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Experts worry North Korea’s health system will be unable to cope with spread of COVID in an unvaccinated population.

Source: aljazeera.com

An Istanbul appeals court on Thursday confirmed three charges against Canan Kaftancıoğlu, the head of the Istanbul branch of the main opposition Republican People’s party (CHP), upholding her convictions for insulting a public official, publicly insulting the republic of Turkey, and insulting the president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in tweets accusing him of theft. She faces a ban on political activity and a prison sentence of four years, 11 months and 20 days.

Source: theguardian.com

Rafael Nadal crashed out of the Italian Open in the third round on Thursday after falling to a shock 1-6, 7-5, 6-2 defeat at the hands of Denis Shapovalov. Defeat in Rome for 'King of Clay' Nadal casts doubt over his prospects at the upcoming French Open, where he has been crowned champion 13 times but faces a threat from teenage phenomenon Carlos Alcaraz. The 35-year-old had been out for six weeks with a rib injury before returning for last week's tournament in Madrid, and he began limping in the third set.

Source: france24.com

Scientists on Thursday provided the first look at the "gentle giant" lurking at the center of our Milky Way galaxy - an image of a supermassive black hole that devours any matter within its huge gravitational pull but is currently on a bit of a diet. The black hole - called Sagittarius A*, or Sgr A* - is the second one ever to be imaged.

Source: france24.com

France's foreign ministry has confirmed two of its citizens are being detained in Iran and demanded their release. "The French government condemns these baseless arrests," a statement said. It did not identify the pair, but the head of a French education union said an employee and her husband had gone missing while on holiday in Iran. On Wednesday, the Iranian intelligence ministry said two Europeans had been arrested for planning to cause "chaos, social disorder and instability".

Source: bbc.com

Severe storms brought damaging winds, heavy rain and a few reports of tornadoes to Minnesota, where a storm-chasing meteorologist died in a crash that authorities said was caused by downed power lines. The wreck on Interstate 90 in southwest Minnesota Wednesday evening killed a woman, of Mexico City, Mexico, when a car in which she was riding attempted to avoid the power lines on the roadway and was struck by a semi. Three others in the vehicle, were injured.

Source: apnews.com

Novak Djokovic strolled into the Italian Open quarter-finals on Sunday with a routine 6-2, 6-2 win over Stan Wawrinka, while Iga Swiatek continued her bid for a fifth straight tournament victory by beating Victoria Azarenka.

Source: france24.com

North Korea fired three ballistic missiles toward the sea off its east coast on Thursday, South Korea said, in the latest such move by the isolated country racing to advance its weapons programmes on the day it first reported a COVID-19 outbreak. Japan's coastguard confirmed the launch of a ballistic missile by North Korea, citing its military. The projectile appeared to fall outside Japan's exclusive economic zone, public broadcaster NHK said. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said three short-range ballistic missiles were fired from the Sunan.

Source: reuters.com

Ukraine winger Andriy Yarmolenko is set to leave West Ham when his contract runs out at the end of June. The 32-year-old is one of West Ham's highest earners and manager David Moyes has made the decision to let him leave at the end of his deal. Yarmolenko was part of the big spending under former boss Manuel Pellegrini and cost £17.5m when he arrived from Borussia Dortmund in 2018. He has made 30 appearances for West Ham this season, scoring three goals.

Source: bbc.com

Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo has been named Player of the Month for April - making it two monthly awards this season. The 37-year-old has won player of the month for a sixth time, now the most of any United player in the competition, overtaking Wayne Rooney's five. Ronaldo was in impressive form throughout the month of April, scoring five times in just four matches for the Red Devils, even though it was a tough time for Ralf Rangnick's side who took just four points from five matches.

Source: dailymail.co.uk

A 48-year-old Nepali woman scaled Mount Everest for the 10th time on Thursday, breaking her own record for the most summits of the world’s highest mountain by a female climber, her hiking company said. Lhakpa Sherpa last climbed the 8,848.86-metre mountain in 2018. A fellow Nepali, Kami Rita Sherpa, holds the men's record of 26 climbs. A Nepali tourism official, Bhishma Kumar Bhattarai, confirmed that she had reached the summit.

Source: reuters.com

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi has set about major reforms in the country’s subsidies system amid continued efforts to give new momentum to stalled talks aimed at restoring the country’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. The president announced, during a televised late-night interview on Monday, that he is gradually transforming a subsidies system introduced by his predecessor to stabilise prices in the face of sanctions, but that mostly ended up breeding corruption.

Source: aljazeera.com

The United States has crossed the threshold of one million deaths from Covid-19, the White House said on Thursday, as cities like New York try to turn the page on the pandemic despite threats of another surge.

Source: france24.com

Apple has lost its position as the world's most valuable company amid a broad sell-off of technology stocks. Saudi Arabian oil and gas producer Aramco has reclaimed the top spot from the iPhone maker for the first time in almost two years. Investors have been selling shares in technology firms as they move into what they see as less risky assets. Bitcoin, other major cryptocurrencies and digital assets have also continued to fall sharply.

Source: bbc.com

China's Zhurong rover has found evidence suggesting that water persisted on Mars for much longer than expected. Zhurong landed in a large plain in Mars' northern hemisphere called Utopia Planitia on May 15, 2021 -- where NASA's Viking 2 lander touched down in 1976. The rover's primary mission, which lasted for three months, was to search for signs of ancient life. It has investigated the minerals, environment and distribution of water and ice in the plain, which is all part of the largest impact basin in the Martian northern lowlands.

Source: cnn.com

One of the Catholic Church's most senior members has been arrested in Hong Kong for breaking China's national security law, police have confirmed. Cardinal Joseph Zen, 90, is one of four people detained for being associated with a now-defunct organisation that helped protesters in financial need. The others are a Cantopop singer and actor Denise Ho, ex-legislator Margaret Ng, and academic Dr Hui Po Keung. They are accused of colluding with foreign forces.

Source: bbc.com

For years Greece has been accused of illegally pushing asylum-seekers back to Turkey, a practice it strenuously denies. But according to witnesses and rights groups, the summary deportations are also hitting vulnerable opponents of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Kurdish writer Meral Simsek, 42, is one of several people who told AFP they were sent back to Turkey to face imprisonment and possible torture after already making a perilous crossing of the border on the River Evros.

 

Christie’s says “The Rock,” an egg-sized white diamond billed as the largest of its kind to go up for auction, sold Wednesday for more than 21.6 million Swiss francs ($21.75 million), including fees — though at the low end of the expected range. The 228-carat pear-shaped G-Color stone, with its platinum pendant mounting, has a gross weight of 61.3 grams and dimensions of 5.4 centimeters by 3.1 centimeters (2.1 inches by 1.2 inches) — making it about the size of a medium hen’s egg.

Source: apnews.com