WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden has ordered the re-establishment of a US troop presence in Somalia to help local authorities combat the Al-Shabaab militant group, a senior American official told reporters Monday. The move reverses an order from Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump, who in late 2020 pulled nearly all US forces
BEIJING: A Tibet Airlines plane caught fire on Thursday at a Chinese airport after veering off the runway, but all passengers and crew were “safely evacuated”, the airline said. The flight, carrying 113 passengers and nine crew, was headed from the southwestern city of Chongqing to Tibet’s Nyingchi when crew
GENEVA, Switzerland: The Rock, the biggest white diamond ever auctioned, sold for 21.7 million Swiss francs ($21.9 million) on Wednesday, far short of the record for such a jewel. The 228.31-carat stone, larger than a golf ball, was sold in Geneva by Christie’s auction house. There had been high hopes
SAN FRANCISCO: Saudi Aramco on Wednesday dethroned Apple as the world’s most valuable company as surging oil prices drove up shares and tech stocks slumped. The Saudi Arabian national petroleum and natural gas company, billed as the largest oil producing company in the world, was valued at $2.42 trillion based
TOKYO: Stocks on the Nikkei fell in early trade Thursday after overnight drops on Wall Street as investors fret over inflation. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index fell 1.34 percent, or 350.51 points, to 25,863.13 in early trade, while the broader Topix index gave up 0.79 percent, or 14.59 points, to
NEW YORK: The United States is about to cross the threshold of one million deaths from COVID-19, a grim milestone that comes as cities like New York try to turn the page on the pandemic despite threats of another surge. “It’s unfathomable,” Diana Berrent, one of the first people in
Cambodian fishermen hook giant endangered stingray PHNOM PENH: Cambodian fishermen on the Mekong River got a shock when they inadvertently hooked an endangered giant freshwater stingray four metres long and weighing 180 kilos, scientists said on Wednesday. The female leviathan, one of Southeast Asia’s largest and rarest species of fish,
SAN FRANCISCO: Apple on Tuesday put out word it is no longer making iPods, the trend-setting MP3 players that transformed how people get music and gave rise to the iPhone. Late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs introduced the devices nearly 21 years ago with his legendary showmanship flare, and the small,
LONDON: Queen Elizabeth II will miss Tuesday’s ceremonial opening of Britain’s parliament, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson tries to reinvigorate his faltering government by unveiling its plans for the coming year. The 96-year-old monarch, who usually presides over the pomp-filled event and reads out her government’s legislative programme from a
COLOMBO: Violence raged across Sri Lanka late into the night on Monday, with five people dead and some 180 injured as prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa quit after weeks of protests. Those killed in the worst unrest since the crisis began included a lawmaker from the ruling party who shot two
