Representational Image Tokyo: Four scam victims in Japan sued Facebook on Thursday after being hoodwinked by fraudulent online investment ads that used images of celebrities without their consent, their lawyer said. Online hoaxes posted on Facebook and other social media channels in Japan led to 27.8 billion yen ($178 million) in losses last year, according to the National Police Agency. The four filed the case with Kobe District Court demanding Facebook Japan, owned by US group Meta, pay 23 million yen ($148,000) in damages, according to their lawyer. The plaintiffs say they fell victim ..read more

Climate change plays a key role in the livelihoods of Afghans. (Representational) Kabul: The Taliban government has entered its first talks with the United Nations, donors and non-governmental organisations over the impact of climate change in Afghanistan, organisers said Wednesday. After four decades of war, Afghanistan ranks as one of the countries least prepared to face the effects of climate change, which is spurring extreme weather and warping natural environments. Foreign aid to Afghanistan has dwindled since the Taliban takeover in 2021, with donors wary of backing a government con ..read more

The study included 458,100 female patients and more than 318,800 male patients A new study says patients are less likely to die or be readmitted when treated by a female doctor. According to the study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, patients with female doctors have lower rates of mortality and remission than patients treated by male doctors. The study included over 776,000 participants including 458,100 female patients and more than 318,800 male patients who were hospitalised with medical conditions from 2016 to 2019. All were covered by Medicare.  The study ..read more

Joe Biden has long fought Trump on abortion (File) Florida: US President Joe Biden travels to Florida on Tuesday, hoping — and not without reason — his push for abortion rights will resonate in the conservative-leaning state. Won by Donald Trump in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, and led by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, the southeastern state has seemed out of reach for Democrats for nearly a decade. But since the Supreme Court under Trump’s presidency stripped the federal right to abortion, voters have rallied on the issue, even in solidly Republican states. Trump, meanwhil ..read more

Hezbollah has intensified its attacks on Israeli military installations in recent days. New Delhi: Hezbollah last night launched a barrage of Katyusha rockets at an Israeli army headquarters in northern Israel amid tensions between Israel and Iran. Hezbollah is an armed group based in Lebanon that is funded financially and militarily by Iran. Here are 10 points on this big story: A statement from Hezbollah confirmed the rocket attack on the headquarters of the 3rd Infantry Brigade of the 91st Division at Ein Zeitim Base, claiming to have launched “dozens” of Katyusha rockets.  T ..read more

British Airways, Ryanair and EasyJet are among the airlines that are hit. Thousands of flights in the UK have been hit by “extremely dangerous” jamming, suspected to have been carried out by Russia, according to a report in The Sun. The electronic attacks have impacted satellite navigation (satnav) leaving aircraft routes difficult to navigate. Pilots too struggle to tell the colleagues where in the air they are, the outlet further said. Sometimes the situation becomes so bizarre that planes had to swerve and dive to avoid “obstacles” that were really not there. The Sun said that till the ..read more

Ramses II is one of ancient Egypt’s most powerful pharaohs (File) Cairo: Egypt welcomed home a 3,400-year-old statue depicting the head of King Ramses II after it was stolen and smuggled out of the country more than three decades ago, the country’s antiquities ministry said on Sunday. The statue is now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo but not on display. The artefact will be restored, the ministry said in a statement. The statue was stolen from the Ramses II temple in the ancient city of Abydos in Southern Egypt more than three decades ago. The exact date is not known, but Shaaban Abdel Ga ..read more

Perugia, Italy: Women journalists face greater threats online in the course of their work, and the trend is increasing, one expert told an international conference in Italy this weekend. “There is significant potential for online violence to escalate to offline harm,” said Julie Posetti research director of the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ). “Women tend to face greater threats online,” she told delegates at the Perugia International Journalism Festival on Saturday. And, she added, “the kind of threats they face are increasing”. That toxic environment was being “facilitated by ..read more

Some hardline Republicans have voiced strong opposition to further Ukraine aid Washington: The US House of Representatives on Saturday with broad bipartisan support passed a $95 billion legislative package providing security assistance to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, over bitter objections from Republican hardliners. The legislation now proceeds to the Democratic-majority Senate, which passed a similar measure more than two months ago. US leaders from Democratic President Joe Biden to top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell had been urging embattled Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson to b ..read more

A third of China’s population is at risk due to land subsidence, satellite data shows (Representational) New Delhi: About a third of China’s urban population is estimated to be at risk due to land subsidence, shows a new finding which researchers said is indicative of a global phenomenon. China’s urban area below the sea level could triple by 2120, potentially affecting 55 to 128 million residents, it found. Using satellite data, the research team studied 82 cities, including Shanghai and Beijing, with a collective population of nearly 700 million people. The team, including researchers f ..read more