DOHA: World Cup 2022 host Qatar is to introduce a 100 percent tax on alcohol from January 1, a government official confirmed on Monday. The “sin” tax is being introduced just weeks after the conservative Muslim Gulf state announced in its annual budget statement that it would introduce a levy on “health-damaging goods”. The policy was revealed by the Qatar …

TAMPA: A NASA spacecraft set a new milestone Monday in cosmic exploration by entering orbit around an asteroid, Bennu, the smallest object ever to be circled by a human-made spaceship. The spacecraft, called OSIRIS-REx, is the first-ever US mission designed to visit an asteroid and return a sample of its dust back to Earth. The $800 million unmanned spaceship launched …

LONDON: British counter-terrorism police were investigating a multiple stabbing in which the suspect reportedly shouted “Allah” at a Manchester railway station on New Year´s Eve, officials said Tuesday. A man and a woman, both in their 50s, and a police officer were being treated for knife injuries following the stabbings on Monday evening at Manchester Victoria station in the northwestern …

LONDON: At least three people, including  a woman and a police officer were wounded in knife attack at a railway station in the British city of Manchester on Monday. All the injured were being treated for knife injuries, UK police  were reported to have said. “As long as you keep bombing other countries this sort of shit is going to keep …

TAMPA: A NASA spaceship is zooming toward the farthest, and quite possibly the oldest, cosmic body ever photographed by humankind — a tiny, distant world called Ultima Thule — in the hopes of learning more about how planets took shape. The US space agency will ring in the New Year with a live online broadcast to mark the historic flyby …

WASHINGTON: Defense Secretary Jim Mattis bade farewell to the Pentagon on Monday, telling the US military to “hold fast” after he quit over a series of fundamental differences with President Donald Trump. Mattis resigned December 20, after Trump stunned the US establishment by ordering a full troop withdrawal from Syria. “Our department is proven to be at its best when …

PARIS: Revellers welcomed 2019 with fireworks displays and festivities as a celebratory wave swept westward across the globe from Asia to Europe and the Americas at the conclusion of a tumultuous year. Monday´s celebrations kicked off with Sydney hosting its biggest-ever pyrotechnics display and lighting up its harbour-front skyline for a full 12 minutes. More than 1.5 million spectators gathered …

DHAKA: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday rejected opposition complaints of vote rigging and said people had gone to the polls enthusiastically in a largely peacefully general election that her ruling alliance swept with a landslide. Hasina won a third straight term in Sunday’s election, with alliance led by her Awami League winning 287 of the 298 seats for …

NEW DELHI: India’s finance ministry has exempted rupee payments made to the National Iranian Oil Co (NIOC) for crude oil imports from a steep withholding tax, according to a government order reviewed by Reuters. The exemption, put in place on Dec 28 but backdated to Nov 5, will allow Indian refiners to settle about $1.5 billion of outstanding payments to …

KARACHI: The China Power Hub Generation Company (CPHGC) has successfully synchronised one of its two 660MW coal-fired power plants with the national grid, the company announced on Monday. The synchronisation of the first unit was achieved ahead of schedule and was realised within the agreed technical parameters, said the company release. After the commencement of commercial operations at CPHGC, the …