Author: admin@primenews

A parish council has claimed proposals to add electric vehicle (EV) charging bays to a service station are “a disaster waiting to happen”. The owners of the Hillington Service Station near King’s Lynn said they wanted to install eight bays as “EV chargers are desperately needed”. Objecting, the parish council said it was “a terrible plan” and likely to increase traffic. A report recommended that King’s Lynn and West Norfolk Borough councillors approve the plan. In a letter to the borough council, the station owners – Motor Fuel Group (MFG) – pointed to a government target of 300,000 EV chargers…

The billionaire founder of South Korean tech giant Kakao Corp, Kim Beom-su was arrested on Tuesday on accusations of manipulating stocks during the acquisition of a K-Pop agency last year. The case is the latest legal twist for Kakao, which runs South Korea’s largest chat app, after the company and another executive went on trial last year for alleged wrongdoing during the same acquisition. Kim, who is also known as Brian Kim, is seen as a visionary in South Korea’s digital industry for building Kakao’s group of affiliates – worth 86 trillion won ($62 billion) by assets – from the ground up since launching the chat…

China has announced plans to raise some of the world’s lowest statutory retirement ages as it tries to cope with the consequences of a rapidly ageing population and a pensions funding crisis. Currently, men in urban areas can retire at 60 and receive a pension from state-backed funds. The retirement age for female urban workers is 50 or 55 depending on their occupation. Rural residents in China fall under a different retirement system. Beijing’s plans, announced at the weekend, have already generated a fierce backlash. “In accordance with the principles of voluntariness and flexibility, [we] will steadily and orderly advance the reform of…

Ryanair says it expects summer fares will be much lower than last year after profits at the no-frills airline fell by almost 50%. The company said “frugal” passengers were cutting back while the timing of Easter holidays had also hit earnings, with profit before tax slumping 46% to €401m (£338m) in the three months to 30 June when compared with a year ago. Average passenger fares fell by 15% in the period, and the carrier said it would have to offer more discounts in the coming months. “Fares are now moving materially lower than the prior year and pricing… continues…

Shares in cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike have plunged more than 13% as the company reckons with the aftermath of causing a global IT outage. Chief security officer Shawn Henry said the incident had been a “gut punch” for the firm, which had previously been one of the most trusted names in the industry. “We let down the very people we committed to protect, and to say we’re devastated is a huge understatement,“ he said. Many businesses are still recovering after a faulty “content update” last week crashed 8.5 million Microsoft Windows computers around the world. The issue has required manual reboots…

Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has blamed her political opponents for the deadly unrest in the country, adding she was “forced” to impose a curfew for public safety. “I never wanted it,” she said on Monday in a meeting with business leaders in the capital Dhaka. “We will lift the curfew whenever the situation gets better.” Her comments come a day after Bangladesh’s top court scrapped most of the quotas on government jobs, which have sparked weeks of violent clashes across the country. More than 150 people have been killed in clashes between protesters and the police and the rallies have…

India’s Supreme Court has put on hold a controversial order that directed restaurants along the route of an annual Hindu pilgrimage to display names of their owners and operators. The order was issued by Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand – states governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is in power federally – ahead of the Kanwar Yatra, which began on Monday. Opposition parties and even BJP allies criticised it, saying it targeted Muslim-owned establishments and could affect livelihoods. State authorities claimed the order was meant to maintain law and order. But on Monday, India’s Supreme Court temporarily halted the…

At least 50 people have been killed in landslides in southern Ethiopia, according to local officials. Two incidents are thought to have occurred on Sunday evening and Monday morning, after heavy rains in a remote mountainous area of the Gofa zone. The local authority said the search for survivors was “continuing vigorously” but that the “death toll could yet increase”. Footage showed hundreds of people gathered at the scene and others digging in the dirt in search of people trapped underneath. In the background, a hillside can be seen partially collapsed and a large patch of red earth has been…

Abdul “Duke” Fakir, the last surviving member of beloved Motown group The Four Tops, has passed away at the age of 88. He died at his home in Detroit from heart failure, his family confirmed on Monday. The Four Tops became one of the best-known bands of the Motown era after forming in the late 1950s. The group is known for classic hits such as Reach Out I’ll Be There, Baby I Need Your Loving and I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch). “Our hearts are heavy as we mourn the loss of a trailblazer, icon and music legend…

The European Union has stripped Hungary of the right to host the next meeting of foreign and defence ministers over its stance on the war in Ukraine. It comes weeks after Hungary assumed the presidency of the Council of the European Union, a role in which it would normally host the event, and amid anger over a meeting Prime Minister Viktor Orban held with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow earlier this month. The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said Hungary’s actions should have consequences and that “we have to send a signal, even if it is a symbolic signal”. Hungary…