Author: News Desk

Ukraine : Helicopters provided air support, armoured personnel carriers rolled through fields, and soldiers fired at enemy targets on Tuesday as part of a large military exercise hosted by Ukraine and also involving the United States, Poland and Lithuania.

Bahrain: Member of the Council of Representatives, MP Khalid Buong, has expressed deep pride in Bahrain’s great efforts in the health field, and success in achieving an advanced level that has earned it the praise of the Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, during his official visit to the kingdom. He stressed that the opening of a permanent WHO Office in Bahrain reflects the kingdom’s success in the health field, and represents an advanced step towards strengthening the country’s cooperation with WHO. The lawmaker valued highly Bahrain’s successful experience in combating the novel Coronavirus pandemic…

Washington:  Moderna said Monday it plans to expand the size of its COVID-19 vaccine study in younger children to better detect rare side effects, such as a type of heart inflammation recently flagged by U.S. health authorities. The company said it is in talks with the Food and Drug Administration to enroll more study participants under age 12. It had intended to test the vaccine in about 7,000 children, with some as young as 6 months. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company said via email it hasn’t decided on how many kids might be added, The Associated Press (AP) reported. The announcement…

Tunisia : Troops surrounded Tunisia’s parliament and blocked its speaker from entering Monday after the president suspended the legislature and fired the prime minister and other top members of government, sparking concerns for the North African country’s young democracy at home and abroad. In the face of nationwide protests over Tunisia’s economic troubles and the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis, President Kais Saied decided late Sunday to dismiss the officials, including the justice and defense ministers. He announced a series of other measures Monday, including a nationwide curfew from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. for one month and a ban on gatherings of…

India: Around 180 people have died in the west Indian state of Maharashtra after torrential monsoon rains caused landslides and flooded low-lying areas, cutting off hundreds of villages. Around 38 people were killed in Taliye, 180 kilometers (110 miles) southeast of the financial capital Mumbai, when a landslide flattened most of the small village, state government officials said. The death toll also includes 27 reported deaths from Satara district in the last 48 hours. In nine other landslides in other parts of Maharashtra, 59 people died and another 15 were killed in accidents linked to the heavy rainfall, state government…

Spain: Devastating wildfires have spread across parts of southern Europe, tearing through the Spanish and Greek countryside and forcing around 1,000 people from their homes on the Italian island of Sardinia. Sardinia’s local government declared a state of emergency on Sunday, due to what it described as a “disaster without precedence.” “It is still not possible to estimate the damages caused by the fires that are still ongoing in the Oristano area,” the president of the Sardinia region, Christian Solinas, said in a statement Monday. “Vegetation destroyed, businesses and homes burnt and animals killed,” he added. CNN

Tokyo: USA gymnast Simone Biles said she’s not injured following her decision to withdraw from the women’s gymnastics team event today. She said she decided to take “a step back” to prevent possible future injuries. She told, “No injury, thankfully, and that’s why I took a step back because I didn’t want to do something silly out there and get injured,” . USA went on to win silver while the Russian gymnasts took gold. “I thought it was best if the girls took over and did the rest of the job which they absolutely did,” she said of her team. It’s been…

China : The Chinese internet giant Tencent said  it had temporarily suspended new user registrations for its hugely popular WeChat app, raising fears of new regulatory pressures even as it insisted the outage was the result of a technical upgrade. Tencent said in a statement that the shutdown, which affected only new users and groups registering for the app, would be over by early August and was part of a fix to its security technology. The timing of the suspension left investors uneasy, with concerns mounting that a regulatory rampage aimed at the technology sector could heavily affect Tencent, China’s…

Bahrain: History, arts, and food will forever be associated with the rich culture of Italy. But little did many living outside Europe know that sports in the country has a long tradition. Like in most European nations, football is widely popular in Italy. The national team has won the FIFA World Cup on four different occasions, most recently in 2006. Meanwhile, automobile racing comes in as a close second with many Italian engineers and drivers having contributed much to the said sport. When it comes to combat sports, Italy has produced a handful of notable names such as fencer Edoardo…

Bahrain: Secretary-General of the Supreme Council for Women (SCW), Hala Al-Ansari, has asserted that the SCW is making strenuous efforts to continue the policies and plans to integrate women’s needs in the kingdom’s development process, by supporting all national efforts aimed at enhancing Bahraini women’s participation in public life, including their family stability, and their access to decision-making positions. “The advancement of Bahraini women is one of the main priorities of our society, and we are working to make gender balance a sustainable reality, Al-Ansari said in an interview with the OBG  magazine. She also indicated that Bahrain continues to…