Author: News Desk

Bahrain : His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa today returned to the kingdom following a visit to the United Arab Emirates. During the visit, HM the King met Abu Dhabi Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan. HM King Hamad also participated in talks with UAE Vice-President, Prime Minister and Dubai Ruler, HH Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, HH Shaikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, and Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi. The quartet summit discussed…

LONDONDERRY : Five decades after British soldiers killed 13 unarmed Catholic civil rights marchers on one of the defining days of the Northern Ireland conflict, relatives are still searching for the justice they believe is needed for a scarred society to heal. Family and friends of the 13 Catholics who died in Londonderry on “Bloody Sunday”, Jan. 30, 1972 – and of a 14th who died later of his wounds – gathered this week for a series of commemorations to mark the event that helped fuel three decades of bitter sectarian and political violence. While a judicial inquiry found in…

Muscat : Board of Trustees Chairman of Bahrain Centre for Strategic, International and Energy Studies (Derasat), Dr. Shaikh Abdullah bin Ahmed Al Khalifa praised strong historical fraternal relations between the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Sultanate of Oman. He described them as a model to emulate in fraternal relations thanks to keenness of the leaderships of both countries to further develop them within the framework of strategic and solid partnership. Dr. Shaikh Abdullah bin Ahmed Al Khalifa was speaking during a lecture he delivered at Sultan Qaboos University entitled “The Role of Diplomacy in Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals”. The…

Bahrain : His Majesty the King’s Representative for Humanitarian Work and Youth Affairs, Oil and Gas Holding Company Chairman,  Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa issued an edict appointing Youssef Isa Bubshait and Mazen Mohammed Matar as Nogaholding Representatives to the Arab Shipbuilding  and Repair Yard (ASRY). Under the edict, Youssef Isa Bubshait takes over as ASRY Chairman, while Mazen Mohammed Matar continues to serve as board member and managing director.

Wellington :  When the coronavirus began spreading around the world, the remote Pacific archipelago of Kiribati closed its borders, ensuring the disease didn’t reach its shores for nearly two full years. Kiribati finally began reopening this month, allowing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to charter a plane to bring home 54 of the island nation’s citizens. Officials tested each returning passenger three times in nearby Fiji, required that they be vaccinated, and put them in quarantine with additional testing when they arrived home. It wasn’t enough. More than half the passengers tested positive for the virus, which…

New Delhi : Google will invest up to $1 billion in partnership with India’s Airtel to provide affordable access to smartphones to over a billion Indians and speed up use of cloud-based computing for business, the two companies said on Friday. The investment will help India’s small businesses adopt digital tools as India works to adopt digital education, payments and e-commerce amid the pandemic, Google said in a blog post. As part of the “Google for India Digitization Fund” launched in 2020, Google will pay $700 million to acquire a 1.28% stake in Airtel. It is also committing up to…

Washington : Lagging growth in China and the US is likely to weigh on the global economy this year, warned the International Monetary Fund in its new economic report on Tuesday, as it lopped several percentage points off of economic expectations. The latest World Economic Outlook (WEO) now predicts that global economic growth will hit 4.4 percent in 2022, 0.5 percentage points down from the 4.9 percent it predicted in October, partly due to the Omicron coronavirus variant. US economic growth is now expected to hit 4 percent, down 1.2 percentage points from the last forecast. A lot of the…

Abu Dhabi : A quartet summit was held in Abu Dhabi today between His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, the UAE Vice President, Prime Minister, Dubai Ruler Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces Shaikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi. Discussions focused on cooperation and coordinating stances regarding issues of common concern. Regional and international developments and common challenges facing the Arab region were also spotlighted. During their meeting at Qaṣr Al-Waṭan in Abu Dhabi, the leaders discussed the terrorist attacks…

Kerala minister Ahammad Devarkovil hoisted the national flag upside down during Republic Day celebrations in Kasargod district on Wednesday. It triggered a political controversy as Opposition BJP demanded his resignation for showing disrespect to the tricolour. The incident occurred when minister Ahammad Devarkovil, who holds the Port and Archaeology portfolios in the LDF government, unfurled the flag at the Municipal Stadium this morning.

Two spectators were injured after a drone, which was part of the tableau of the Madhya Pradesh agriculture department, fell on them in the Republic Day function held at a stadium in Jabalpur on Wednesday, police said. The duo had come to Jabalpur to perform a tribal dance in the function when the incident occurred at Pandit Ravi Shankar Shukla stadium, a police officer said.