Three people have died in the United Arab Emirates as a result of heavy flooding caused by record-setting rains this week, officials said Friday. A statement by the Philippine's Department of Migrant Workers said two women suffocated inside their vehicle during the flooding, while a man died when his vehicle fell into a sinkhole. The exact number of deaths caused by the storm is not yet known as UAE officials have not released any information. The UAE, a hereditarily ruled, autocratic nation on the Arabian Peninsula, typically sees little rainfall in its arid desert climate. However, a massive storm forecasters had been warning about for days blew through the country's seven sheikhdoms. By the end of Tuesday, more than 142 millimeters (5.59 inches) of rainfall had soaked Dubai over 24 hours. An average year sees 94.7 millimeters (3.73 inches) of rain at Dubai International Airport. Other areas of the country saw even more precipitation. Dubai International Airport, the world's busiest for international travel, hoped to be back on a normal schedule within 24 hours, its CEO told The Associated Press late Thursday. On Friday, long-haul carrier Emirates said on the social platform X that it would again halt local check-in for passengers traveling on its flights until early Saturday to 'support operations recovery from the recent bad weather at our Dubai hub.' Low-cost carrier FlyDubai also saw some disruptions. Meanwhile, intense floods also struck neighboring Oman in recent days. On Thursday, authorities raised the death toll from those storms to at least 21 killed. This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever
19 April,2024 07:56 PM IST | Dubai | APThe Indian embassy in the UAE on Friday advised the inbound Indian passengers travelling to or transiting through Dubai International Airport to reschedule non-essential travel till operations normalise after the city witnessed unprecedented rains this week. The United Arab Emirates is trying to recover from the record-setting rains this week which has caused massive flooding in Dubai and surrounding areas. The embassy in the advisory said while the UAE authorities were working round the clock to ensure normalisation of operations, the airport authorities have advised that passengers may travel to the airport "only after" final confirmation from the respective airlines regarding the departure date and time of flights. Due to disruption caused by unprecedented weather conditions in the UAE earlier this week, Dubai International Airport has temporarily limited the number of inbound flights, the advisory said. Dubai International Airport, the world's busiest for international travel, hoped to be back on a normal schedule within 24 hours. "Inbound Indian passengers travelling to or transiting through Dubai International Airport are advised to reschedule non-essential travel till operations normalise," the statement said. "To assist Indian nationals at the Dubai International Airport, the Consulate General of India in Dubai has operationalised emergency helpline numbers which have been functional since April 17," the statement said. This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever
19 April,2024 04:32 PM IST | Abu Dhabi | PTIObserving that China has benefit of a particular set of policies over the last decades for its export-oriented growth, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva has said that the time has come for Beijing to look at domestic sources for growth, opening up more opportunities for the market. China's economy grew at 5.3 per cent in the first quarter, making a stronger-than-expected start to the year even as the downturn of its property market continued while the domestic demand remained subdued. The GDP grew 5.3 per cent year on year to 29.63 trillion yuan (about USD 4.17 trillion) in the first three months of 2024, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed on Tuesday. "China is the fork in the road. Why? Because China has to define growth strategies for the future. China has the benefit of a particular set of policies over the last decades, export-oriented growth, but the time has come to look at domestic sources for growth, opening up more opportunities for the market to lift up these prospects," Georgieva said. The IMF sees three important opportunities for China, she said. Number one, to shift the economy more towards domestic consumption. It is actually in line with what China is aspiring to, the dual circulation economy. It would take giving consumers more confidence and offering them more services, and more things to buy. "We know that the healthcare services in China can expand quite significantly. We know that getting the social safety nets to work more effectively would give people an opportunity to save a bit less, to spend a bit more," she said. "Secondly, we see the reforms in China that have served the country well continuing to be needed, reforms of state-owned enterprises opening up for a more competitive environment. In the years ahead, that can help China grow more," Georgieva said. Last but not least, there are some problems right now, and how they are solved will have implications for China's growth, she observed. "The most obvious example is the property sector. People in China rely on their homeownership as a way of saving. When prices there"as savings go down, when prices of real estate go down, that affects consumer