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A 1,700-piece private collection of Chinese ceramics with an estimated value of £1 billion ($1.27 billion) has been donated to the British Museum -- a record for any UK institution. The central London museum announced late on Wednesday that the Trustees of The Sir Percival David Foundation had gifted the collection permanently to go on public display. David, who died in 1964, was a British businessman and Sinophile who collected ceramics from Europe, Japan, Hong Kong and China. His collection had been on loan to the museum since 2009. Museum chair George Osborne said he was "thrilled by this blockbuster decision" to make the loan permanent, calling it "the largest bequest to the British Museum in our long history". Colin Sheaf, chair of The Sir Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, said the donation coincided with the centenary of the businessman's first trip to China, which inspired his love of its art and culture. He said he hoped it would continue t

The Iranian state is planning to open a treatment clinic for women who flout the mandatory hijab laws that require them to cover their heads in public. Announcing the opening of a "hijab removal treatment clinic", Mehri Talebi Darestani, the head of the Women and Family Department of the Tehran Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice said the establishment will offer "scientific and psychological treatment for hijab removal". "The establishment of this center will be for the scientific and psychological treatment of removing the hijab, specifically for the teenage generation, young adults, and women seeking social and Islamic identity and visiting this center is optional," a report by Iran International quoted Talebi as saying. Notably, the Women and Family Department of the Tehran Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice falls under the direct authority of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei. The body i

South Korean police have arrested 215 people on suspicion of stealing 320 billion won ($228.4 million) in the biggest cryptocurrency investment scam in the country. Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police said on Wednesday the arrests included the alleged mastermind of the organised crime group accused of selling 28 types of virtual tokens to about 15,000 people by promising high returns. Police said the group had issued six of the 28 tokens on overseas crypto exchanges and were managing a team of market makers to push up prices. Police described the tokens as "worthless". The group had set up investment consulting companies and sales teams to sell the virtual assets to people who had subscribed to a YouTube channel, the police statement said. (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.) from NDTV News-World-news https://ift.tt/LuARgqo

The planet Uranus and its five largest moons may not be the cold, lifeless worlds scientists once believed. Instead, they could have hidden oceans and even the potential to support life, according to new research. Most of our knowledge of Uranus comes from NASA's Voyager 2 mission, which visited nearly 40 years ago. However, a recent analysis reveals that Voyager's encounter occurred during an intense solar storm, potentially skewing our perception of the Uranian system, the BBC reported. Uranus, an icy, ringed planet at the solar system's edge, is one of the coldest and most unusual planets due to its extreme tilt, making it appear as if it had been tipped over. The latest findings reveal that Voyager 2's visit coincided with severe solar activity, which may have temporarily disrupted the planet's magnetic field and swept away atmospheric material. For decades, this led scientists to a possibly inaccurate view of Uranus and its moons, explained Dr William Dunn

The UK will aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 81 percent on 1990 levels by 2035, Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced Tuesday, as his government ramps up its ambitions on climate change. The previous government in London committed in 2021 to curb such emissions by 78 percent over the same period compared to 1990. Starmer unveiled the new target as he attended the beginning of the COP29 climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, where he is one of the only G20 leaders to show up. The summit's start has been overshadowed by the re-election in the US of longtime climate change sceptic Donald Trump, as well as new warnings that 2024 is on track to break temperature records. UK Labour party leader Starmer, who took power in July, told a press conference that Britain was "building on our reputation as a climate leader". "I've had a series of meetings here at COP this week because this government recognises that the world stands at a critical juncture in the

The year 2024 is on course to become the hottest year ever recorded, with global temperatures reaching unprecedented levels, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) warned. According to a report released on the opening day of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP29) here, the January-September global mean surface temperature was 1.54 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. This alarming surge, driven by an intense El Nino event and rising greenhouse gas concentrations, marks a critical threshold for climate change impacts worldwide. The report titled "State of the Climate 2024" highlights the accelerating risks posed by global warming, particularly for vulnerable communities. "Climate catastrophe is hammering health, widening inequalities, harming sustainable development, and rocking the foundations of peace," said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Guterres emphasised the urgent need for climate action to protect those most affected by these change

US President-elect Donald Trump has spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin and urged him not to escalate the war in Ukraine, the Washington Post reported Sunday. Trump held the call from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Thursday, just days after his stunning election victory over Democratic rival Kamala Harris, the report said. The president-elect's representatives did not immediately respond when asked by AFP for comment. The Post, citing several people familiar with the call who spoke on the basis of anonymity, reported that Trump had reminded Putin of America's sizable military presence in Europe. They said he also expressed an interest in further conversations to discuss "the resolution of Ukraine's war soon." Trump's election is seen as carrying the potential to upend the almost three-year Ukraine conflict, as he insists on a quick end to the fighting and casts doubt on Washington's multi-billion dollar support for Kyiv. Ukrainian Preside

