Cat loves owner's piano playing, requests to cuddle with him
Bean the cat is loving this performance by his owner. Check out that adorable request for a hug!
Bean the cat is loving this performance by his owner. Check out that adorable request for a hug!
Portugal's fragile health system is under growing pressure due to a worrying rise in coronavirus infections, with the country reporting 10,947 new cases and 166 deaths on Saturday, the worst surge since the pandemic started last year. The cases, which come a day after a new lockdown was put in place, bring the total number of cases in a country of just over 10 million people to 539,416, with the death toll increasing to 8,709. The health system, which prior to the pandemic had the lowest number of critical care beds per 100,000 inhabitants in Europe, can accommodate a maximum of 672 COVID-19 patients in ICUs, according to Health Ministry data.
All travellers, including Singaporeans and permanent residents, will have to take a COVID-19 test upon arrival into Singapore from 11.59pm on 24 January.
Beijing's top diplomat pledged Saturday to donate half a million coronavirus vaccine shots to the Philippines, Manila officials said -- despite growing resistance there to Chinese-made jabs over concerns about their efficacy.
Brazil's government will not seek to bar Chinese telecom equipment maker Huawei Technologies Co Ltd from 5G network auctions slated for June this year, newspaper Estado de S. Paulo reported on Saturday, citing government and industry sources. Financial costs potentially worth billions of dollars and the exit of ally President Donald Trump from the White House are forcing President Jair Bolsonaro to backtrack on his opposition to Huawei bidding to provide the next generation cellular network for carriers in Brazil, the paper said.
Is that how it will happen?
He has since been released from custody.
New Belgian champion beats Sweeck in the sand and snow
Pavel Zelensky, a member of the Anti-Corruption Foundation team of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, was jailed by a Moscow court on Saturday until Feb. 28 on charges of inciting extremism on the internet, according to a court statement. His detention by the Presnensky District Court comes a day before Navalny's planned return to Russia since being poisoned in August and evacuated to Germany where he has been recuperating. Zelensky is a camera operator for the opposition leader's Anti-Corruption Foundation, which specialises in publishing high-impact investigations into what it says is official graft.
Mikey the Great Dane knows all about Stranger Danger and is very vocal when warning about strangers....even if the stranger is a Robot. Watch and laugh as Mikey bounces up to get a better look at the window cleaning robot and gives the Robot a good talking to while keeping a safe distance.
This tribute to Steve is just 😭.
A Philippine air force helicopter carrying supplies for counterinsurgency forces crashed in the country’s south on Saturday apparently due to engine trouble, killing all seven people on board, military officials said. The UH-1H helicopter tried to make an emergency landing after encountering engine problems but crashed in a mountainous area in Impasugong town in Bukidnon province, regional army spokesperson Maj. Rodulfo Cordero Jr. said. Troops secured the crash site and retrieved the bodies of four air force crewmen, including two pilots, as well as an army soldier and two militiamen, Cordero and the army said.
The widow of a man killed on a smart motorway has written to Grant Shapps calling for her husband’s killer not to be deported because she believes Highways England is “responsible” for his death. Jason Mercer, 44, and Alexandru Murgeanu, 22, stopped their vehicles on the inside live lane of the M1 near Sheffield after a minor shunt in June 2019. Five minutes later Prezemyslaw Szuba’s lorry ploughed into them at 56mph, killing the pair outright after the driver failed to take evasive action in the five seconds he had to spot them. The crash happened a mile from an emergency refuge area on a stretch of motorway where the hard shoulder had been scrapped and turned into a fourth lane. Highways England staff did not see the stationary cars on CCTV or with its detection system in time to close the carriageway to prevent the collision. Szuba, a 40-year-old Polish man, was jailed for 10 months in October for causing the deaths driving without due care and attention. Mr Mercer’s wife, Claire, has insisted Szuba is himself a victim of Highways England’s policy to remove hard shoulders despite not having technology to detect all stranded cars. She has contacted Szuba’s partner who revealed he is to be deported after serving his sentence, rather than return to the family home he shares with his two children in Hull. Mrs Mercer, 44, has written to the Transport Secretary claiming it is “corrupt” that people are being jailed for killing motorists while those “responsible” for removing the hard shoulder are “not held to account”. Her letter comes on the eve of an inquest which will be held into Mr Mercer and Mr Murgeanu’s deaths in Sheffield. “There has been enough devastation from the events of June 2019,” Mrs Mercer, 44, wrote. “The Government has unfairly ruined this man’s life already. It seems a perverse level of callousness to now threaten to deport him. My husband would not have wanted this done in his name.” A Home Office Government spokesman said: “Any foreign national who is convicted of an offence and given a custodial sentence is considered for deportation. “For European Economic Area nationals, a decision can only be made on grounds of public policy, public security or public health. Cases are considered individually and take into account a range of factors.” Mrs Mercer has launched a campaign called "Smart Motorways Kill" which has seen relatives of those who have died launch a judicial review into their safety, as well as attempt to prosecute Highways England for corporate manslaughter. The Transport Secretary commissioned an evidence stocktake to gather the facts about smart motorways, and subsequently ordered Highways England to deliver an 18-point action plan, which focuses on making the schemes less confusing, adding additional stopped vehicle detection technology and traffic officer patrols, and making emergency areas more visible with better and more frequent signage.