confidence. So clearing up the problems in the sector more resolutely would certainly help China," she said. "We see China making some important decisions around greening their growth pattern. Again, the more China does for lifting up domestic consumption, the better," the IMF Managing Director said. At a separate news conference, Krishna Srinivasan, Director of IMF Asia and Pacific Department, told reporters that on the macroeconomic aspects, China's economy is experiencing weak domestic demand. This emanates from two factors: the continued weakness in the real estate sector and the legacies of the pandemic. So in that context, the IMF has advocated for two things. One is policies that would help address the problem in the property sector and other than that, trying to boost consumption demand by improving social safety nets in the case of China and again, improving the pension system in a fiscally prudent way and investing in people, education, and health. "So that's as far as once on the domestic demand side if you pursue these policies, you will see domestic demand rising and deflation risks coming down," he said. China provides wide-ranging support to priority sectors. This includes preferential access to credit research funds and incentives for certain firms, particularly in the areas of strategic manufacturing and science and technology. "In terms of what China can do, on the first issue of misallocation of resources, we have talked about the fact that it is important to address SOE reform quite urgently, scaling back of industrial policies, which provide implicit or explicit guarantees for SOEs. So in other words, try to make it have to ensure competitive neutrality between SOEs and the private sector so that there's no misallocation of resources doesn't happen," Srinivasan said. "That's one thing. And again, we also said that SOE reforms, some SOEs are clearly unprofitable. And the more support you provide, you keep them in business for longer than they should be. So that's something which we've called for in terms of SOE reforms. And so those are the policies which we're advocating for China both to address, to address the issue of what you talked about as overproduction," he added. This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever
19 April,2024 08:51 AM IST | Washington | PTIA jury of 12 people has been seated in former President Donald Trump's hush money trial in New York. Alternates are now being selected. The rapid progress Thursday afternoon propelled the case closer to opening statements and weeks of testimony in a case charging the Republican ex-president with falsifying business records to suppress stories about his sex life in the final days of the 2016 election. The jury includes a sales professional, a software engineer, an English teacher and multiple lawyers. The case centers on $130,000 Trump's lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen paid to porn actor Stormy Daniels. Trump faces 34 felony counts. He denies any wrongdoing. This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever
19 April,2024 08:43 AM IST | New York | APDonald Trump lost a bid Thursday to pause a string of lawsuits accusing him of inciting the U.S. Capitol attack, while the former president fights his 2020 election interference criminal case in Washington. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington denied defense lawyers' request to put the civil cases seeking to hold Trump responsible for the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on hold while the criminal case accusing him of conspiring to overturn his election defeat to President Joe Biden plays out. It's the latest legal setback for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, whose trial in a separate criminal case related to hush money payments made during the 2016 campaign began this week with jury selection in New York. The lawsuits brought by Democratic lawmakers and police officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6 seek civil damages for harm they say they suffered during the attack, which aimed to stop Congress' certification of Biden's victory. Trump has claimed he can't be sued over the riot that left dozens of police officers injured, arguing that his words during a rally before the storming of the Capitol addressed 'matters of public concern' and fell within the scope of absolute presidential immunity. Washington's federal appeals court ruled in December that the lawsuits can move forward, rejecting Trump's sweeping claims that presidential immunity shields him from liability. The court, however, said Trump can continue to fight, as the cases proceed, to try to prove that his actions were taken in his official capacity as president. In court papers filed last month, Trump's lawyers told the judge that 'basic fairness to criminal defendants' warrants pausing the civil cases until after the 2020 election criminal case is resolved. They argued that allowing the lawsuits to proceed could force Trump to 'prematurely telegraph" his defense strategies in the criminal case. Mehta, who was appointed to the bench by former President Barack Obama, said the public has an interest in the prompt resolution of the civil lawsuits in addition to the criminal case. And the judge said 'appropriate safeguards' can be put in place to allow for the lawsuits to advance without infringing on Trump's Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination. The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments next week on Trump's claim that he is immune from criminal prosecution in the election interference case brought by special counsel Jack Smith. The ruling will determine whether Trump will have to stand trial in the case accusing him of a sprawling conspiracy to stay in power after Americans voted him out of office. This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever
