JAKARTA, Indonesia: In a landmark victory for Indonesian environment campaigners, a court on Thursday ordered President Joko Widodo to clean up Jakarta’s notorious air pollution, ruling that the leader and other top officials had been negligent in protecting citizens. The capital and its surroundings form a megacity of about 30
PARIS, France: Life-sized carvings of camels and horses hewn into rock faces in Saudi Arabia could be around 7,000 years old, according to new research that suggests they are significantly older than previously thought. The 21 reliefs, which were only recently discovered, are heavily eroded and were initially estimated in
Vets wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) as they collect a swab sample from an orangutan for Covid-19 coronavirus testing at the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre in Sandakan on the Malaysian island of Borneo. Photo: AFP
MUMBAI, India: Every dish tastes better with a dash of soy sauce, even dessert: that’s the ambitious pitch of Japanese food giant Kikkoman, hoping to persuade Indians to use it in curries, sweets and everything in between. Convincing 1.3 billion people to add a staple of East Asian cuisine to
MADRID, Spain: Tens of thousands of people formed a human chain around Spain’s crisis-hit Mar Menor lagoon on Saturday in a show of mourning after tonnes of dead fish washed ashore, organisers and officials said. One of Europe’s largest saltwater lagoons, the Mar Menor has long been a draw for
OSLO, Norway: A new sign posted at Norway’s river border with Russia reminds tourists feeling nature’s call that it’s against the law to pee in the direction of Russia — on pain of a hefty fine. Written in English in black block letters, the sign posted on the banks of
KUALA LUMPUR: Brunei reported two coronavirus deaths Tuesday, the first fatalities from Covid-19 in the Southeast Asian nation in over a year as it battles a fresh outbreak. An 85-year-old woman and a 69-year-old man, both Bruneians, died after contracting lung infections following their admission to a quarantine centre this
LONDON: Bitcoin rose back above $50,000 on Monday for the first time in three months after supportive news from payments giant PayPal and cryptocurrency platform Coinbase. The world’s most popular virtual unit jumped to $50,440 during Asian trade, before easing to $50,350 in early morning London deals. “Bitcoin continues its
BEIJING: After a painful break-up from a cheating ex, Beijing-based human resources manager Melissa was introduced to someone new by a friend late last year. He replies to her messages at all hours of the day, tells jokes to cheer her up but is never needy, fitting seamlessly into her
SAN FRANCISCO: Apple on Friday defended new child protection features that would check images uploaded to its cloud storage and on its messaging platform, rejecting concerns the updates pose threats to privacy. “We can see that it’s been widely misunderstood,” the US tech giant’s software chief Craig Federighi said of