Syrian President Bashar al-Assad visits an ancient Christian town recaptured from rebels last week. Deborah Lutterbeck reports.
Dubai's flagship airline Emirates is suspending check-in for all customers with onward connections through the city, it said on Friday, three days after a record storm swept the United Arab Emirates. Emirates, one of the world's biggest international airlines, said the flights with onward connections would be suspended until 2359 GMT on April 19 but customers travelling to Dubai as their final destination may check-in and travel as usual. The suspension showed the airline and its hub, Dubai International Airport, were still struggling to clear a backlog of flights after the UAE saw its heaviest rains in the 75 years records have been kept, bringing much of the country to a standstill for two days and causing significant damage.
Street vendors in Mali's capital of Bamako peddle water sachets, ubiquitous for this part of West Africa during the hottest months. This year, an unprecedented heat wave has led to a surge in deaths, experts say, warning of more scorching weather ahead as effects of climate change roil the continent. The heat wave began in late March, as many in this Muslim majority country observed the holy Islamic month of Ramadan with dawn-to-dusk fasting.
Taiwanese tycoon Morris Chang received one of the island's highest medals of honour on Friday, in recognition of his achievements as the founder of semiconductor giant TSMC. Known as the "godfather" of the island's chip industry, Chang founded Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company three decades ago, building it into a multi-billion-dollar company that today is a leader in making the microchips that power everything from smartphones to AI technology."Because of (TSMC) founder Chang, Taiwan's
Long-haul carrier Emirates said Friday it would again halt local check-in for passengers traveling on its flights as the wider United Arab Emirates tries to recover from record-setting rains this week. “This is to support operations recovery from the recent bad weather at our Dubai hub,” the airline said on the social platform X. Dubai International Airport, the world's busiest for international travel, hoped to be back on a normal schedule within 24 hours, its CEO told The Associated Press late Thursday.
Apple has removed the Meta-owned WhatsApp and Threads from its App Store in China following an order from the country's top internet regulator, Bloomberg reported Friday citing the tech giant."The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) ordered the removal of these apps from the China storefront based on their national security concerns," said Apple, referring to China's internet regulator.
The judge in Donald Trump's criminal trial will look to wrap up jury selection Friday before opening arguments start next week in a historic case being heard as the former president campaigns to win back the White House."The whole world is watching this hoax," he said, again using the case to launch his election campaign attacks on President Joe Biden, US border policy and the justice system.
Gay '30 Rock' actor Maulik Pancholy was disinvited from speaking at a middle school anti-bullying assembly in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.
India began voting Friday in a six-week election with an all but assured victory for Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi."I urge all those voting... to exercise their franchise in record numbers," he wrote in a social media post on X as the election began.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon on Thursday denied motions by two of former President Donald Trump's co-defendants to dismiss charges in the classified documents case.
Iran's state media reported explosions in the central province of Isfahan Friday, as US media quoted officials saying Israel had carried out retaliatory strikes on its arch-rival.Air defence systems over several Iranian cities were activated, state media reported, after the country's official broadcaster said explosions were heard near the city of Isfahan.
China's vaccine developers stuck with unused mRNA COVID shots and idle manufacturing plants are pursuing new targets for the novel messenger RNA technology, but they face a tough path, crimped by a lack of revenue. Three Chinese companies - Walvax Biotechnology , CSPC Pharmaceutical Group and Stemirna Therapeutics - came up with mRNA vaccines that won limited emergency approvals in Asia. However, Walvax and CSPC are not currently manufacturing three of their China market shots, a China health official told Reuters.
The new Netflix documentary, “What Jennifer Did,” follows the interrogation of Jennifer Pan, a young Canadian woman who allegedly planned to kill her parents.
Saturday marks marijuana culture’s high holiday, 4/20, when college students gather — at 4:20 p.m. — in clouds of smoke on campus quads and pot shops in legal-weed states thank their customers with discounts. Many states have instituted “social equity” measures to help communities of color, harmed the most by the drug war, reap financial benefits from legalization.
A suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden vest near a van carrying Japanese autoworkers, who narrowly escaped the attack Friday that wounded three bystanders in Pakistan's port city of Karachi, police said. The van had been heading to an industrial area where the five Japanese nationals worked at Pakistan Suzuki Motors, local police chief Arshad Awan said. Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif denounced the attack on the Japanese nationals.
Israel has carried out a strike inside Iran, a US official told CNN Friday, a move that threatens to push the region deeper into conflict. The target is not nuclear, the official added.
Polls will open Friday for the first phase of India’s marathon general election, kicking off a vote in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking to win a rare third consecutive term.
Around 60 doctors in Japan have accused Google Maps of ignoring vitriolic reviews of their clinics in a class-action lawsuit touted as the first of its kind.The case at Tokyo District Court is believed to be the first class-action lawsuit in Japan to target a platform over negative online reviews, a lawyer for the plaintiffs said.
The Security Council veto has triggered backlash as global divisions continue to sharpen over Israel’s war on Gaza.
BNSF Railway attorneys are expected to argue before jurors Friday that the railroad should not be held liable for the lung cancer deaths of two former residents of an asbestos-contaminated Montana town, one of the deadliest sites in the federal Superfund pollution program. Attorneys for the Warren Buffett-owned company say the railroad's corporate predecessors didn't know the vermiculite it hauled over decades from a nearby mine was filled with hazardous microscopic asbestos fibers. The case in federal civil court over the two deaths is the first of numerous lawsuits against the Texas-based railroad corporation to reach trial over its past operations in Libby, Montana.
Russian troops are ramping up pressure on exhausted Ukrainian forces to prepare to seize more land this spring and summer as muddy fields dry out and allow tanks, armored vehicles and other heavy equipment to roll to key positions across the countryside. With the war in Ukraine now in its third year and a vital U.S. aid package for Kyiv slowed down in Congress, Russia has increasingly used satellite-guided gliding bombs — which allow planes to drop them from a safe distance — to pummel Ukrainian forces beset by a shortage of troops and ammunition. Despite Moscow's advantage in firepower and personnel, a massive ground offensive would be risky and — Russian military bloggers other experts say — unnecessary if Russia can stick to smaller attacks across the front line to further drain the Ukraine military.
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