19 April,2024 08:40 AM IST | Washington | APThe Israel's Ministry of Defence transferred 29 million shekels (USD 7.6 million) in Hamas funds seized by soldiers in the Gaza Strip to the Bank of Israel on Thursday. The money, in shekels, dollars and other Arab currencies, was found in Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad strongholds, or confiscated from the homes of their operatives or affiliated money changers. During the fighting, the loot removal unit of the technology and logistics department located and confiscated the funds from the Gaza Strip. The money was then transferred to the Ministry of Defense's finance division for counting at the Tzrifin army base near Rishon LeZion. After five hours of counting, an armored truck delivered the cash to the Bank of Israel and deposited it in the state's coffers. The deposit brings to roughly 46 million shekels (12.3 million) in confiscated funds transferred to the state. Additional funds are still in the process of being counted and will be deposited later. At least 1,200 people were killed and 240 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas's attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the remaining 134 hostages, Israel recently declared 31 of them dead. This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever
19 April,2024 08:35 AM IST | Tel Aviv | ANIIran's Foreign Minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, warned Israel against taking any military actions targeting Iranian interests. He stated Iran has concluded its "defense and counteroffensive measures" and urged the international community to stop Israel from carrying out any military operations against Iran. During discussions on the Middle East situation at the UNSC, Amir-Abdollahian said, "Iran's legitimate defense and countermeasures have been concluded. Therefore, the Israeli regime must be compelled to stop any further military adventurism against our centres, assets and interests. Certainly, in case of any illegal use of force by the Israeli regime and violating our sovereignty, the Islamic Republic of Iran will not hesitate a bit to assert its inherent right to give a decisive and proper response to it to make the regime regret its actions." He accused Israel of carrying out a missile attack on Iranian diplomatic premises in Damascus on April 1. He said that Israel's action was a "clear violation of the Charter of the United Nations international law and the Vienna Convention." He said, "The missile attack on the 1st of April on the Iranian diplomatic premises in Damascus showed yet again that this regime does not hesitate to violate the fundamental principle of the immunity of such places and people as well as the known and well recognised Vienna Conventions. As the majority of the members of the Security Council declared at the April 2 meeting here, the attack was a clear violation of the Charter of the United Nations international law and the Vienna Convention, and thus is strongly condemned." He criticised the US, UK, and France for not issuing a statement over the attack on the Iranian diplomatic premises in Damascus. He even expressed regret that the UNSC did not take action on Iran's repeated requests to prevent further attacks by Israel on Iran's interests. He accused the White House of giving a green signal to Israel's action. He said, "Regrettably, the Security Council, had not taken any action during the past months to our official and repeated requests to prevent further attacks by the Israeli regime on Iran's interests, centres and official military advisors who were there to fight terrorism and due to the unfortunate and completely irresponsible behaviour of the United States, the UK and France, in response to this illegal attack, failed even to issue a mere statement containing a simple condemnation." "No will remain silent in the face of such a brazen and serious military attack on its Embassy, which is considered a symbol of its sovereignty, as well as the killing of its legal, official and diplomatic agents. The Islamic Republic of Iran, which until recently had shown considerable restraint against other terrorist missile attacks bearing in mind the dire situation in the region and willing to give the role of the United Nations a chance to prevent the escalation of the conflict, was faced with the continuation of the White House's green light granted to the Israeli regime as well as the continued inaction of the Security Council in preventing the attacks by the Israeli regime," he added. Justifying Iran's attack on Israel, he said, "Iran's military attack on April 13th, was first and foremost, necessary because Iran had no other option. Secondly, it was carried out in response to a series of attacks and recurring aggressions by the Israeli regime on Iran's interests, especially on our Embassy in Syria." "Thirdly, it took place in the fulfilment of Iran's right to legitimate defence under