President-elect Joe Biden says "science will always be at the forefront of my administration,” and he is elevating the post of science adviser to Cabinet level, a White House first. Biden, who planned to introduce his team Saturday, said the scientists “will ensure everything we do is grounded in science, facts and the truth.” A pioneer in mapping the human genome — the “book of life” — is in line to be director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy and adviser on science.
The French Rugby Federation (FFR) announced on Saturday that its board had approved a private equity firm's investment in the Six Nations.
The organisers of Expo 2020 Dubai said on Saturday they are committed to hosting the event which was postponed for a year due to coronavirus, but are ready for all possible scenarios amid a new global wave of the pandemic. The world's fair, which had been due to run from October 2020 to April this year, was delayed last May after participating countries said they needed to focus on tackling the spread of infections. He said the organisers were ready for all scenarios and expected the doors to open on Oct. 1.
The 29-year-old, who won gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics and was world champion in 2013, was charged with "tampering within the results management process" and provisionally suspended by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) earlier this week. "ICM Stellar Athletics would like to clarify that Brianna has not tested positive for any substance banned in the sport of track and field," her agency said.
West Bromwich Albion won for the first time under new boss Sam Allardyce as Matheus Pereira's penalty double clinched a 3-2 Premier League victory at local rivals Wolves on Saturday.
The medieval building of Lichfield Cathedral saw a large group of people, mostly over 80's, passing through its doors on Friday (January 15) to receive the Oxford-Astrazeneca vaccine. The Archbishop of Canterbury and local Member of Parliament Michael Fabricant praised the cathedral's transformation to help battle the coronavirus pandemic on social media, with Fabricant calling it "the UK's most glamorous vaccination center." The government is aiming to vaccinate those in the four highest risk tiers - the elderly, clinically vulnerable and frontline health and social care workers - by February 15, something that would require more than 2 million vaccinations a week. Britain recorded 55,761 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, as the number of infections rises despite hopes that lockdowns across the country could start to help push rates down.
Ethiopia has denied a Sudanese allegation that an Ethiopian military aircraft crossed the border into Sudan. Sudan said on Wednesday that the aircraft entered its airspace in a "dangerous and unjustified escalation" that "could have dangerous consequences, and cause more tension in the border areas". "The claim that our planes crossed the border is fabricated," army chief of staff Berhanu Jula said in an interview on Friday with Voice of America's Amharic service.
Traffic wardens are patrolling newly closed roads to stop motorists being fined amid claims council bosses are trying to prevent a backlash against Grant Shapps’s “green transport revolution” from affluent residents. In a bizarre twist, Islington Council has despatched teams of parking enforcement officers to warn drivers new automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras have been installed after a series of roads were shut to traffic. Councils across the country have made millions of pounds from issuing fixed penalty notices after creating hundreds of new cul-de-sacs as part of the Transport Secretary’s low traffic neighbourhood schemes intended to promote cycling and walking. But campaigners who claim road closures increase pollution and traffic elsewhere say they are “amazed” traffic wardens who normally issue tickets are now stopping motorists from being fined. Jody Graber, from the We Are Islington group fighting the roll-out of low traffic neighbourhoods in north London, critised the move as an attempt to try to avert opposition from those living in the most affluent areas of the borough. Mr Graber, 41, said members of his group visited a number of streets in Highbury West last week where the council had just closed roads. “We saw so many cars driving through unaware that they had triggered a fine that we started stopping traffic to explain the road was now closed,” he said. “We stopped about £15,000 tickets being issued in just one hour. The next day we went along again but discovered the council had sent traffic wardens to warn motorists about the closed roads. “We were amazed. I thought their job was to issue tickets. We have to ask why they are doing this in affluent areas like this - is it because the council doesn’t want to upset the well-to-do residents? “We’ve not seen traffic wardens warning people in less well off areas about the risk of fines.” An Islington Council spokesman said it will “take motorists, pedestrians and cyclists time to get used” to new “significant changes” in Highbury West after a number of roads were closed on January 11. Extra signs and teams of traffic warden were deployed to try to “increase compliance”. He added: “In order to help people to familiarise themselves with the new scheme in Highbury West and to reduce levels of noncompliance, the council has instructed traffic wardens to warn motorists when they are approaching some of the camera-enforced traffic filters during peak times. “Many of the motorists that are approached by traffic wardens in Highbury West will inevitably be non-local residents who are attempting to cut through the area. Traffic wardens were used in a similar way following the implementation of the Canonbury East people-friendly streets neighbourhood.” Councillor Rowena Champion from Islington Council blamed sat navs for “directing traffic through residential areas” and causing more traffic, pollution and “road danger”. “People-friendly streets are designed to address this situation, and to help the borough respond effectively to the continued fall in public transport capacity during the pandemic,” she said. “The Highbury West people-friendly streets neighbourhood will help to create a safer, greener, healthier Islington where everyone, regardless of income, is able to travel safely and easily around the borough.” The latest statistics released under Freedom of Information laws reveal nearly 6,000 tickets were issued in just over one month by five ANPR cameras installed to enforce new road closures in the west London borough of Ealing. A total of 5,920 fines potentially raising more than £750,000 were sent out after roads were closed after a series of low traffic neighbourhoods were introduced.