International

International

This day in history

1921 - Canadians Sir Frederick Banting and Charles Best isolated insulin for the first time. It proved an effective treatment for diabetes.

4y ago

This day in history

1940 - The Battle of Britain began in WWII when at least 70 German bombers attacked docks in south Wales.

4y ago

Unvaccinated tourists will not be allowed into Canada for some time -PM Trudeau

Foreign tourists who are not vaccinated against COVID-19 will not be allowed to enter Canada for quite some time, with the government unwilling to jeopardize progress made on containing the virus, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Thursday.

4y ago

World’s tallest sandcastle built in Denmark

In the small seaside town of Blokhus in Denmark, the world’s tallest sandcastle has been completed, weighing nearly 5,000 tonnes and towering over 20 metres high, its designers said Wednesday.

4y ago

UK lawmakers demand action over China’s alleged Xinjiang abuses

A group of British lawmakers yesterday urged the government to take tougher action against China over its treatment of minority groups, including a partial Winter Olympics boycott and cotton trade ban.

4y ago

UK lawmakers clear PM of conduct breach over luxury holiday

A British parliamentary standards committee yesterday cleared Prime Minister Boris Johnson of breaching a lawmakers’ code of conduct over a luxury Caribbean holiday, but criticised his handling of the matter. 

4y ago

Chinese researchers propose deflecting 'Armageddon' asteroids with rockets

Chinese researchers want to send more than 20 of China's largest rockets to practice turning away a sizable asteroid - a technique that may eventually be crucial if a killer rock is on a collision course with Earth.

4y ago

Brazil's Bolsonaro says he may not accept 2022 election under current voting system

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro said on Wednesday he may not accept the result of a presidential election next year unless the voting system, which uses computers to record votes, is replaced with printed ballots that he favors.

4y ago

US urges Myanmar to release Suu Kyi

The United States yesterday urged military-run Myanmar to release democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners ahead of the junta's review of her detention this week.

Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, who was travelling in neighbouring Thailand, said the junta's detention of Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners was "very damaging" to Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.

18y ago

Pak troops strike al-Qaeda camp: 4 killed

Pakistani troops backed by helicopter gunships yesterday stormed a suspected al-Qaeda camp in a tribal area bordering Afghanistan, killing at least four foreign rebels, officials said....

18y ago

Democrats step back from Iraq timelines

Democratic congressional leaders were Monday close to dropping their troop withdrawal timelines from an Iraq war budget, in a move, which could ease a standoff with President George W. Bush....

18y ago

Exhibition highlights need to protect sea lanes

Asia Pacific naval forces kicked off the region's biggest sea defence exhibition in Singapore yesterday, highlighting the need to protect the world's key shipping lanes from extremist threats....

18y ago

Toll climbs to 29 in Indian bus fire

The death toll from a head-on smash between a passenger bus running on compressed natural gas and a chemical tanker rose to 29 yesterday, the Press Trust of India said.

Police told the news agency they had recovered 29 bodies and that another 14 people were injured in the accident, which occurred when the bus tried to overtake another vehicle on a highway in western Gujarat state Monday.

Six of the dead had been identified but most bodies were charred beyond recognition by the flames that engulfed the bus, police said.

Thirteen of the injured were being treated in local hospitals and three of them were in serious condition, the report said.

18y ago

Russia to build N-centre in sanctions-hit Myanmar

Russia said yesterday it had agreed to help build a light-water nuclear reactor and research centre in Myanmar, an Asian state run by a military junta that is under European and US economic sanctions.

"The agreement foresees cooperation in the design and equipping of a centre for nuclear research in Myanmar," including a light water nuclear reactor, Russia's atomic energy agency Rosatom said in a statement.

Rosatom head Sergei Kiriyenko and Myanmar's Science and Technology Minister U Thaung signed the deal for construction of the centre yesterday in Moscow, the statement said.

18y ago

Malaysia mulls action over absconding foreign maids

Malaysia is considering stern action against maid agencies that encourage foreign housemaids to abscond from the homes where they are supposed to work, a minister said yesterday....

18y ago

Sarkozy fine tunes govt as Chirac bids adieu

French president-elect Nicolas Sarkozy was putting the finishing touches to his broad-based government yesterday as Jacques Chirac prepared to bid farewell in a nationwide address....

18y ago