World

ÉVRY, France: A French court on Monday (May 10) threw out a lawsuit brought by a French-Vietnamese woman against more than a dozen multinationals that produced and sold toxic herbicide Agent Orange, used by the US military during the Vietnam War. The court in the Paris suburb of Evry ruled that it did not have the jurisdiction to judge a case involving the wartime actions of the US government, according to the ruling seen by AFP. Tran To Nga, who was born in 1942 in what was then French Indochina, accused the chemicals firms of causing grievous harm to her and others by selling Agent Orange to the US government, which used the toxic chemical to devastating effect in the war. The 79-year-old complainant, who covered the 1955-1975 war as a reporter, also accused the companies of causi...

Israel is impregnable in that it cannot be defeated, but it’s insecure in that underlying threats will not go away, says a professor. BRFORD, England: Israel is the most powerful state in the Middle East. Its military forces may not match the likes of Egypt or Turkey in numbers, but the might of its training, equipment, technologies and nuclear weapons make it unassailable. Given its long-developed capabilities in public order control, such a position should also apply to its control of radical dissent within its own borders, as well as in the Palestinian occupied territories. Gaza may not be occupied in the conventional sense but it is a small territory with 2 million people living behind borders controlled by Israel. It lacks a port, its sole airport was destroyed many years ago...

NEW DELHI: A devastating surge in coronavirus infections has exposed India's dilapidated health infrastructure and a deep shortage of oxygen - a key treatment for seriously ill COVID-19 patients. AFP looks at the reasons behind the shortage: WHY IS MEDICAL OXYGEN VITAL? Oxygen therapy is crucial for severe COVID-19 patients with hypoxaemia - when oxygen levels in the blood are too low. "Some clinical studies show that up to a quarter of hospitalised (COVID-19) patients require oxygen therapy and upwards to two-thirds of those in intensive care units," community health specialist Rajib Dasgupta told AFP. "This is why it is imperative to fix oxygen supply systems in hospital settings as this is a disease that affects lungs primarily." Experts have long raised the alarm about sh...

Despite their increasingly bitter rivalry, the United States and China have recently been sending the right signals regarding potential cooperation on combating climate change. The joint statement issued after the mid-April meeting between John Kerry, U.S. special presidential envoy for climate, and his Chinese counterpart, Xie Zhenhua, indicates that the two governments may be trying to use collaboration on climate policy to prevent their relationship from devolving into outright enmity. But the path ahead is strewn with geopolitical landmines. It is not difficult to understand why the U.S. and China are behaving responsibly at the moment. Both countries view climate change as an existential threat and have a strong interest in cooperation. And Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping kno...

related media assets (image or videos) available. Click to see the gallery. 2 related media assets (image or videos) available. Click to see the gallery. Global stocks slipped and cryptocurrencies sank deeper on Wednesday as a threat of unwanted inflation had investors shy away from assets seen as vulnerable to any removal of monetary stimulus. LONDON: Global stocks slipped and cryptocurrencies sank deeper on Wednesday as a threat of unwanted inflation had investors shy away from assets seen as vulnerable to any removal of monetary stimulus. Digital coins were also under pressure from new Chinese restrictions on financial institutions providing services related to cryptocurrency transactions. But as the U.S. dollar edged away from its lowest levels of the year against its rivals, ...

YANGON: Myanmar's junta-controlled media announced a ban on satellite television receivers on Tuesday (May 4), saying outside broadcasts threatened national security and threatening to jail anyone caught violating the measure. With mobile Internet access largely cut off in a bid to quell anti-junta protests since the Feb 1 coup, Myanmar has increasingly appeared headed back to the state of isolation that preceded a decade of democratic reforms. "Satellite television is no longer legal. Whoever violates the television and video law, especially people using satellite dishes, shall be punished with one year imprisonment and a fine of 500,000 kyat (US$320)," MRTV state television said. "Illegal media outlets are broadcasting news that undermines national security, the rule of law and pu...

SEC Chairman Gary Gensler told CNBC on Friday the agency is looking into how commission-free retail brokerage apps encourage more stock trading and then make money off m the execution of those trades. "There is a little bit of a conflict of interest," Gensler said on "Squawk Box," one day after testifying about this issue before House Financial Services Committee. "An app that says they have zero commissions is earning revenue on your trading through something called 'payment for order flow.' Someone is paying them for that order flow and paying them for that data." Gensler said the issue comes down to the so-called gamification that apps use, such as "props, leaderboards, behavioral ways to get individuals to trade more," and how apps market their platforms. Asked what should be done t...

SINGAPORE: Discrimination against healthcare workers has increased since the COVID-19 outbreak, with many Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) staff members encountering problems when the hospital emerged as a cluster, said the Healthcare Services Employees' Union (HSEU). The hospital is an active COVID-19 cluster, with 46 cases linked to it as of Sunday (May 16). In response to queries from CNA, union president K Thanaletchimi said there have been “a handful of cases” involving members. “In fact, we were told many TTSH staff encountered similar problems when TTSH emerged as a COVID-19 cluster,” she added. The union is “constantly keeping in touch” with its TTSH branch office, and received “some anecdotal reports” from healthcare workers in the early days of the hospital cluster. For exa...

Just 266,000 nonfarm payroll jobs were added to the U.S. labor market in April, according to the Department of Labor monthly jobs report released Friday. That number is far below the estimated 1 million new jobs projected by Dow Jones, surprising economists and analysts who expected a healthy number of gains as more Americans get vaccinated and businesses reopen during the ongoing pandemic. By comparison, the labor market added 770,000 jobs in March and 536,000 jobs in February. "Today's report was an enormous surprise and shows the labor market hit a hidden pothole in April," Glassdoor senior economist Daniel Zhao tells CNBC Make It. "Clearly, the labor market has decelerated quite a bit." The 6.1% unemployment rate and 9.8 million people unemployed remained steady in April compared with ...

TOKYO: Japan's industrial output posted a surprise increase in March, as a jump in car production helped keep an economic recovery from last year's deep coronavirus slump on track. The output rise will likely ease worries about the impact the health crisis is having on the manufacturing sector in the world's third-largest economy, which is recovering thanks to strong overseas demand, especially from China. Separate data showed the jobless rate fell from the previous month in a sign of strength in employment conditions, while Tokyo consumer prices fell unexpectedly in April due to cuts in mobile phone fees by major carriers. Government data released on Friday (Apr 30) showed factory output grew 2.2 per cent from the previous month in March, lifted by a sharp jump in car production an...