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05-07-2024 TOKYO: It’s taken until 2024 but Japan has finally said goodbye to floppy disks. Up until last month, people were still asked to submit documents to the government using the outdated storage devices, with more than 1,000 regulations requiring their use but these rules have now finally been scrapped, …

05-07-2024 Bureau Report + Agencies SYDNEY: Senator Fatima Payman has resigned from Australia’s ruling Labor Party, days after voting against it to support a motion on Palestinian statehood. Labor has strict penalties for those who undermine its policy positions, and Ms Payman was already “indefinitely suspended” from the party’s caucus …

05-07-2024 Bureau Report + Agencies NEW DELHI: The preacher who led an overcrowded gathering in India where more than 120 people were crushed to death on Tuesday has denied blame, and pledged to co-operate with the police investigation. A lawyer for the self-styled guru known as Bhole Baba told media, …

05-07-2024 LONDON: Britons were voting on Thursday in a parliamentary election that is expected to bring Keir Starmer’s Labour Party to power, sweeping away Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives after 14 often turbulent years. Opinion polls put Starmer’s centre-left party on course for a landslide victory but also suggest many …

05-07-2024 JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the idea of starting a ceasefire in Gaza while Hamas remains in power, after The New York Times published an article citing six current and former security officials who said a truce would give Israeli troops time to prepare for a …

04-07-2024 TOKYO: Japan’s top court has ruled as unconstitutional a defunct eugenics law which saw 16,500 disabled people forcibly sterilized between the 1950s and 1990s. The Supreme Court also ordered the government to pay damages to 11 victims, who were involved in five cases that were heard on appeal. Wednesday’s …

04-07-2024 Bureau Report + Agencies NEW DELHI: A day after 121 people were crushed to death at a religious event in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, families of some of the victims are still searching for their loved ones. The incident took place during a satsang (a Hindu …

04-07-2024 QUEENSLAND: A purge of frozen sperm has been ordered in the Australian state of Queensland, after an audit by its health watchdog found almost half of fertility samples were at risk of misidentification. Such mix-ups can rob parents and donor children of key genetic information and medical records, and …

04-07-2024 ATHENS: Greece has introduced a six-day working week for certain industries in a bid to boost economic growth. New legislation, which came into effect at the start of July, allows employees to work up to 48 hours in a week as opposed to 40. It only applies to businesses …

04-07-2024 WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden has blamed his poor debate performance last week on jet lag, telling reporters that he “wasn’t very smart” for “travelling around the world a couple of times” before the debate. “I didn’t listen to my staff… and then I nearly fell asleep on stage,” he …