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LONDON: The world’s top oil-producing countries will meet tomorrow to discuss a further increase in output, while crude prices have reached seven-year highs rattled by geopolitical tensions.

Top oil producers to meet amid record crude prices

LONDON: The world’s top oil-producing countries will meet tomorrow to discuss a further increase in output, while crude prices have reached seven-year highs rattled by geopolitical tensions. Part of their regular meetings since the COVID-19 pandemic shook markets, the 13 members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and their 10 allies convene by videoconference to set output. Many analysts expect the grouping,...

MUMBAI: India’s economy bounced back last year after a drastic COVID lockdown that brought factories and consumer spending to a standstill. —AFP

India forecasts world-beating growth on COVID recovery

MUMBAI: India expects to lead the world in economic growth this year in a post-pandemic bounceback, government forecasts showed yesterday, but with expansion slowing despite widespread vaccine coverage and recovering exports. COVID pummeled Asia’s third-largest economy, which suffered its worst recession since independence in 1947 after a drastic lockdown brought factories and consumer spending to a standstill. Last year saw the economy bounce...

TILBURY,†UK: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson (left) speaks with Charles Hammond, Forth Ports chief executive officer, during a visit to Tilbury Docks in Tilbury yesterday. — AFP

UK vows ‘Brexit Freedoms Bill’ to scrap EU laws

LONDON: The UK government will introduce new legislation allowing it to change or scrap retained European Union laws, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced yesterday to mark two years since Brexit. The new “Brexit Freedoms Bill” will make it easier to amend or remove what he called “outdated” EU laws that London has kept on its statute books as a “bridging measure” after leaving the bloc.It will be part of what the British leader...

RAYONG, Thailand: A helicopter flies overhead as workers clean up crude oil on Mae Ram Phueng beach following a spill caused by a leak in an undersea pipeline owned by Star Petroleum Refining Public Company Limited (SPRC) in Rayong on Sunday. — AFP

Thailand’s fishing crews fear 5-year recovery after oil spill

RAYONG, Thailand: The nightly armada of bobbing green lights from squid boats has all but disappeared near the site of an oil spill in the Gulf of Thailand, as devastated local crews brace for lost income and damaged fish stocks. The Thai navy is scrambling to clean up Tuesday night’s spill from a pipeline that leaked at least 60 tons of crude oil 20 kilometers (12 miles) off the coast of Rayong province. Authorities have declared Mae Ram...

Rescued kites are kept in a cage at the ‘Wildlife Rescue’, a non-governmental organization (NGO) which works for the welfare of birds of prey in New Delhi.

Birds of a feather: India’s raptor-rescuing brothers

Nursed back from near death, a skittish vulture flaps its wings and returns to the grey skies above India’s capital after weeks of tender care from two devoted brothers. New Delhi is home to a magnificent array of predatory birds, but untold numbers are maimed each week by kite strings, cars and other grave encounters with human activity. A fortunate few are found and cared for by Nadeem Shehzad and Mohammad Saud, siblings who run a rescue...

Jimmy Wyllie (72), a member of the family who have always owned the business and who started working at the factory when he was 15 years old, poses for a photograph in the workshop at Kays Curling in Mauchline. — AFP

Game of stones: Scottish island sweeps up Olympic curling

In a factory outside Ayr in southwest Scotland, James Wyllie carefully lifts and caresses a curling stone, as well-used drilling and polishing machines grind in the background. The 40-pound (18 kilogram) stone is made from unique granite rock harvested on Ailsa Craig, about 16 kilometers (10 miles) over a wild stretch of sea to the west of the mainland. Wyllie, 72, is the retired owner of Kays Curling, which has been making curling stones since...

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Japanese publishers to sue US firm over manga piracy

Four major Japanese manga publishers said Monday they will sue a US company accused of hosting servers for a piracy site, in the latest offensive against illegal copies of their graphic novels. Piracy is a long-running problem for Japan’s internationally renowned manga industry, with publishers saying they lose millions in revenue as a result. The publishing giants will file the lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court this week, a spokesman for...

Stipe Pleic, also known by his Viking nickname of Ragnar Kavurson, holds an axe as he poses in the western-Bosnian town of Tomislavgrad. — AFP photos

Bosnian embraces ‘Viking’ lifestyle after binge-watching TV series

With his thick grey beard, plaited hair and an arsenal of medieval weapons, Bosnia’s “first Viking” relaxes by hurling axes in the attic of his stone cottage. Over the past five years, Stipe Pleic has undergone a steady transformation from builder to Nordic warrior in homage to the popular television show “Vikings”. The metamorphosis began after Pleic returned home to Tomislavgrad in southern Bosnia after years working on construction...

TORONTO: Supporters for a convoy of truckers driving from British Columbia to Ottawa in protest of a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for cross-border truckers, gather near a highway overpass outside of Toronto, Ontario. —AFP

Hundreds of truckers pour into Ottawa to protest vaccine rule

OTTAWA: Hundreds of trucks and thousands of people blocked the streets of central Ottawa on Saturday as part of a self-titled “Freedom Convoy” to protest vaccine mandates required to cross the US border. Flying the Canadian flag, waving banners demanding “Freedom” and chanting slogans against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the truckers were joined by thousands of other protesters angered not only by COVID-19 restrictions but by broader...

MIAMI, US: A plane flies over Miami residential towers in Miami, Florida. The increase in real estate prices in South Florida is one of the highest in the US. — AFP

Miami’s lure during COVID sends housing prices through the roof

MIAMI: Miami resident Maria Ruby learned last month that her rent will shoot up 65 percent in February. She cannot afford it and does not know where to go. Her plight illustrates an unexpected effect of the coronavirus pandemic: Miami is seeing some of the highest housing cost increases anywhere in the United States. Metropolitan Miami was already a lure even before COVID, with its warm weather, white sand beaches and absence of state-though not...

LAHORE, Pakistan: In this picture, employees of Taza Transforming Agriculture talk with customers at a call center in Lahore. — AFP

Start-ups bringing Pakistan’s farming sector into digital age

LAHORE: Agriculture entrepreneurs are bringing the digital age to Pakistan’s farmers, helping them plan crops better and distribute their produce when the time is right. Until recently, “the most modern machine we had was the tractor”, Aamer Hayat Bhandara, a farmer and local councillor behind one such project told AFP in “Chak 26”, a village in the agricultural heartland of Punjab province. Even making mobile phone calls can be...

NEW DELHI: In this picture taken on Saturday shows homeless people gathered besides a bonfire to keep themselves warm in a wintry evening in New Delhi. —AFP

New Delhi’s homeless shiver through harsh cold snap

NEW DELHI: India’s capital New Delhi is shivering through an unusually harsh bout of harsh winter cold, blamed for killing scores of homeless people and leaving other hard-up residents struggling to keep warm. The sprawling megacity’s 20 million inhabitants are accustomed to year-round weather extremes, from blistering summer heat to torrential downpours and thick, toxic smog at the end of autumn. Still, the bracing chill and blustery rains...

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Minister of Municipal Affairs Dr Noura Al-Mashaan and Head of the Municipal Council Abdullah Al-Mahari inspect the Darwazat Abdulrazzaq project. – KUNA photos

Darwaza Abdulrazzaq project set to reopen

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HATHRAS, India: Policemen carry a person who died in a melee during a sermon in Uttar Pradesh state on July 2, 2024. - AFP

Stampede at India religious event kills 116

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