Two powerful earthquakes rocked southern Cuba in quick succession on Sunday, US geologists said, as authorities said no tsunami alert was issued and no deaths immediately reported. The US Geological Survey put the second, more powerful tremor at a magnitude of 6.8 and 14.6 miles (23.5 kilometers) deep, some 25 miles off the coast of Bartolome Maso, in southern Granma province. It came just an hour after a first tremor, which the USGS put at a magnitude of 5.9, with the epicenter some nine miles beneath the ocean roughly 22 miles off Bartolome Maso.  The state-run newspaper Granma said no deaths had been immediately reported, but that the quake had been felt throughout the Caribbean island nation. "Here people quickly took to the streets because the ground moved very strongly," Andres Perez, a 65-year-old retiree who lives in downtown Santiago de Cuba, told AFP via telephone of the first quake.  "It felt very strong really, my wife is a bundle of nerves," he add

The Israeli military on Saturday accused a group of soldiers of burning a Lebanese flag in southern Lebanon where they are fighting the Iran-backed group Hezbollah. The military spoke after a video circulated on social media showing around half a dozen people dressed in Israeli uniforms jumping and singing a religious maxim as one of them sets fire to the flag with a lighter. "We view the act of some soldiers burning the Lebanese flag in southern Lebanon as a violation of orders, inconsistent with the values of the defence forces, and misaligned with the goals of our military activities in Lebanon," said military spokesman Avichay Adraee. #هام منذ بدء الحرب على حزب الله، قلناها بوضوح: حربنا ليست ضد الشعب اللبناني، بل ضد من ينتهك أرض لبنان، ويحرق سيادته، ويدنس رموزه. حربنا ضد حزب الله الإرهابي، الذي لم يكن يومًا لبنانيًا لا في العقيدة، ولا الفكر، ولا الهوية. ومن هنا، نعتبر قيام بعض الجنود على حرق العلم اللبناني في… pic.twitter.com/A1KtAcyOcn — افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdr

Britain's Princess Kate attended a Remembrance Day event in London on Saturday, in her latest public engagement after undergoing preventive treatment for cancer this year. Kate arrived for the Festival of Remembrance at London's Royal Albert Hall wearing a black dress adorned with a red poppy, which has become a symbol of respect for those who have lost their lives in conflict. She was accompanied by her husband Prince William and other members of the royal family and was followed shortly afterwards by King Charles, whose wife Queen Camilla has cancelled engagements as she recovers from a chest infection. The Princess of Wales said in September she had finished chemotherapy, but her path to full recovery would be long. At the time, the 42-year-old said she would be carrying out a handful of public engagements later in the year. Her last public appearance was in October when she met the bereaved families of three young girls who were murdered at a dance class in northwest En

Days after an attack on Hindus at a Brampton temple, Canadian MP Chandra Arya has come down heavily on politicians pitting Hindus and Sikhs on “opposing sides” and asserted that the Hindu-Canadians and the Sikhs are on one side and the Khalistanis on the other. Due to the deliberate actions of some politicians and the influence of Khalistanis, Canadians now mistakenly equate Khalistanis with Sikhs, Arya said in wake of several Canadian politician trying to portray the Brampton incident as a clash between the Canadian Hindu and Sikh communities. Protesters carrying Khalistani flags clashed with devotees at a Hindu Sabha temple and disrupted an event co-organised by the temple authorities and the Indian Consulate on November 3 at Brampton, a city in Ontario's Greater Toronto Area. “Politicians are deliberately avoiding recognising and mentioning Khalistanis as responsible for this attack or are shifting the blame to other entities. They are misleading Canadians by framing this as

The United States has charged an Iranian man in connection with an alleged plot ordered by Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) to assassinate president-elect Donald Trump, the Justice Department said on Friday. In a statement, the department said that Shakeri had informed law enforcement "that he was tasked on October 7, 2024, with providing a plan to kill" Trump, the department said. The department described Shakeri as an IRGC asset residing in Tehran. It said he immigrated to the U.S. as a child and was deported in or about 2008 following a robbery conviction. The department said it had charged two other individuals in connection with their alleged involvement in a plot to kill a U.S. citizen of Iranian origin in New York. (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.) from NDTV News-World-news https://ift.tt/KJ16vqc

