TOKYO: Organisers of the Tokyo Olympics approved 12 new female executive board members on Wednesday, less than two weeks after appointing a woman president in the wake of an embarrassing sexism row. The appointments increase female representation on the Tokyo 2020 board from 20 percent to just over 40 percent,
BERLIN: Music legend Tina Turner is the subject of one of the most successful biopics ever made but she tells the makers of a new documentary there’s much more to her story. “Tina” by Oscar-winning directors Dan Lindsay and T.J. Martin premiered Tuesday at the Berlin film festival. It traces
MOSCOW: Mikhail Gorbachev, the historic reformer who presided over the collapse of the Soviet Union, marked his 90th birthday in quarantine Tuesday and like everyone else is “tired” of virus restrictions, his spokesman said. Congratulations poured in from around the world, with Russian President Vladimir Putin, US leader Joe Biden
TOKYO: Japan has asked China to avoid using anal swabs to test its citizens for coronavirus, saying the method prompted complaints of “psychological distress”. Tokyo’s intervention comes after reports that US diplomatic personnel in China had complained of being subjected to the intrusive tests — a claim Beijing denied. China,
LONDON: As members of the oil cartel Opec and its allies meet this week to discuss adjusting output, analysts expect old tensions between oil producer giants to flare up again. Russia and Saudi Arabia, respectively the world’s second and third largest producers of oil after the United States, had often
JAKARTA: Whole neighbourhoods of Indonesia’s capital Jakarta and dozens of major roads were flooded on Saturday after torrential rains pounded the Southeast Asian city overnight. More than 1,300 residents have been evacuated to temporary shelters, with parts of the capital under four to nine feet (1.2 to 2.7 metres) of
BEIJING: Dramatic footage released by Chinese state media purportedly shows deadly clashes between troops at the Indian border last year — a rare insight into violence at the tense, remote frontier. China’s defence ministry on Friday named four soldiers killed in the brawl, in the first confirmation of deaths by
Singapore: The former chief priest of Singapore’s oldest Hindu temple has been charged with repeatedly pawning gold religious ornaments for a total of $1.5 million, court officials said Wednesday. Kandasamy Senapathi would redeem the pawned ornaments when he had raised enough money and return them to the temple, according to
PARIS: The novel coronavirus has killed at least 2,419,730 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP at 1100 GMT on Wednesday. At least 109,464,770 cases of coronavirus have been registered. Of these, at least 67,145,900 are now
NEW DELHI: Pop icon Rihanna has been accused of mocking a Hindu god after she was pictured topless with a pendant of Ganesha around her neck, sparking a furore in India. Images of the lingerie photoshoot come just weeks after she upset the Indian government by commenting on huge farmers’