Author: Agency News

US nominee for World Bank president, Ajay Banga, has tested positive for COVID-19 following which the meetings scheduled during his two-day visit to India have been cancelled. According to a Finance Ministry statement, Banga’s meeting with Nirmala Sitharaman would not happen as he is in quarantine. ”During[Read More…]

U.S. corporate due diligence firm Mintz Group said on Thursday its Beijing office was raided by authorities and five Chinese staff were detained, stoking worry among foreign companies in China just as its capital hosts an international economic forum. News of the raid and detentions comes as Sino-U.S. relations[Read More…]

The LPGA Tour says the Taiwan Swinging Skirts LPGA tournament is being cancelled for the fourth consecutive year, citing operational factors. The LPGA said the decision was reached mutually with the Swinging Skirts Golf Foundation, which has sponsored the event since 2014, when it was first played in[Read More…]

States must take drastic action and accelerate climate ambitions without delay, in line with recommendations by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a UN expert said today. “I urge the big emitters to make more ambitious commitments ahead of the Climate Ambition Summit in September 2023,” said[Read More…]

Indian badminton player PV Sindhu bowed out of the women’s singles while HS Prannoy and Kidambi Srikanth exited the men’s singles competition at the Swiss Open 2023 in Basel on Thursday. Sindhu, the defending champion, lost to Indonesia’s Putri Kusuma Wardani 21-15, 12-21, 21-18 in a hard-fought round of[Read More…]

Maritime issues between the Philippines and China remain a “serious concern”, a Philippine official said on Friday, as the countries pledged to use diplomacy to resolve differences peacefully during high-level talks. The Philippines hosted this week the first in-person meeting between diplomats from the countries since before the COVID-19[Read More…]

U.S. corporate due diligence firm Mintz Group said on Thursday its Beijing office was raided by authorities and that five Chinese staff have been detained. “We can confirm that Chinese authorities have detained the five staff in Mintz Group’s Beijing office, all of them Chinese nationals, and have closed[Read More…]

An alert has been issued in Dehradun, Haridwar, and Udhamsinghnagar districts of the Uttarakhand as a precaution in view of the possibility of pro-Khalisthan Amritpal Singh entering the state, the state’s Director General of Police Ashok Kumar has said. “An alert has been issued in Dehradun, Haridwar, and Udhamsinghnagar[Read More…]

Paramount Pictures has acquired the rights to a remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 classic psychological thriller “Vertigo,” in which, Robert Downey Jr. is eyeing the lead role. The actor is producing the project with his wife Susan Downey through their Team Downey production company, along with John Davis and[Read More…]

The evening clearly belonged to Venkatarama Pandit Krishnamurthy, also known as V K Murthy. Guru Dutt’s favourite cinematographer, Murthy has a long list of firsts – so much so, it wasn’t enough that every guest of the Bengaluru International Film Festival (BIFFes) 2023 inaugural event on March 23, including[Read More…]

Starbucks’ new CEO Laxman Narasimhan says he plans to work a half-day shift once a month in one of the company’s stores in an effort to stay close to its culture and customers. Narasimhan, who took the reins as CEO earlier this week, said in a letter to Starbucks’[Read More…]

French unions have called for new nationwide protests next week, which will coincide with King Charles III’s planned visit to France. The announcement follows record turnout in Thursday’s demonstration in Paris against President Emmanuel Macron’s unpopular bill to increase the retirement age from 62 to 64. French authorities say[Read More…]

In the latest ban imposed on Chinese-owned social media app TikTok, the app will be blocked from parliamentary devices and networks in the UK, Sky News reported. The commissions of the House of Commons and House of Lords have announced they will follow the move taken by the government[Read More…]

A Pennsylvania woman linked to a far-right extremist movement was sentenced on Thursday to three years in prison for storming the U.S. Capitol, where she invaded then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office with other rioters. Riley June Williams, 23, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, was charged but not convicted of helping steal[Read More…]

The Chicago Blackhawks will not wear pride warm-up jerseys during the National Hockey League team’s Pride Night due to safety concerns related to the club’s Russian players, The Athletic reported on Thursday. Citing two Blackhawk sources, The Athletic reported that the decision not to wear rainbow-themed jerseys as part[Read More…]

New Zealand runner Jake Robertson has said he has lost a sponsorship deal and is suffering abuse because of his twin brother Zane’s doping scandal. Middle and long-distance runner Zane Robertson, who competed at the Rio and Tokyo Olympics, was recently banned for eight years for doping and interfering[Read More…]

Maritime issues between the Philippines and China can be resolved and the objectives of both countries met through the “exhaustion of all diplomatic means”, a senior Philippine foreign ministry official said on Friday. Philippine foreign ministry undersecretary Theresa Lazaro, however, also said during talks with Chinese counterparts that maritime[Read More…]

Ukrainian troops, on the defensive for four months, will soon launch a counterassault as Russia’s huge winter offensive weakens without capturing the eastern city of Bakhmut, Ukraine’s top ground forces commander said. The remarks on Thursday were the strongest indication yet from Kyiv that it is close to shifting[Read More…]

The United States and Canada reached a deal aimed at stopping asylum seekers entering the shared land border via unofficial crossings, but the two sides still need to iron out details when they meet, a Canadian government source familiar with the talks told Reuters on Thursday. The revised Safe[Read More…]

Do Kwon, the cryptocurrency entrepreneur behind two digital currencies that lost an estimated $40 billion or more last year, has been charged with fraud by U.S. prosecutors. An eight-count indictment against Kwon was made public in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, several hours after news of his arrest[Read More…]

Vanuatu, still reeling from two cyclones that struck within a week, says it hopes the United Nations General Assembly will next week adopt its push for greater priority to be given to the human rights impact of climate change. The Pacific island nation’s Minister of Climate Change, Ralph Regenvanu,[Read More…]

North Korea has tested a new nuclear-capable underwater attack drone that can generate a radioactive tsunami, state media reported on Friday, as it blamed joint military drills by South Korea and the U.S. for raising tensions in the region. During the drill, the new North Korean drone cruised underwater[Read More…]

Winning starts for former Premier League managers Avram Grant and Chris Hughton marked Thursday’s round of Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, but it was upstarts South Sudan who stole the spotlight with a shock victory. Grant, who was Chelsea manager when they reached the 2008 Champions League final, saw[Read More…]

South Korea’s finance minister said on Friday the country would cooperate with Japan on economic matters such as supply chain and investment, while reinstating government communication channels and supporting private sector exchanges. Minister Choo Kyung-ho said at a meeting on exports the countries would respond to global issues regarding[Read More…]

Ukrainian troops, on the defensive for four months, will soon launch a counterassault as Russia’s huge winter offensive weakens without capturing the eastern city of Bakhmut, Ukraine’s top ground forces commander said. FIGHTING * Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited the southern region of Kherson, where he toured local infrastructure[Read More…]