Author: admin@primenews

Iran has seized a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman. Armed men wearing masks reportedly boarded the vessel St Nikolas, close to the Omani port of Sohar, and ordered it to sail to an Iranian port. Iranian state media, quoting the navy, said the seizure was in retaliation for the ship and oil it had aboard being confiscated by the US last year. The St Nikolas was in transit between the Iraqi port of Basra and its intended destination in Turkey. UK Maritime Trade Operations said on Thursday it had received a report that four to five…

Ukraine’s parliament has refused to consider a conscription bill that proposes a crackdown on draft dodgers. MPs have criticised certain punishment measures included in the bill as unconstitutional. Some have also suggested reducing the length of military service proposed in the bill from 36 to 18 months. The bill was drafted in a bid to conscript more people, as Kyiv faces problems on the battlefield after nearly two years of war with Russia. It also included plans to lower the age at which men can be conscripted into the armed forces from 27 to 25. Last month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr…

A huge ancient city has been found in the Amazon, hidden for thousands of years by lush vegetation. The discovery changes what we know about the history of people living in the Amazon. The houses and plazas in the Upano area in eastern Ecuador were connected by an astounding network of roads and canals. The area lies in the shadow of a volcano that created rich local soils but also may have led to the destruction of the society. While we knew about cities in the highlands of South America, like Machu Picchu in Peru, it was believed that people…

Scientists at the University of Central Lancashire have discovered a gigantic, ring-shaped structure in space. It is 1.3bn light-years in diameter and appears to be roughly 15 times the size of the Moon in the night sky as seen from Earth. Named the Big Ring by the astronomers, it is made up of galaxies and galaxy clusters. They say that it is so big it challenges our understanding of the universe. It cannot be seen with the naked eye. It is really distant and identifying all the galaxies that make up the bigger structure has taken a lot of time…

Israel’s plan to “destroy” Gaza comes from “the highest level of state”, the UN’s top court has heard. The claims were made by South African lawyers as it presented its case accusing Israel of genocide at the International Court of Justice. South Africa also called on the court to order Israel to cease military operations in Gaza. Israel – which will present its defence on Friday – has vehemently rejected the accusations as “baseless”. The court will deliver only an opinion on the genocide allegation, although it is being closely watched. Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, a lawyer for the High Court of…

China has warned voters in Taiwan to make the “right choice”, two days before presidential elections on the self-ruled island which Beijing claims. A win for the ruling party candidate William Lai would pose a danger to relations, China said. It also criticised “brazen chattering” by the US after Washington warned Beijing not to stoke tensions ahead of Saturday’s vote. Who wins the poll could push the island further towards, or away from, Beijing. Taiwan is a key flashpoint in the tussle between China and the US for supremacy in Asia. China’s Taiwan Affairs office said Mr Lai would further…

Ziwei can still remember the months she spent huddling alone in a tiny shoebox apartment in Taipei. There was no window in the 10-sq-m studio, just a small vent near the ceiling. It perpetually stank of sewage, even after she stuffed her shower drain with plastic bags. And the walls were painted in just the oddest shade of orange. “With no windows, I felt so sad,” the 32-year-old recalled. “I would stay out really late every night, and I would come home only to sleep.” But it was all she could afford in 2019 after breaking up with her boyfriend…

In the run-up to the New Year, the southern city of Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore) – often called India’s Silicon Valley for being home to global information-technology (IT) majors – hit the headlines after protesters tore down English billboards, demanding that they be written in the city’s local language, Kannada. The Karnataka Rakshana Vedike’s (KRV) protest was to coerce the government to implement a law which mandates that 60% of each display sign in the city should have Kannada. KRV got some support from India’s main political parties which condemned the violence but said there was no harm in demanding Kannada…

Grammy award-winning South African DJ and record producer Black Coffee is receiving treatment for injuries sustained during a flight, reportedly because of air turbulence. He was en route to a club performance in the Argentinian resort city of Mar Del Plata when the incident happened. Local media are reporting that the DJ was admitted to hospital. Black Coffee’s management team called the incident “severe” adding that it had “left him with some injuries”. Mute, the club where the DJ was set to perform, said he “suffered severe blows to his body”, in a statement quoted by local media. Black Coffee’s…

Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema has urged people to relocate from towns to villages following the deaths of about 300 people in a cholera outbreak. Poor sanitation in some densely populated urban areas was a good breeding ground for cholera, he said. To decongest major towns, residents should relocate to rural areas where there was enough space and “perfect sanitation”, Mr Hichilema added. More than 7,500 cholera cases have been reported nationwide since last October. In the last 24 hours, there were more than 500 new cases and 17 deaths, the health ministry said. The reopening of schools has been delayed…