Author: News Desk

Bahrain : His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, today sent a congratulatory cable to the King of the Kingdom of Morocco, HM Mohammed VI, in celebration of Anniversary of the Revolution of the King and the People. His Royal Highness sent a similar cable to the Crown Prince of Morocco, His Royal Highness Moulay El Hassan, and the Prime Minister of Morocco, HE Saad Eddine El Othmani.

Washington ; US troops may stay in Afghanistan past an August 31 deadline to evacuate Americans, President Joe Biden said on Wednesday and the Pentagon said the U.S. military does not have the ability to reach people beyond the Kabul airport. ”If there’s American citizens left, we’re going to stay until we get them all out,” Biden told in an interview conducted on a day many U.S. lawmakers pressed him to extend the deadline that he had set for a final pullout. Biden has come under fierce criticism for his handling of the withdrawal, which in recent days has been…

Bahrain ; New Zealand has approved the use of the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for children and adolescents as it grapples with a Covid-19 outbreak, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced on Thursday. The country entered a snap lockdown on Tuesday after a community-transmitted Covid-19 case was detected, the first in almost six months. The cluster, in Auckland, has now grown to 21 cases, with 11 new infections reported on Thursday, said dpa international. Ardern announced that 12-to-15-year-olds would now be eligible for the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine. “It’s safe and it’s the right thing to do,” Ardern said. The vaccine was previously…

Bahrain : Northern Governor, Ali bin Al-Shaikh Abdulhussain Al-Asfoor, has underlined the importance of full compliance with the precautionary measures recommended by the National Medical Taskforce for Combating Coronavirus (COVID-19) during Ashoora holidays, on Wednesday and Thursday. The governor made the statements while visiting the “Al-Imam Al-Redha” and “Al-Qaem” community centres, in the presence of a number of officials from the Northern Governorate, the National Medical Taskforce, the Jaffari Endowments Directorate and the Northern Governorate Police Directorate. Al-Asfoor lauded the role played by the community centres’ heads and members in ensuring the safety of visitors and implementing the health protocols…

Florida : Blue Origin is escalating its fight over NASA’s decision to award SpaceX a multibillion-dollar lunar contract by filing a federal lawsuit challenging the decision, reports News 6 partner Florida Today. The suit, filed with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims late last week, has triggered a series of reviews by NASA officials and marks the latest chapter in a dramatic scuffle between the two companies to secure high-profile contracts related to NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to put American astronauts back on the moon by the mid-2020s. “Blue Origin filed suit in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in an attempt…

WASHINGTON :  Stalled nuclear talks with Iran will be at the top of the agenda when U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett meet next week. “The President and Prime Minister Bennett will discuss critical issues related to regional and global security, including Iran,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki in a statement announcing the leaders’ first in-person meeting at the White House on Aug. 26.

WASHINGTON :  The Biden administration wants to block the Taliban from accessing more than $400 million in emergency reserves that the International Monetary Fund is scheduled to release to Afghanistan next week, the New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing an unnamed U.S. Treasury Department official.

New York :  Austria’s Dominic Thiem will not defend his U.S. Open title after having to pull out of the hardcourt major with a wrist injury, the world number six said on Wednesday. Thiem, who suffered the injury in June at the Mallorca Open and was also forced to skip the grass court major at Wimbledon, said on Twitter that he will miss the rest of the 2021 season, Reuters reported. “The past six months, I’ve been following the medical advice, wearing the wrist splint, doing exercise to stay in shape… but then last week I hit a ball during…

London : The World Health Organization called on Wednesday on Roche (ROG.S) to ensure fair distribution of its arthritis drug used to treat COVID-19 patients as supplies of the drug run low due to rising cases driven by the more infectious Delta variant. In a statement on Monday, Roche’s U.S. unit Genentech warned of a global shortage of tocilizumab, sold by Roche as Actemra and RoActemra, which will last at least for the next few weeks. The latest wave of the pandemic has led to unprecedented demand, with orders well over 400% of pre-COVID levels over the last two weeks.…

Sydney :  Singapore’s national carrier said on Wednesday that all “frontline” employees have until September 1 to be “fully vaccinated” against Covid-19, said dpa international. The announcement by Singapore Airlines (SIA) also covers its Scoot budget wing. It came hours after Australia’s flagship Qantas said all frontline employees will have to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 within three months. A SIA spokesperson told local television news outlet CNA that 99 per cent of its pilots and cabin crew have already been jabbed. Earlier, the Qantas Group, which owns Qantas and budget airline Jetstar, said that cabin crew, pilots and airport workers will need to be fully…