Saturday, February 15

Day: January 24, 2020

14 suspected UK coronavirus patients result negative
Featured, United Kingdom

14 suspected UK coronavirus patients result negative

    Tests for coronavirus on 14 people in the UK have come back negative but there are checks ongoing on other people, according to the Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty. The announcement comes after Boris Johnson ordered a meeting of Whitehall’s Cobra emergency committee to respond to the threat. As the infection crisis escalated in China, Professor Paul Cosford, medical director at Public Health England, said it was “highly likely” that the virus would reach the UK. No cases of the deadly virus, which can be fatal, have yet been confirmed in the UK. The Cobra meeting, chaired by Health Secretary Matt Hancock, was called to urgently ensure precautionary measures are in place to deal with the virus if it does spread to Britain. Medical experts were at ever...
Saudi star escapes London jail after animal cruelty claims
Featured, United Kingdom

Saudi star escapes London jail after animal cruelty claims

    A Saudi social media star has been forced to apologise after footage appearing to show a man pulling the wings off of a bird in a London hotel surfaced online. Mansour Al Raqiba, 40, who is known in the kingdom for his Snapchat videos, was reportedly saved from potential prison time after an intervention by the Saudi Arabian embassy in London, following outrage online. Mr Al Raqiba was accused, alongside two associates, of cruelty to animals by social media users after the video was posted to Snapchat and Twitter. The Saudi star later said: “I apologise for this mistake. I thought that the issue would end in paying a fine. But had it not been for the embassy’s stance, the issue would have led to jail.” The video shows one of the three men leaning over a bathtub, p...
US warned UK to keep a close eye on Khashoggi’s fiancee
Featured, United Kingdom

US warned UK to keep a close eye on Khashoggi’s fiancee

    US intelligence authorities urged British counterparts to keep a close eye on Hatice Cengiz, the fiancee of the murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, after they became aware of a plan by Saudi Arabia to keep her under surveillance in the UK last year, according to western intelligence sources. The US believed the kingdom had the ambition and intention to monitor Cengiz in London last May, seven months after Khashoggi was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, where he had gone to obtain papers so the couple could marry. It is not clear if the intended surveillance of Cengiz was electronic or physical, or if it was successful. However, the revelation that intelligence agencies feared Cengiz was being targeted in this way and that Saudi Arabia was preparing ...