Author: News Desk

LONDON :  Lawyers for Prince Andrew and Virginia Giuffre have filed their initial requests for witnesses in her lawsuit accusing the British royal of sexually abusing her at age 17. Recently released documents show that the prince’s legal team is seeking witness accounts from her husband, Robert Giuffre, and her psychologist, Judith Lightfoot, as part of the civil case filed in the U.S. Giuffre’s lawyers, meanwhile, are seeking witness accounts from the prince’s former assistant and a woman who claims to have seen him at a London nightclub with her during the time in question. The lawsuit cleared a hurdle…

MOSCOW :  A top law-enforcement official in Kazakhstan said Saturday that 225 people died during the violent demonstrations that shook the country this month, a significantly higher number than previously announced. Serik Shalabayev, head of the criminal prosecution service in the general prosecutor’s office, said 19 police officers or servicemen were among the dead, news reports said. More than 4,300 people were injured, he said. The previous official death toll was 164. Demonstrations started on Jan. 2 in the oil and gas-rich Central Asian nation to protest a sharp rise in fuel prices. They quickly spread nationwide, widened into a…

Scientists warn that omicron’s whirlwind advance practically ensures it won’t be the last version of the coronavirus to worry the world. Every infection provides a chance for the virus to mutate, and omicron has an edge over its predecessors: It spreads way faster despite emerging on a planet with a stronger patchwork of immunity from vaccines and prior illness. That means more people in whom the virus can further evolve. Experts don’t know what the next variants will look like or how they might shape the pandemic, but they say there’s no guarantee the sequels of omicron will cause milder illness or that existing vaccines…

Bahrain :The American publishing house (iUniverse) has released the English edition of the book (Visions and Structures), which focuses on works of the Bahraini poet Ali Abdullah Khalifa. The study was prepared by ten Arab researchers and a French researcher, along with a French literary critic, under the supervision of Professor of Modern Literature at the University of Michigan Dr. Mary S. Assel. The Arabic edition of the book, (Visions and Structures), was published in late 2021 by Khayal House in Algeria. The Paris-based publishing house L’Harmattan has also published  the French edition of the book by Professor Chokri Mimouni…

Brussels : His Majesty King Philippe of Belgium received, at the Royal Palace in Brussels, the credentials of the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Kingdom of Bahrain to the Kingdom of Belgium Abdullah bin Faisal bin Jabr Al Dossari. The ambassador conveyed the greetings of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, to HM King Philippe, as well as their best wishes of further progress and prosperity to the government and people of the friendly Kingdom of Belgium. The Belgian monarch congratulated…

Manama: A 15-year-old Bahraini girl has been reported missing to the police after disappearing from outside her home at around 6am yesterday(Jan 14). Shahad Al Gallaf was helping her mother place picnic items in the family car near Block 806, Cairo Road, Isa Town, when she suddenly disappeared. Mum had walked inside the house to grab some more things and when she stepped back outside her child was missing, according to social media reports. The teenager left behind her smartphone and the family says she never went anywhere without it. Anyone with information is asked to call the distraught family…

Los Angeles: Dozens of freight cars are broken into every day on Los Angeles’s railways by thieves who take advantage of the trains’ stops to loot packages bought online, leaving thousands of gutted boxes and products that will never reach their destinations. According to the tags found Friday by an AFP team on a track near the city center — which was easily accessible from nearby streets — many major US mail order and courier companies such as Amazon, Target, UPS and FedEx are being hit by the thefts, which have exploded in recent months. The thieves wait until the…

PASSAIC : A large chemical fire burned through the night and into Saturday morning in northern New Jersey, its smoke so heavy that it was detected on weather radar and seen and smelled in neighboring New York City. The fire at Majestic Industries and the Qualco chemical plant in Passaic spread to multiple buildings and threatened their collapse, officials said. Water from firefighter hoses froze in cold weather and made the environment slick and hazardous for responders. The fire was in buildings housing plastics, pallets and chlorine. “There have been bad fires, but this is the worst that I’ve ever…

WASHINGTON :  The failure of last week’s high-stakes diplomatic meetings to resolve escalating tensions over Ukraine has put Russia, the United States and its European allies in uncharted post-Cold War territory, posing significant challenges for the main players to avoid an outright and potentially disastrous confrontation. Unlike previous disagreements that have arisen since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the current Ukraine crisis and seemingly insurmountable differences between Washington and Moscow carry real risks of debilitating economic warfare and military conflict that are exacerbated by the dangers of miscalculation and overreaction. For the U.S. and its NATO and other European…

Bahrain :  The Kingdom of Bahrain today joins the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states in celebrating the Gulf Child Day, observed every January 15. This celebration confirms Bahrain’s belief in the importance of providing all necessary health and preventive services that suit the different needs of this age group, regarding the completion of the required vaccinations and immunisations to ensure their protection from the risks of disease, making sure they eat healthy food, encouraging physical activity, and adopting healthy lifestyles that contribute to providing them with their integrated health needs and rights, be it physical or psychological, to grow in…