Author: News Desk

United States: The veteran guitarist Mr. Tom Verlaine, who rose to fame in the 1970s as the frontman of the rock band Television in New York, has died at the age of 73. Mr. Verlaine, who was born Thomas Miller in Denville, New Jersey, began his music life by studying piano at an early age but switched to the saxophone after hearing a record by Stan Getz. Later, he was inspired to take up the guitar after hearing the Rolling Stones’ 1966 hit “19th Nervous Breakdown.” Mr. Verlaine got his stage name from the French symbolist poet Mr. Paul Verlaine.…

Peru: Peru’s Congress rejected her proposal to move elections up to December 2023 In the midst of ongoing anti-President Ms. Dina Boluarte protests that have claimed dozens of lives. Since December 7 2023, when former president Mr. Pedro Castillo was detained for attempting to dissolve Congress and rule by decree, the South American nation has been mired in a political crisis with almost daily protests. Last month, lawmakers already decided to move the elections from April 2026 to April 2024. Ms. Boluarte requested Congress to reschedule the vote for December in the face of relentless protests, calling the current political…

Australia: Novak Djokovic will face Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final of the Australian Open at Melbourne Park on 29th January 2023. Djokovic has battled hamstring pain, heckling by onlookers, and a media frenzy over his father meeting with Russian flag-carrying fans at the tennis a year after being deported from Australia on the day of the Grand Slam for not having the COVID-19 vaccination. But Djokovic has handled all he could manage the best. Following his decisive semifinal victory over American Tommy Paul, the Serb extended his winning streak at the competition to a record-breaking 27 in the professional era,…

North Korea: The influential sister of North Korean leader Mr. Kim Jong Un has denounced the US plan to arm Ukraine with cutting-edge battle tanks to aid in the fight against Russian forces, accusing Washington of crossing a “red line” and waging a “proxy war” intended to topple Moscow. Ms. Kim Yo Jong remarked that North Korea’s growing allegiance to Russia during the conflict in Ukraine, as well as its confrontation with the US and its Asian allies over its own expanding nuclear weapons and missile program. “I express serious concern over the US escalating the war situation by providing…

China: The health authorities of China have reported that the COVID wave is past its peak, with a rapid decline in both severe cases and deaths in hospitals. According to China’s Center for Disease Control (CDC), the number of critically ill patients in hospitals peaked in the early week of January 2023, then rapidly declined by more than 70 percent. The number of deaths also reached its highest level that week. The CDC noted that the number of visits to fever clinics peaked at 2.867 million on December 23 before falling 96.2 percent to 110,000 on January 23. The report further…

Myanmar: A United Nations report has noted that production of opium has flourished in Myanmar since the military’s seizure of power, rising to a nine-year high. According to the report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, in 2022, in the first full growing season since the military wrested control from the democratically elected government of Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, Myanmar saw a 33 percent increase in the cultivation area to 40,100 hectares. “Economic, security, and governance disruptions that followed the military takeover of February 2021 have converged, and farmers in remote, often conflict-prone areas in…

United States: The US Department of State has announced that the country’s diplomat, Mr. Antony Blinken, will head to the Middle East amid almost daily fatal Israeli raids against Palestinians and growing tensions around holy sites in Jerusalem. Announcing Blinken’s visit, the department spokesman Mr. Ned Price noted that the diplomat will discuss the importance of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, among other issues, in meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mr. Mahmoud Abbas. The department stated that Mr. Blinken will discuss a “range of global and regional priorities,”  including the war…

Afghanistan: According to the chief of UN aid, the humanitarian sector was in touch with Taliban leaders to try and obtain more exemptions and formal instructions that would permit certain female help workers to work in Afghanistan despite a prohibition on women NGO staff. “I have been told by a number of Taliban leaders that the Taliban, as an administration, is working on guidelines which will provide more clarity about the role and possibility and hopefully the freedom of women to work in humanitarian work,” Mr. Martin Griffiths, the UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, told reporters. Griffiths recalled his approach…

Peru: A group of Peruvian lawmakers has submitted a motion seeking to impeach President Ms. Dina Boluarte for her handling of nearly two months of protests following the removal of her predecessor, Mr. Pedro Castillo. The move to impeach Ms. Boluarte comes in the midst of violent protests following the impeachment and arrest of former President, Mr. Castillo, in which dozens of people have been killed. According to the legislators, allies of Mr. Castillo, the motion was filed on the grounds of Boluarte’s alleged “permanent moral incapacity.” The motion is required to be approved by 52 votes before it can…

United Kingdom: A decade-long study has found that a combination of healthy lifestyle choices such as eating well, regularly exercising, playing cards, and socialising at least twice a week may help slow the rate of memory decline as well as reduce the risk of dementia. The new study published in the journal BMJ suggests that combining multiple healthy lifestyle choices is linked with slowing the speed of memory decline. “A combination of positive healthy behaviours is associated with a slower rate of memory decline in cognitively normal older adults,” researchers from the National Center for Neurological Disorders in Beijing, China,…