Paris fashion gets physical despite Omicron By: AFP/APP on January 17, 2022Paris: The city may still be deep in the throes of the Omicron surge and adapting to the latest Covid restrictions, but Paris Fashion Week will nevertheless launch Tuesday. The industry is determined to get back on the catwalks after nearly two years during which most brands were forced to retreat online. Despite the complications […]
Unvaccinated father in Quebec temporarily loses visitation rights By: APP on January 13, 2022Montreal: A Canadian father, unvaccinated against Covid and “opposed to health measures,” lost the right to visit his 12-year-old after a Quebec judge ruled his visits would not be in the child’s “best interest.” The decision, initially reported by Quebec newspaper Le Devoir and consulted by AFP, was rendered December 23 and suspends the father’s […]
US cancer death rate dropped by a third since 1991 By: APP on January 13, 2022Washington: The risk of dying from cancer in the United States has fallen by nearly a third in three decades, thanks to earlier diagnoses, better treatments and fewer smokers, an analysis said Wednesday. The cancer death rate for men and women fell 32 percent from its peak in 1991 to 2019, the American Cancer Society […]
Fact-checkers urge YouTube to fight disinformation By: AFP on January 12, 2022More than 80 fact-checking organizations Wednesday urged online video platform YouTube to better combat disinformation, offering to help debunk false statements. “Every day, we see that YouTube is one of the major conduits of online disinformation and misinformation worldwide,” said the groups spanning the globe, from Politifact and the Washington Post in the United States to […]
Taliban FM meets Ahmad Massoud’s son, Ismail Khan in Iran By: AFP on January 11, 2022KABUL: The Taliban’s foreign minister said on Monday he held talks in Iran on the weekend with Ahmad Massoud, son of the late legendary Afghan resistance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud, and guaranteed his security if he returned home. Massoud’s Panjshir Valley forces provided the last resistance in September to the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, weeks […]
Fire at Rohingya camp in Bangladesh leaves thousands homeless By: AFP on January 10, 2022COX’S BAZAR: Thousands of people were left homeless after a fire gutted parts of a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh, police said on Sunday. About 850,000 of the persecuted Muslim minority — many of whom escaped a 2017 military crackdown in Myanmar that UN investigators concluded was executed with “genocidal intent” — live in a […]
Nigeria attacks leave 200 dead, thousands displaced By: AFP on January 10, 2022ABUJA: Nigeria said on Sunday that gunmen killed at least 200 people and displaced thousands more in multiple raids in the northwest over the last week, dealing a heavy blow to authorities struggling to restore order. Herders and farmers in Africa’s most populous country have clashed over access to land in northwest and central Nigeria […]
Zhang Yimou to direct Olympic ceremony again after 14 years By: AFP on January 8, 2022Beijing: Acclaimed Chinese film director Zhang Yimou, who masterminded the spectacular opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, will reprise that role for next month´s Winter Games in the capital, organizers have announced. Zhang, 71, promised a “totally innovative” unveiling, while conceding that the global pandemic and colder weather will limit its scale compared […]
I am not virus, insists Indian named Kovid By: AFP on January 8, 2022NEW DELHI: What’s in a name? For Indian travel start-up founder Kovid Kapoor, it has made him a social media sensation. The 31-year-old’s Twitter profile declares: “My name is Kovid and I am not a virus.” He posted this week that he had travelled outside India for the first time since the onset of the […]
Indian court allows religious festival despite Covid concerns By: AFP on January 8, 2022KOLKATA: An Indian court on Friday rejected a bid to cancel a major Hindu festival despite fears the vast gathering could spread coronavirus infections as the country sees an Omicron-driven surge in cases. Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to attend the annual Gangasagar Mela festival, which begins on Saturday on an island where […]