22-05-2022 COLOMBO: Thousands of people queued for cooking gas and petrol in Sri Lanka’s commercial capital and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe warned of a food shortage as the island nation battles a devastating economic crisis. Lines formed in many parts of Colombo, a city of around 900,000 people, as residents …

22-05-2022 SEOUL: President Joe Biden and his new South Korean counterpart agreed on Saturday to hold bigger military drills and deploy more US weapons if necessary to deter North Korea, while offering to send COVID-19 vaccines and potentially meet Kim Jong Un. Biden and Yoon Suk-yeol said their countries’ decades-old …

22-05-2022 LONDON: The World Health Organization was holding an emergency meeting on Friday to discuss the recent outbreak of monkeypox, a viral infection more common to west and central Africa, after over 100 cases were confirmed or suspected in Europe. In what Germany described as the largest outbreak in Europe …

21-05-2022 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report SYDNEY/ MELBOURNE: Australia’s opposition Labor Party appeared on track to win Saturday’s general election, television stations projected, as voters deserted the ruling conservative coalition in favor of climate-focused independents and smaller parties. A win would end nine years in opposition for Labor and …

21-05-2022 JERUSALEM/ JENIN/ OCCUPIED GAZA: A new video that begins moments before Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was killed has emerged showing relative calm and quiet, contrary to claims by Israeli officials that fighting was taking place in the area. Abu Akleh, 51, was killed by an Israeli soldier …

21-05-2022 Bureau Report + Agencies MELBOURNE/ PARIS/ Brussels/ BERLIN: France, Belgium and Germany have reported their first cases of monkeypox, joining Australia, and several European and North American nations in detecting the disease, endemic in parts of Africa. Monkeypox was identified in a 29-year-old man in the Ile-de-France region, which …

21-05-2022 WASHINGTON: The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week, reaching a four month-high, potentially hinting at some cooling in demand for labour amid tightening financial conditions but the labour market remains tight, with the report from the Labor Department on Thursday showing the …

21-05-2022 Bureau Report + Agencies MUMBAI/ LUCKNOW/ NEW DELHI: A court case started by five Hindu women in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s political constituency has become the latest battleground in India between the Hindu majority and minority Muslims over access to historically contested religious sites. The women, backed by an …

20-05-2022 BERLIN: Shots were fired at a German school in the northern city of Bremerhaven on Thursday and one person, who was not a student, was wounded, police said, adding an armed person had been taken into custody. On its website, the Lloyd Gymnasium, which has around 1,150 students, posted …

20-05-2022 LONDON/ PARIS/ NEW YORK: Health authorities are on alert for the spread of monkeypox, a rare viral disease first reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the 1970s, after new cases emerged in Europe, and the United States confirmed its first infection. Portugal said on Wednesday it had …