Author: Gulf News Week
Hindustan Times via Getty ImagesSonam Wangchuk, 59, has been on a hunger strike for more than two weeks”I’m weak from the outside, but I’m strong from inside.” That’s what a frail-looking Sonam Wangchuk, who has been on a protest hunger strike in the Indian capital, Delhi, for the past 16 days, told the BBC on Monday.According to the latest health bulletin released on Monday morning, Wangchuk “has lost 8.2kg [18lb], his blood pressure is 107 by 70 and his sugar levels are down to 67”. His worsening health parameters are causing serious alarm among his supporters, with thousands appealing to…
People flee Bangkok bar as huge flames shoot out from doorwayThai indie band Thotsakan was performing at a packed bar in Bangkok on Sunday when band manager Ice Athipat Wijarn, seated off stage, saw smoke emerging from behind the keyboardist.The keyboardist, Kwang, shouted for people to flee – and within seconds a fierce blaze tore through Rong Beer Na Lat Phrao, in the city’s vibrant Chatuchak district.Ice recalls fumbling with the door in the smoke-engulfed room as he tried to escape. “Everybody was running, squeezing into each other,” he told Thai talk show Hone-Krasae. He crawled towards the exit -…
EPA/ShutterstockSince his party swept to power in April, Péter Magyar (left) has repeatedly called on Tamás Sulyok (right) to resignThe Hungarian parliament has voted to remove President Tamás Sulyok from office, who was widely seen as a loyalist of former prime minister Viktor Orbán who lost power in April after 16 years.Prime Minister Péter Magyar’s Tisza party used its two thirds majority to steamroll through the 17th amendment to the constitution, ending the term of Sulyok and the head of the Constitutional Court Péter Polt.It was the most dramatic day in parliament since the new government took office in early…
The aortic tear that likely caused the sudden death of Sen. Lindsey Graham is a medical emergency that can rapidly kill.The aorta is our largest artery, like a highway that arches up from the heart and then curves back down through the abdomen — carrying oxygen-rich blood to the rest of the body as other arteries branch off from it.What doctors call an aortic dissection happens when a tear in its inner lining lets blood rapidly leak between its other layers, according to the American Heart Association. That reduces blood flow to vital organs, and sometimes can lead to a…
BBCShilpi Chotrani, who commutes from Spain to Gibraltar every day, can’t wait for the removal of the borderEvery weekday morning, Shilpi Chotrani rides her bicycle from her home in the Spanish town of La Línea de la Concepción to Gibraltar. It’s a short journey but it means crossing an international border.A British Overseas Territory of around 40,000 inhabitants, Gibraltar has a border control for those entering and leaving.That means that during the morning and afternoon rush hours, when around 15,000 Spaniards who work in the territory cross the frontier, there can be long, time-consuming queues.”The fact that there is a…
‘We had an amazing life together, now it’s stopped’ – Malcolm TimbrellA British man whose wife and 12 friends and neighbours are feared to have been killed in the Spanish wildfires has told how he became separated from them as the flames raced towards his home.Malcolm Timbrell, 70, and his wife Annette Kilgore, 69, lived in the village of Bédar, in Almeria province, which was consumed by flames last Thursday evening, leaving 13 people dead.The devastated survivor spoke to the BBC outside his destroyed home high on the hillside.”You’d never imagine it could happen,” he said. “And when it does,…
Getty ImagesThe chief executive of the German car giant Volkswagen Group has confirmed it is looking to cut up to 100,000 jobs – twice as many as previously stated.The group, which includes Porsche, Audi, Seat and Skoda as well as the VW brand, had previously said it would axe some 50,000 posts in Germany by 2030.It suffered a steep decline in profits last year – the result of falling sales in key markets, as well as increasing competition from Chinese brands moving into Europe.In a widely-reported memo to staff, chief executive Oliver Blume said the Group’s costs were 20% higher…
Mike MacLeod/NewsflareA bull bison, reportedly weighing 2,000lb (900kg), sprinted towards an elderly man, ramming him with his head and knocking him into the air in Wyoming’s Yellowstone National Park. Viral footage of the incident shows a boy and his grandfather snap a picture of the bison as it lays in the grass, before the massive animal jumps to its feet and chases after them. The man, who has been identified by US media as 65-year-old Carl Isom-McDaniel, sustained multiple injuries and was described by witnesses as “in a lot of pain”. He was sent to hospital, according to the New…
People flee Bangkok bar as huge flames shoot out from doorwayA huge fire tore through a bar in Thailand’s capital Bangkok late on Sunday, killing at least 28 people and leaving 25 critically injured. The blaze started near the stage of the bar in the popular Chatuchak district, then spread rapidly, cutting power and engulfing the room with smoke, eyewitnesses say.Footage posted online shows panicked customers screaming as they fled – some with their clothes on fire – through the flame-enveloped front door of Rong Beer Na Lat Phrao.Firefighters, who arrived at the scene just after midnight, quickly extinguished the…
Getty ImagesSam Neill, the New Zealand actor who has died aged 78, will forever be most associated with the film that made him an international star: Jurassic Park. The 1993 blockbuster dominated his filmography and sparked a series of sequels and reboots – including the recent Jurassic World series, in which he reprised his role as palaeontologist Dr Alan Grant.But there was much more to Neill’s career than escaping Velociraptors in the visitor centre of a billionaire’s tropical island.Across a career spanning five decades, Neill showed himself to be an actor of depth, capable of taking on a wide range…