Author: AFP

Flood deluge worsens with millions affected

FENI (Bangladesh): Flash floods wrought havoc in Bangladesh on Friday as the country recovers from weeks of political upheaval, with the death toll rising to 13 and millions more caught in the deluge. The South Asian nation of 170 million people, crisscrossed by hundreds of rivers, has seen frequent floods

First treaty targetting cybercrime approved

UNITED NATIONS (United States): UN member states on Thursday approved a treaty targeting cybercrime, the body’s first such text, despite fierce opposition from human rights activists who have warned of potential surveillance dangers. After three years of negotiations and a final two-week session in New York, members approved the United

Israel agrees to resume truce talks

PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES: Israel has agreed to resume Gaza ceasefire talks on August 15 at the demand of US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Thursday, as regional tensions skyrocket over the war. Gaza’s Hamas-controlled civil defence agency said Israeli bombardment killed more than 18 people

30 dead, dozens missing after torrential rain

BEIJING (China): Torrential rains in China have killed at least 30 people and left dozens more missing, state media said on Thursday, as the country grinds through another summer of extreme weather. Confirmation of the deaths came the same day that weather authorities said July was China’s hottest month since

Heat claims 175,000 lives a year in Europe

COPENHAGEN (Denmark): Heat kills over 175,000 people a year in Europe, where temperatures are rising quicker than the rest of the globe, the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) European branch said on Thursday. Of the some 489,000 heatrelated deaths recorded each year by the WHO between 2000 and 2019, the European

Japan’s Sado mines added to World Heritage list

NEW DELHI: A network of mines on a Japanese island infamous for using conscripted wartime labour was added to UNESCO’s World Heritage register Saturday after South Korea dropped earlier objections to its listing. The Sado gold and silver mines, now a popular tourist attraction, are believed to have started operating

Court winds back controversial job quotas

DHAKA: Bangladesh’s top court on Sunday pared back, but fell short of public demands to abolish, contentious civil service hiring rules that sparked nationwide clashes between police and university students that have killed 151 people. What began as a protest against politicised admission quotas for sought-after government jobs snowballed this

All eyes on AI to drive Big Tech earnings

NEW YORK: Over the next two weeks, the quarterly results of Big Tech giants will offer a glimpse on the bankability of artificial intelligence and whether the major investments AI requires are sustainable for the long haul. Analysts at Wedbush Securities, one of Wall Street’s biggest believers in AI’s potential,

Airlines resume services after global IT outage

PARIS: Airlines were gradually coming back online Saturday after global carriers, banks and financial institutions were thrown into turmoil by one of the biggest IT crashes in recent years, caused by an update to an antivirus programme. Passenger crowds had swelled at airports on Friday to wait for news as

Army out in force, police fire on protesters

DHAKA: Soldiers were patrolling Bangladeshi cities on Saturday to quell growing civil unrest sparked by student demonstrations, with riot police firing on protesters who defied a government curfew. This week’s violence has killed at least 115 people so far, according to an AFP count of victims reported by police and