.9% and only three of the 39 respondents had expected such a strong reading. The ONS highlighted household energy bills -…

Russian energy giant Gazprom said on Wednesday it was continuing to supply natural gas to Europe via Ukraine in line with requests from European consumers. The company said requests stood at 106.5 million cubic metres for March 23, down from 108 million cubic metres for March 22.

Heavy rain in southern China on Wednesday halted the search for victims and flight information black boxes that could tell why a China Eastern Airlines passenger plane plunged into a mountainside two days earlier with 132 people on board. Rain water was filling the depression in the soft soil caused by the impact of the crash, state television reported, and the local weather bureau said there were risks of landslides, torrents and high winds as conditions deteriorated in the mountains of Guangxi region. The wet weather was forecast to last for the rest of the week. Flight MU5735 was en…

South Korea’s total coronavirus infections topped 10 million, or nearly 20% of its population, authorities said on Wednesday, as surging severe cases and deaths increasingly put a strain on crematories and funeral homes nationwide. The country has been battling a record COVID-19 wave driven by the highly infectious Omicron variant even as it largely scrapped its once aggressive tracing and quarantine efforts and eased social distancing curbs. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported 490,881 cases for Tuesday, the second highest daily tally after it peaked at 621,205 on March 16. The total caseload rose to 10,427,247, with…

Russian President Vladimir Putin intends to attend a G20 summit being hosted by Indonesia later this year, Russia’s ambassador in Jakarta said on Wednesday, following calls by some members for the country to be barred from the group. “Not only G20, many organisations are trying to expel Russia….the reaction of the West is absolutely disproportional,” ambassador Lyudmila Vorobieva told a news conference on Wednesday. The United States and its Western allies are assessing whether Russia should remain within the Group of Twenty (G20) grouping of major economies following its invasion of Ukraine, sources involved in the discussions told Reuters.

Taiwan is considering extending compulsory military service beyond the current four months, Defence Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng said on Wednesday, as the war in Ukraine renewed a discussion about how best to respond to China’s military threats. Taiwan has been gradually shifting from a conscript military to a volunteer-dominated professional force, but China’s growing pressure against the island it claims as its own, as well as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, have prompted debate about how to boost civil defence. Answering lawmakers’ questions in parliament, Chiu said that proposals to extend military service were still under consideration, and that there would “definitely”…

World number one Ashleigh Barty has shocked the sporting world by announcing she will retire from professional tennis at just 25. The Australian made the announcement on social media on Wednesday, saying she was leaving to “chase other dreams”. “I’m so happy and I’m so ready. And I just know at the moment in my heart, for me as a person, this is right,” she said in a video. Barty won her first Grand Slam at the 2019 French Open. She has remained the top-ranked player since then, backed up by success at Wimbledon last year. In January, she became…

Japan reacted angrily on Tuesday after Russia withdrew from peace treaty talks with Japan and froze joint economic projects related to the disputed Kuril islands because of Japanese sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia and Japan have not formally ended World War Two hostilities because of their standoff over islands, seized by the Soviet Union at the end of World War Two, just off Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido. The islands are known in Russia as the Kurils and in Japan as the Northern Territories. Japan has imposed sanctions on 76 individuals, seven banks and 12 other bodies in…