international law. Fourthly, it was conducted by observing the criterion of non-aggression to civilian people and places. And fifthly, it focused solely on the two military bases of the Israeli regime that had been used in the attack on our Embassy, and therefore it was completely limited and proportionate in terms of scope and military requirements," he added. On Saturday, Iran launched several drones and missiles towards Israel in retaliation for an alleged Israeli air strike on its consulate in Syria, resulting in the killing of three top Iranian generals. On Sunday morning, Israel Defence Forces (IDF) spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said that about 99 per cent of the 300 or so projectiles fired by Iran at Israel overnight were intercepted by air defences, as reported by The Times of Israel. "The Iranian threat met the aerial and technological superiority of the IDF, combined with a strong fighting coalition, which together intercepted the vast majority of the threats," Hagari said. On April 17, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed at a cabinet meeting that Israel will make its own decisions and do whatever is necessary to protect itself, even if it contradicts the advice given by its allies, as reported by The Times of Israel. Netanyahu made the statement at the cabinet meeting on Wednesday after meeting with the foreign ministers of the UK and Germany. UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock arrived in Israel on Wednesday. In his remarks at the cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said that the two leaders had "all kinds of suggestions and advice." He noted that while it was appreciated, Israel would nevertheless "make our own decisions, and Israel will do everything necessary to defend itself." This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever
19 April,2024 08:33 AM IST | New York | ANIIndonesian authorities closed an airport and residents left homes near an erupting volcano Thursday due to the dangers of spreading ash, falling rocks, hot volcanic clouds and the possibility of a tsunami. Mount Ruang on the northern side of Sulawesi Island had at least five large eruptions Wednesday, causing the Center for Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation to issue its highest-level alert, indicating an active eruption. The crater emitted white-gray smoke continuously during the day Thursday, reaching more than 500 metres above the peak. Eruptions Wednesday evening spewed volcanic ash approximately 70,000 feet into the atmosphere, according to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology’s Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre. People have been ordered to stay at least 6 km from the 2,378 foot mountain. More than 11,000 people live in the affected area and were told to leave. At least 800 have done so. This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever
19 April,2024 07:53 AM IST | Manado | AgenciesOne of the most prominent figures in the far-right Alternative for Germany party went on trial Thursday on charges of using a Nazi slogan, months before a regional election in which he is running to become his state’s governor. Bjorn Hocke, 52, is the leader of the regional branch of Alternative for Germany, or AfD, in the eastern state of Thuringia and a powerful figure on the party’s hard right. At the trial at the state court in Halle, he is charged with using symbols of unconstitutional organizations. He is accused of ending a speech in nearby Merseburg in May 2021 with the words “Everything for Germany!” Prosecutors contend he was aware of the origin of the phrase as a slogan of the Nazis’ SA stormtroopers. Using symbols of unconstitutional organizations can carry a fine or a prison sentence of up to three years. This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever
19 April,2024 07:50 AM IST | Halle | AgenciesThe European Union’s top diplomat urged Group of Seven (G7) foreign ministers on Thursday to take quick, concrete steps to provide more air defence systems to Ukraine, warning that continued delays could tilt the war in Moscow’s favor. Without more Patriot air defense missile systems to guard against incoming Russian strikes, “the electricity system of Ukraine will be destroyed. And no country can fight without having electricity at home, in the factories, in the front line,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned on the sidelines of a G7 foreign ministers meeting on the Italian resort island of Capri. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he hoped US funding for Ukraine would come soon. This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever
19 April,2024 07:48 AM IST | Capri | AgenciesA strong earthquake that struck southwestern Japan left nine people with minor injuries and caused damage such as burst water pipes and small landslides, authorities said Thursday. But there was no danger of a tsunami. The magnitude 6.6 temblor late Wednesday was centered just off the western coast of the southwestern main island of Shikoku, in an area called the Bungo Channel, a strait separating Shikoku and the southern main island of Kyushu. The quake occurred about 50 km below the sea’s surface and posed no danger of a tsunami, Japanese officials said. This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever
19 April,2024 07:45 AM IST | Tokyo | AgenciesADVERTISEMENT
