Author: Gulf News Week

Overnight accident near Dhading leaves 25 injured as multi-agency rescue operation continues in difficult terrain. KATHMANDU– At least 18 people have been confirmed dead after a passenger bus skidded off a highway and fell into the Trishuli River in central Nepal in the early hours of Monday morning. The accident occurred at approximately 1:15 AM local time near Chinadhara, a locality within ward 3 of the Benighat Rorang Rural Municipality in Dhading district. The bus was traveling the busy Pokhara-Kathmandu highway with more than 35 passengers on board when it veered off the roadway. According to Shishir Thapa, Chief of…

WASHINGTON (news agencies) — Federal health officials on Monday laid out a proposal to spur development of customized treatments for patients with hard-to-treat diseases, including for rare genetic conditions that the pharmaceutical industry has long considered unprofitable.The preliminary Food and Drug Administration guidelines, if implemented, would create a new pathway for bespoke therapies that have only been tested in a handful of patients due to the challenges of conducting larger studies. The FDA announcement specifically mentions gene editing, although agency officials said the new approach could also be used by other drugs and therapies.It’s a shift long sought by patients,…

NEW YORK (news agencies) — Six planets are linking up in the sky at the end of February, and most will be visible to the naked eye.It’s what’s known as a planetary parade, which happens when multiple planets appear to line up in the sky at once. The planets aren’t in a straight line, but are close together on one side of the sun.Skygazers can usually spot two or three planets after sunset, according to NASA. Hangouts of four or five that can be glimpsed with the naked eye are less common and occur every few years. Last year featured…

NEW YORK (news agencies) — Horses whinny to find new friends, greet old ones and celebrate happy moments like feeding time.How exactly horses produce that distinctive sound — also called a neigh — has long eluded scientists. The whinny is an unusual combination of both high and low pitched sounds, like a cross between a grunt and a squeal — that come out at the same time. The low-pitched part wasn’t much of a mystery. It comes from air passing over bands of tissue in the voice box that make noise when they vibrate. It’s a technique similar to how…

WASHINGTON (news agencies) — The Food and Drug Administration will consider whether to approve Moderna’s new flu vaccine after all, resolving a dispute that had blocked the company’s application for the first-of-its-kind shot.Moderna announced the change Wednesday, about a week after revealing that the FDA’s vaccine chief was refusing to review the new vaccine, made with Nobel Prize-winning mRNA technology.The dispute centered over a 40,000-person clinical trial that concluded Moderna’s new vaccine was more effective in adults aged 50 and older than one of the standard flu shots used today. In the FDA’s rare “refusal to file” letter, vaccine director…

NASA’s new boss blasted Boeing and the space agency Thursday for Starliner’s botched flight that left two astronauts stuck for months at the International Space Station. Administrator Jared Isaacman said poor leadership and decision-making at Boeing led to Starliner’s troubles. He also blamed NASA managers for failing to intervene and get Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams back more quickly. The two test pilots, now retired from NASA, spent more than nine months at the station before catching a lift back with SpaceX last March. Isaacman said Starliner’s problems must be better understood and fixed before any more astronauts strap in.In…

WASHINGTON (news agencies) — National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya will also temporarily become acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an administration official said Wednesday.The change was first reported by The New York Times and confirmed by the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the appointment hadn’t been made public.Bhattacharya will be the third leader of the embattled CDC, the nation’s top public health agency, during President Donald Trump’s second term. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. abruptly fired then-CDC Director Susan Monarez last summer, less than a month after the Senate confirmed…

NEW YORK (news agencies) — When household batteries die, it’s hard to know what to do with them. So they get shoved into a junk drawer or sheepishly thrown into the trash.But dead batteries aren’t quite finished. They can leak heavy metals like cadmium and nickel into soil and water once they reach the landfill. Some of them can also overheat and cause fires in garbage trucks and recycling centers.The good news is, safely disposing of your batteries takes just a few steps. They’ll get shipped to recycling centers that break down their contents to make new things.Battery recycling processes…

Worshippers gather under heavy military presence as hundreds of Jerusalemites barred from holy site LONDON — In a powerful display of faith amid political turmoil, approximately 50,000 Palestinian worshippers converged at Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem on Sunday evening to perform the Isha and Taraweeh prayers, marking the first nights of the holy month of Ramadan. The mass gathering unfolded despite stringent Israeli security measures, including military checkpoints and rigorous identity checks at the mosque’s gates, the Jerusalem Governorate reported. Worshippers navigated these obstacles to reach Islam’s third holiest site, underscoring the mosque’s enduring spiritual significance. Access denied While tens…

Islamabad says it targeted militant havens after suicide bombings; Kabul condemns ‘crime’ as 12 minors among dead in Nangarhar SHARJAH — Pakistan launched multiple air strikes inside Afghan territory overnight Sunday, killing dozens of people—including at least 12 children—in the most significant military escalation between the neighbouring countries since border clashes left more than 70 dead last October. Islamabad confirmed its forces struck seven sites along the border region in Nangarhar and Paktika provinces, targeting what it described as hideouts of the Pakistani Taliban (TTP), associated groups, and an Islamic State affiliate. The operation, the military said, came “in the aftermath…