MEXICO CITY: FIFA has released about 40% of the hotel rooms it had blocked in Mexico City for the FIFA World Cup 2026, the city’s hotel industry group said, returning roughly 800 rooms to general availability over the past month about three months before the tournament opens in…
BRATISLAVA: UAE Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan met Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico in Bratislava on Sunday, March 8, 2026, during a working visit to the Slovak capital. The meeting took place in the presence of Slovakia’s Minister of Foreign…
MUMBAI: India’s foreign exchange reserves rose to a record $728.494 billion in the week ended Feb. 27, according to data released by the Reserve Bank of India on Friday. The stockpile increased $4.885 billion from $723.608 billion a week earlier, reversing the prior week’s decline. India’s forex reserves comprise foreign currency assets, gold, Special Drawing Rights and the…
BEIJING: China’s top economic and financial officials pledged expanded support for technology firms, a push toward more balanced trade and deeper capital market reforms during a news conference on the sidelines of the annual National People’s Congress. The briefing brought together leaders from the economic planning agency, the commerce ministry, the central bank and the securities regulator, as…
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia has placed a temporary ban on imports of poultry meat and table eggs from Indonesia under updated health controls published by the Saudi Food and Drug Authority, tightening access for Indonesian products to one of the region’s largest food markets. The restriction is set out in SFDA Policy No. 6057 and took effect on March…
NEW DELHI: India and Canada issued a joint leaders’ statement on Monday after talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney during Carney’s official visit to India from Feb. 27 to March 2. The statement said the two countries agreed to rebuild momentum across trade, energy, technology and security cooperation, describing a…
ABU DHABI: Exus Renewables has signed an agreement with Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company PJSC, known as Masdar, to acquire a 60% stake in Masdar’s Portuguese wind portfolio, the companies said. The transaction covers nine onshore wind farms in northern and central Portugal. Masdar will retain a 40% stake in the assets, according to the announcement. Financial…
SEOUL: South Korea’s central bank kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 2.50% on Thursday, maintaining the Base Rate as policymakers balanced a steady inflation backdrop with improving economic momentum and ongoing financial stability concerns. The Bank of Korea’s Monetary Policy Board said it would hold the current level while assessing developments in domestic and external policy environments,…
Health
LYON: Nearly four in 10 cancer cases worldwide could be prevented by reducing exposure to known, modifiable risk factors, according to a new analysis from the World Health Organization and its cancer research agency released for World Cancer Day. The assessment estimated that 37% of new cancer diagnoses in 2022, about 7.1 million of 18.7 million cases, were linked to risks that can be reduced through public health measures…
MENA Newswire, WASHINGTON: U.S. regulators have classified a recall affecting more than 80,000 single serve coffee pods made for Keurig brewers after a labeling error raised concerns for consumers who avoid caffeine. The action covers McCafé Premium Roast Decaf Coffee K-Cup pods distributed by Keurig Dr Pepper, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s recall listing. The FDA categorized the action as a Class II recall on Jan. 23, 2026.…
MENA Newswire, BOSTON: Scientists at Tufts University say they have developed a more efficient way to make tagatose, a naturally occurring “rare sugar” that tastes close to table sugar while delivering fewer calories and a much smaller rise in blood glucose and insulin in published clinical studies. The team reported that engineering bacteria to convert widely available glucose into tagatose could address a longstanding obstacle that has kept the…
MENA Newswire, CHICAGO: A 25-year research effort at Northwestern University has detailed a consistent pattern among a small group of adults in their 80s and beyond who retain memory performance more typical of people decades younger. The team studies “SuperAgers,” defined as individuals age 80 or older who meet stringent standards on episodic memory testing, including scoring at least 9 out of 15 on a delayed word recall measure,…