Month: November 2019

Tokyo 2020 unveils 15,000-seat Olympic aquatics centre

Tokyo 2020 organisers on Thursday unveiled the $523 million venue for swimming, diving and artistic swimming that will seat 15,000 fans for the Olympic and Paralympic Games next year. Construction is 90 percent complete at the four-storey Aquatics Centre and is due to be finished on schedule by […]

India offers ailing telecom firms two-year moratorium on payments

India has granted the country’s beleaguered telecom giants a moratorium on spectrum payments until the end of March 2022, offering much-needed respite after the Supreme Court slapped a massive $13-billion bill on the companies. Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel bore the brunt of last month’s court ruling ordering […]

Pope meets Thai Buddhist patriarch on visit promoting harmony

Pope Francis met with Thailand’s supreme Buddhist patriarch on Thursday in a gilded Bangkok temple on the first full day of his Asia tour aimed at promoting religious harmony. This is the pontiff’s first visit to Buddhist-majority Thailand — where just over 0.5 percent of the population are […]

Southern Africa’s deadly drought leaving millions hungry

VOSBURG, South Africa — Residents call this drought-stricken community a “forgotten town.” The flat, dusty roads to Vosburg are surrounded by withered fields. The streams feeding the community of a few thousand people have gone dry. Signs warn drivers of wandering cattle and sheep but there are none […]

Fear, turmoil in Lebanon as its financial crisis worsens

BEIRUT — On one of Beirut’s main commercial streets, store owners are cutting salaries by half or considering shutting down. Shops advertise sales, but still can’t draw in customers. The only place doing a thriving business: the store that sells safes, as Lebanese increasingly stash their cash at […]

Hong Kong campus drama persists as city gears for elections

HONG KONG — A small but determined group of protesters remained holed up Thursday inside a Hong Kong university campus as the city’s largest pro-Beijing political party urged voters to “kick out the black force” in upcoming elections seen as a key gauge of public support for anti-government […]

Key witnesses will cap intense week in impeachment inquiry

WASHINGTON — House impeachment investigators will hear from two key witnesses Thursday who grew alarmed by how President Donald Trump and others in his orbit were conducting foreign policy in Ukraine, capping an intense week in the historic inquiry. David Holmes, a political counselor at the U.S. Embassy […]

Urgent Cong meeting under way at Sonia Gandhi’s residence

New Delhi, Nov 21: An urgent meeting of the Congress Working Committee is being held at party chief Sonia Gandhi’s 10 Janpath residence in Delhi. Congress general secretary organisation KC Venugopal said the meeting was called at 9:15am. The Maharashtra political situation along with other important developments are expected […]

NCPA to celebrate 50 years with multi-genre festival

Mumbai, Nov 21: The National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) will celebrate its 50th year with multi-genre performances across genres like theatre, dance, music, stand-up acts and much more at the ‘NCPA Add Art Festival’. The festival, starting from November 29, will celebrate the five decades of NCPA […]

Kamal Haasan to undergo surgical procedure

Chennai, Nov 21: Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) founder Kamal Haasan will undergo a surgical procedure here on Friday for the removal of an implant placed in his leg after he suffered a fracture in 2016, his party said on Thursday. Due to his busy schedule in politics and […]

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