Final men’s Olympic downhill training cancelled on February 5, 2022Yanqing, China: The third and final training run for the men’s Olympic downhill — one of the most prestigious events of the Games — was cancelled Saturday because of high winds. Just three racers — Austrian Matthias Mayer, Italian Christof Innerhofer and Norway’s Aleksander Aamodt Kilde — came down the 3.1 kilometre-long “Rock” course before […]
France’s Macron to go to Russia and Ukraine next week: presidency on February 4, 2022Paris: French President Emmanuel Macron will visit Moscow and Kyiv to meet his counterparts early next week in an effort to mediate the crisis over Ukraine, his office said on Friday. Macron will go to Russia on Monday and to Ukraine on Tuesday. Western powers have been engaged in intense diplomatic efforts to try to […]
Nike sues shopping platform StockX over sneaker NFTs on February 4, 2022San Francisco: Athletics giant Nike filed a lawsuit in New York on Thursday against shopping platform StockX for creating and marketing NFTs — the tamper-proof digital property certificates — based on the brand’s products without permission. The company’s lawyers accused US-based StockX of “minting” NFTs using Nike trademarks and trading on the brand’s “goodwill” to […]
Sailors stranded off France’s La Reunion by Cyclone Batsirai saved on February 4, 2022SaintDenis de la Reunion: The crew of an oil tanker stranded near the coast of the Indian Ocean island of La Reunion after Cyclone Batsirai swept the region were rescued and brought ashore Friday, officials said. “The perilous, very technical and unprecedented operation to rescue” the 11 Indian and Bangladeshi sailors on the Mauritian vessel […]
‘Formula One on ice’: luge brings hair-raising speeds to the Olympics on February 4, 2022Yanqing, China: The hair-raising sport of luge kicks off the sliding events at the Beijing Olympics with speeds of more than 130 kilometres (80 miles) per hour Friday making it feel “like Formula One on ice”. In the final training run ahead of the men’s heats on Saturday, Germany’s Johannes Ludwig clocked 131.5km/h thundering down […]
Nasdaq losses deepen to 3% amid tech selloff on February 4, 2022New York: The Nasdaq plunged more than three percent Thursday afternoon as tech shares experienced a sharp selloff following disappointing results from Facebook parent Meta. Near 2010 GMT, the Nasdaq Composite Index was down 3.2 percent at 13,957.85, a larger drop than that experienced by the Dow and S&P 500. Besides Meta, which fell 26.7 […]
New ‘highly virulent’ HIV strain discovered in the Netherlands on February 4, 2022Washington: Oxford researchers announced Thursday the discovery of a highly virulent strain of HIV that has been lurking in the Netherlands for decades, but because of the effectiveness of modern treatments, is “no cause for alarm.” Their analysis, published Thursday in the journal “Science,” showed that patients infected with what they call the “VB variant” […]
Rotterdam says no decision on dismantling bridge for Bezos superyacht on February 4, 2022The Hague: The Dutch port city of Rotterdam has not received a request for a permit to temporarily dismantle a historic bridge to allow a superyacht built for Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to pass, local media reported Thursday. The city’s mayor denied any decision had been made, a day after a municipality spokeswoman told AFP […]
World’s first malaria vaccine making inroads in western Kenya on February 3, 2022= Siaya, Kenya: Lucy Akinyi’s three children were infected with malaria so often she would be at their local health clinic in western Kenya every other week getting them treated. When offered the chance to protect her children with the world’s first vaccine against the deadly parasitic disease, Akinyi jumped at the chance. More than […]
Facebook parent Meta’s profit slips on February 3, 2022San Francisco: Facebook’s parent firm Meta on Wednesday posted a $10 billion quarterly profit that missed expectations alongside a downbeat forecast, sending shares plummeting some 20 percent in after-hours trading. The social media giant is investing heavily in its metaverse vision for the internet’s future, but all eyes are on how it will perform in […]