Author: News Desk

TOKYO :  Restaurants and bars will close early in Tokyo and a dozen other areas across Japan beginning Friday as the country widens COVID-19 restrictions due to the omicron variant, which has caused cases to surge to new highs in metropolitan areas. The restraint, which is something of a pre-state of emergency, is the first since September and is scheduled to last through Feb. 13. With three other prefectures — Okinawa, Hiroshima and Yamaguchi — under similar measures since early January, the state of restraint now covers 16 areas, or one-third of the country. While many Japanese adults are fully…

New York : As he starts his second term as U.N. secretary-general, Antonio Guterres said Thursday the world is worse in many ways than it was five years ago because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis and geopolitical tensions that have sparked conflicts everywhere — but unlike U.S. President Joe Biden he thinks Russia will not invade Ukraine. Guterres said in an interview with The Associated Press that the appeal for peace he issued on his first day in the U.N.’s top job on Jan. 1, 2017 and his priorities in his first term of trying to prevent conflicts…

Survivors of the Houthi strike on an Abu Dhabi oil storage plant have described the moment the ground shook and fire filled the air, peppering their bodies with shrapnel and killing three colleagues. The attack on the civilian facility has been condemned by world leaders and diplomatic efforts are under way to add Yemen’s Houthi group to the US list of terrorist groups. Ramjan Mohamed Rath from India and Saeed Noor Jabar Khan from Pakistan recall the deafening explosion. “It was a dangerous, frightening, terrifying sound. I have never heard such a loud sound in my life,” Mr Rath told  from his…

Chennai : The Chennai Police Commissioner on Thursday said that actor Siddharth has been summoned over his defamation case against badminton ace Saina Nehwal over PM Modi’s security breach in Punjab. “Actor Siddharth has been summoned (over his controversial tweet on badminton player Saina Nehwal). We’ve actually received 2 complaints; another one is on defamation in a legal frame, not a criminal case. We only need his statement,” said Chennai Police Commissioner Shankar Jiwal. “Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are thinking about how to get the statement. We have summoned actor Siddharth”, confirmed the Chennai Police Commissioner.

BEIRUT :  A rocket attack on a northern Syrian town controlled by Turkey-backed opposition fighters killed six civilians and wounded over a dozen people on Thursday, Syrian rescuers and a war monitor said. Both blamed U.S-backed Syrian Kurdish forces for the attack. The town of Afrin has been under control of Turkey and its allied Syrian opposition fighters since 2018, following a Turkey-backed military operation that pushed Syrian Kurdish fighters and thousands of Kurdish residents from the area. Since then, Afrin and surrounding villages have been the site of attacks on Turkish and Turkey-backed targets. Ankara considers Kurdish fighters who…

OSLO : A prosecutor in Norway said Thursday that a far-right extremist who killed 77 people in 2011 still is “a very dangerous man” and therefore a poor candidate for release after 10 years in prison, as Norwegian law permits. On the final day of a three-day parole hearing, prosecutor Hulda Karlsdottir said in her closing argument that Anders Behring Breivik “has not shown any genuine remorse in court” and his behavior there is part of a “PR stunt.” “In the clear view of the prosecution, Breivik’s request for parole should not be granted,” Karlsdottir said. Breivik professed white supremacist views and flashed Nazi…

WASHINGTON : The House committee investigating the U.S. Capitol insurrection is asking Ivanka Trump, daughter of former President Donald Trump, to voluntarily cooperate with its probe. The committee sent a letter Thursday requesting a meeting with Ivanka Trump, who served as an adviser to her father, in early February. In the letter, committee chairman Bennie Thompson says Ivanka Trump was in direct contact with her father during key moments of Jan. 6, when the former president’s supporters stormed the Capitol building. The committee says it wants to discuss what Ivanka Trump knew about her father’s efforts to pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence to…

Paris :  France’s government spokesman said Thursday that more than 1 million adults got their first COVID-19 vaccine shot over the past month, after the government announced a plan to exclude unvaccinated people from all restaurants, sports arenas and other venues. The French parliament approved the new law over the weekend and the measure is expected to enter into force in the coming days, after the Constitutional Council releases its assessment on Friday, reports AP. The so-called vaccine pass “is a new step in our strategy to encourage (vaccination) and ensure maximum protection. It is already producing its effects,” government…

BOGOTA : A car bomb killed one person and wounded five in an eastern Colombian city where illegal armed groups are vying for territorial control, the military said on Thursday. Dozens more were injured in the blast which happened at 09:30 (14:30 GMT) on Thursday in the south of the city. The car’s driver, who was also killed, has been identified as a 57-year-old man. No group has said it was behind the explosion. President Ivan Duque described it as a “crazy terrorist act” and declared three days of national mourning.

Etihad Rail has released the first images of what the UAE’s new passenger trains will look like. They offer the first detailed look of what awaits people once they step inside the sleek and modern interiors. The passenger trains will travel at speeds up to 200kph and can carry about 400 people, linking 11 cities and areas across the UAE from Al Sila in the west to Fujairah in the north. Etihad Rail says stations will celebrate the joy of travelling and designs will speak to regional traditions. Some of the stations will be built in the cities but the locations have not been announced…