Turning trash into cash has been a big business in Bahrain for the Gulf state’s recycling companies. The country’s recycling industry has grown over the years, adding tens of millions of dollars to the economy. But a slump in oil prices has hit the business, as commodities have become cheaper, reducing the demand for recycled metal, plastic, paper and glass. It’s become cheaper for companies to buy new raw materials rather than invest in recyclable […]
International
Chinese president meets with Walt Disney CEO
Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Thursday China-US relations have maintained a momentum of sound development on the whole and there are broad prospects for cooperation as the interests shared by both sides more deeply interwoven. Xi made the remarks in Beijing when meeting with Walt Disney Company Chairman and CEO Robert Iger, who is also the vice chairman of the US-China Business Council. Xi recalled his meeting with US President Barack Obama during the […]
“March of the Living” from Auschwitz to Birkenau commemorates Holocaust victims
Thousands of people from all over the world took part in a Holocaust memorial march on Thursday (May 5), walking down a 3-kilometre path linking the former Nazi concentration camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau. The sound of the shofar, a ram’s horn used in Jewish religious ceremonies, signalled the beginning of the march to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day. The “March of the Living” is both a silent tribute to the victims of the Holocaust and the name […]
Russian orchestra, Putin’s friends, play Syria’s Palmyra amphitheatre
Russia’s Mariinsky Theatre staged a surprise concert in the amphitheatre of the Syrian city of Palmyra on Thursday (May 5), in what looked like an attempt by the Kremlin to win hearts and minds and remind the world of its role in the city’s recapture. The concert, held just over a month after Russian air strikes helped push Islamic State militants out of Palmyra, saw Valery Gergiev, a close associate of President Vladimir Putin, conduct […]
Mario Vargas Llosa says Argentina back from the brink under President Macri
Controversial Peruvian Nobel Laureate Mario Vargas Llosa told media in Buenos Aires on Thursday (May 5) that Argentina was on the verge of becoming Latin America’s second Venezuela until it voted in conservative President Mauricio Macri, bringing an end to more than a decade of free-spending leftist populism with a promise to open up the ailing economy to investors. The upset ended 12 years of Peronist-run governments under former leader Cristina Fernandez and her late […]
Beijing ‘tightens screws’ on Taiwan’s new president
by Amber WANG TAIPEI , Taiwan (AFP) — When Tsai Ing-wen becomes Taiwan’s president later this month, she will end a period of unprecedented rapprochement with rival Beijing and China is already ramping up the pressure on her new government. Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is traditionally pro-independence and refuses to chime in with Beijing’s message that self-ruling Taiwan is part of “one China”. Tsai won the presidency by a landslide in January as voters […]
One dead, one wounded in Maryland high school shooting -police
BELTSVILLE, Maryland (Reuters) — One adult was fatally shot and a second person was wounded on Thursday (May 5), in a shooting on the grounds of a high school in Maryland that “appears to be a domestic-related” incident, police said. The Prince George’s County Police Department said it received reports of gunfire at High Point High School in the community of Beltsville, Maryland, about 15 miles northeast of Washington. “One adult fatally shot, second wounded […]
US man found guilty in ‘Grim Sleeper’ killings
LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — A jury in Los Angeles convicted an ex-garbage collector and police garage attendant on Thursday of murdering nine women and a teenage girl over a period of two decades. Jury members reached the verdict against Lonnie Franklin Jr. in the so-called “Grim Sleeper” killings after less than two days of deliberations, ending a macabre case that exposed the city’s seedy underbelly. Franklin, 63, who faces a possible death sentence, […]
Canada says forest fire evacuees face long wait before returning home
MONTREAL, Cnada (AFP) — Tens of thousands of people evacuated from the Canadian city of Ft. McMurray because of raging forest fires face a long wait to return home, an official said Thursday. The damage from the blazes is major and there is no way to predict when evacuees can go home, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said. “Unfortunately, we do know that it will not be a matter of days,” she told a news conference. […]
US House Speaker deals major blow to Trump unity efforts
by Michael Mathes WASHINGTON , United States (AFP) — US Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, the nation’s top Republican, said Thursday he was not ready to support Donald Trump as the party’s presumptive presidential nominee in the November election. “To be perfectly candid… I’m just not ready to do that at this point,” Ryan told CNN. “I am not there right now,” Ryan went on. “I hope to though, and I want to. But […]
Fort McMurray evacuees eager to return home gather on edge of fire zone
by Michel COMTE WANDERING RIVER , Canada (AFP) — A handful of abandoned cars wrapped in yellow police ribbons still lined the ditches along the main roadway to Fort McMurray Thursday, days after a massive exodus from the wildfire-stricken Canadian city. The bumper-to-bumper traffic that had clogged the roadway in recent days has dissipated. Only a few government and emergency vehicles still speed up and down Highway 63, which has been closed to non-essential traffic […]
N. Korea to launch top party gathering amid nuke test fears
PYONGYANG , North Korea (AFP) — North Korea will Friday launch its highest-level ruling party meeting in almost 40 years, with delegates set to heap praise on its nuclear arsenal as a “precious sword” amid fears of a fresh atomic test. Leader Kim Jong-Un, who was not even born when the last Workers’ Party congress was held in 1980, is expected to deliver a keynote address which will be minutely scrutinised for any policy shift […]
