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31-12-2021 TEHRAN/ VIENNA: Iran has launched a satellite carrier rocket bearing three research devices into space, according to state media, as difficult negotiations over its tattered nuclear deal with world powers continue in Vienna. The reports on Thursday did not say when the launch was conducted, nor what devices the …

31-12-2021 WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden’s first year in office was a rollercoaster, marked by legislative victories and major political setbacks and with midterm elections set for November, next year promises to be even tougher. When Biden was inaugurated this past January, outgoing President Donald Trump’s supporters were still angling …

30-12-2021 Bureau Report MELBOURNE: A motor neurone disease patient, Philip O’Keefe, has become the first person to send a tweet to the world using only direct thought, with the help of a microchip implant that picked up his brain signals. O’Keefe is a 62-year-old man from Australia with amyotrophic lateral …

30-12-2021 RIYADH: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will re-implement social distancing as the Omicron variant of the coronavirus surges across the globe. On Wednesday, the General Presidency for the Affairs of the Grand Mosque and the Prophet’s Mosque decided that worshippers and Umrah performers would have to maintain social distance …

30-12-2021 JAKARTA: A powerful 7.3 magnitude quake struck off the coast of Indonesia’s Maluku province in the early hours of Thursday, the United States Geological Survey said in a statement. There were no immediate reports of tsunami warnings, nor casualties or damage. The offshore quake took place around 3:25 am …

30-12-2021 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report + Al Jazeera NEW DELHI/ BENGALURE: Netizens have reacted vehemently to the Indian government’s decision to change the name of great Muslim poet Akbar Allahabadi, Indian media reported on Wednesday. According to the Uttar Pradesh Higher Education Services Commission (UPHESC), an autonomous authority …

30-12-2021 A mother whose 14-year-old girl was accidentally killed by a stray police bullet in Los Angeles says her daughter “died in my arms”. Valentina Orellana-Peralta was with her mother in a clothes shop on 23 December when an officer opened fire on a suspect. The bullet pierced a wall …

30-12-2021 JAKARTA: Indonesia has announced it will allow a boat packed with Rohingya refugees, which had become stranded off its coast, to dock after calls from aid organizations to allow the vessel to seek refuge. Local officials in Aceh, a province on the western island of Sumatra, had said on …

30-12-2021 NEW YORK/ SYDNEY/ ROME: Daily COVID-19 infections have hit record highs in the United States, swathes of Europe and Australia as the new Omicron variant of the virus races out of control, keeping workers at home and overwhelming testing centres. Almost two years after China first reported a cluster …

29-12-2021 BEIJING: On September 24, Chinese authorities released Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig after detaining them for more than 1,000 days. The pair were not held in an ordinary prison but were instead placed in “Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location” (RSDL), conditions that have been compared with enforced …