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 …
Read More »Grief and anger after India crush kills 121
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 …
Read More »Australian state orders sperm bank purge over mix-ups
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 …
Read More »Greece starts six-day working week for industries
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 …
Read More »Biden blames jet lag & travel for poor debate performance
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 …
Read More »Gazans seek shelter as Khan Younis exodus continues
04-07-2024 GAZA CITY/ KHAN YOUNIS: Tens of thousands of Palestinians are seeking shelter and a safe location, as the exodus from Gaza’s second city of Khan Younis continues in response to Israeli military evacuation orders. The UN estimates that 250,000 people in eastern parts of the city are affected by …
Read More »‘Almost whole island homeless’ in Hurricane Beryl’s wake
04-07-2024 KINGSTON, JAMAICA: Having survived the night as Hurricane Beryl tore across her idyllic home of Union Island with ferocious force, Katrina Coy was taken aback by the extent of the devastation which lay before her. Virtually every building on the island, which lies off St Vincent and the Grenadines, …
Read More »Hurricane Beryl strengthens into ‘potentially catastrophic’ storm
03-07-2024 MIAMI, FLORIDA: Hurricane Beryl has intensified into a “potentially catastrophic” Category 5 storm, the United States’s National Hurricane Center (NHC) said, as it headed towards Jamaica after bringing down power lines, damaging houses and flooding streets on other southeastern Caribbean islands. Beryl, the earliest Category 4 storm ever reported, …
Read More »‘09 in 10 top global companies failing to uphold human rights’
03-07-2024 More than 90 percent of the world’s 2,000 most influential companies, including Amazon, BMW, Nestle, Rio Tinto, Pfizer, Shein, and Standard Chartered, are failing to meet societal expectations towards human rights, working conditions and corporate ethics, a first-of-its-kind assessment has found. Despite commanding revenues equal to 45 percent of …
Read More »Court verdict on Trump undermines rule of law: Biden
03-07-2024 WASHINGTON: Joe Biden has described as a “dangerous precedent” a Supreme Court ruling giving former President Donald Trump partial immunity from criminal prosecution. The current US president said the judgement undermined the “rule of law” and was “a terrible disservice” to Americans. Earlier, Trump hailed the court’s decision as …
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