International

LONDON: Tens of thousands of junior doctors in England will take strike action for three days from March 13 in a dispute over pay, the British Medical Association (BMA) said on Friday, adding to a series of walkouts by other staff in a strained health system. Junior doctors, who agreed in 2019 to an annual 2 per cent pay rise …

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s election commission indefinitely postponed local polls on Friday after the president — installed by parliament last year after his predecessor fled — refused to fund the vote. The March 9 polls would only have picked local councillors but would be the first electoral test for Ranil Wickremesinghe since he took office in July after months of protests …

BENGALURU: Ger­many and France insisted on Friday that any joint statement from the ongoing G20 finance ministers meeting must refer to the Ukraine “war”, following reports that host India wanted to avoid the word. Organising a raft of Group of 20 meetings during its presidency this year puts India in an awkward position, as it has refused to condemn the invasion of …

Canada’s renowned Rideau Canal Skateway, the world’s largest natural ice skating rink, will not open this season for the first time due to a lack of ice, its operator said on Friday, blaming the closure on climate change. The 7.8 km (4.9 mile) Rideau Canal Skateway, first opened over 50 years ago, is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site …

Turkiye has begun work to rebuild homes following this month’s devastating earthquakes, a government official said on Friday, as the combined death toll in Turkiye and Syria surpassed 50,000. More than 160,000 buildings containing 520,000 apartments collapsed or were severely damaged in the Feb 6 earthquakes that killed tens of thousands in Turkiye and neighbouring Syria. The Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) …

The main EU governing institutions on Thursday banned their staff from installing TikTok on devices used for work amid concerns over data protection, in a move that provoked an angry response from the company. TikTok, whose parent company ByteDance is Chinese, has faced increasing Western scrutiny in recent months over fears about how much access Beijing has to user data. …

ISLAMABAD: In spite of two major exposes against the wire service in 2019 and 2020, Asian News International — a major Indian ‘news’ agency — continues to peddle disinformation using “non-existent” sources and ghost “experts” to target regional rivals, particularly Pakistan and China. This was revealed by the EU DisinfoLab in its latest investigation report ‘Bad Sources (BS)’ into anti-Pakistan and China …

ORLANDO: A gunman opened fire on two television journalists reporting on a murder near Orlando, Florida on Wednesday, killing one and wounding the other before fatally shooting a 9-year-old girl and wounding her mother in a nearby home, authorities said. A suspect identified as Keith Melvin Moses, 19, was arrested shortly after the assaults on the TV news team and …

ANKARA: Turkish authorities have expanded a criminal probe into individuals responsible for buildings levelled by a deadly earthquake with 564 suspects identified, the interior minister has announced. A 7.8-magnitude tremor on Feb 6 and its aftershocks have killed more than 43,000 people in Turkiye and left millions without homes. “160 of them have been detained, 18 are in police custody and 175 …

WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden said on Thursday that Washington is nominating former Mastercard Chief Executive Ajay Banga to lead the World Bank, after its current chief David Malpass announced plans to step down early. The development lender has just started accepting candidate nominations in a process set to run until March 29, with the bank saying that women candidates …