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday he was "ready" to hold discussions with Donald Trump, as he congratulated him on his victory in the US presidential election. "I take this opportunity to congratulate him," Putin said in remarks to the Valdai forum in Sochi. Asked whether he was open to holding talks with Trump, the Russian leader said: "Ready." (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.) from NDTV News-World-news https://ift.tt/GA97UoW

Now that Donald Trump and the GOP have claimed their fame to the White House, there is a chain of blame game happening that seems like a futile attempt of clutching at straws. The United States is still waiting for its first female president, with Kamala Harris's loss extending the country's 248-year streak of male leadership. In her concession speech, Harris urged Americans to remain hopeful and empowered, saying, "Don't ever stop trying to make the world a better place, you have power... Don't you ever listen when anyone tells you something is impossible because it has never been done before." Post-election analysis points to various factors contributing to Harris's defeat. Some Democrats blame the decision to replace Joe Biden with Harris, while others criticise Biden's delayed withdrawal from the race. Progressives argue that the Biden administration's stance on Israel and Harris's attempts to appeal to moderates and anti-Trump Republic

Iran's science minister, Hossein Simaei, on Wednesday described a female student's public act of stripping down to her underwear as "immoral and uncustomary". "She broke the norms, and her behaviour was not based on sharia, was immoral and uncustomary," Simaei said on the sidelines of a weekly cabinet meeting, adding she had not been expelled from her university. Footage circulated online Saturday showing a woman, identified as a student at the Islamic Azad University in Tehran, sitting and briefly walking around campus and later on the street in her underwear. "Those who republished this footage spread prostitution," said Simaei, adding such incidents "should not be encouraged as they are neither morally nor religiously justified." Media outlets in Iran shared a blurred clip of the student. Amnesty International said she "was violently arrested after she removed her clothes in protest against abusive enforcement of compulsory v

Russia launched 55 satellites into orbit on Tuesday, including two privately built Iranian devices, amid deepening ties between Moscow and Tehran. A Soyuz rocket blasted off from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia's Far East at 02:18 Moscow time (2318 GMT on Monday) carrying the satellites, Russia's Roscosmos space agency said. In total, Roscosmos said 51 Russian satellites, one Russian-Chinese device and a Russian-Zimbabwean satellite were put into orbit, as well as the two Iranian satellites. It said it was a "record number of Russian satellites simultaneously put into orbit." The two Iranian imaging and communications satellites -- Koswar and Hodhod -- were designed and built by Iran's Omid Faza Company, and are aimed to support environmental monitoring and communications in remote areas. Tehran said it was the first time Russia had launched privately built Iranian satellites. The two countries have deepened political, economic and military ties amid Russ

The Israeli military denied on Monday that it had hit a clinic in the northern Gaza Strip where health workers were carrying out polio vaccinations. On Saturday, the Gaza health ministry said Israeli fire had hit the Sheikh Radwan clinic as parents brought their children in to be vaccinated. It said four children had been wounded in the explosion, which took place during an agreed humanitarian pause to allow the campaign to go ahead. The military said it was aware of the reports but said an initial review showed its forces had not carried out any strikes when the incident took place. "Contrary to the claims, an initial review determined that the IDF did not strike in the area at the specified time," it said in a statement. The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said the incident had taken place just after a WHO team was at the clinic and that it had endangered a vital health protection campaign. "These vital humanitarian-area-specific

The United States will on Tuesday witness one of the closest presidential elections in decades with Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democratic leader Kamala Harris making last ditch efforts to sway the remaining undecided voters in key battleground states. More than 75 million Americans have already cast their votes as of Sunday, according to the University of Florida's Election Lab that tracks early and mail-in voting across the US. With just two days left for the national election day, Vice President Harris and former President Donald Trump are criss-crossing politically pivotal battleground states making closing arguments to drum up support. Various polls have predicted an exceptionally tight race between Harris and Trump. Political analysts say either of the two leaders wrestling at least four of the seven battleground states can take the reins at the White House in January. In questioning the counting process in the 2020 presidential election, Trump said at a rally in

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar emphasised the transformation in India-Australia relations, attributing the progress to four key factors while reflecting on the evolution of the bilateral partnership between the two nations while addressing the Indian community at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, on Sunday. During his address, S Jaishankar stated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Australian government, the global dynamics, and the contributions of the Indian community were the key factors for the evolution of the India-Australia relationship. Reflecting on the growth in ties between the two nations, S Jaishankar remarked that Australia would have featured among India's crucial partners a decade ago but that has changed significantly. "This is my fifth visit to Australia in the last three years... I first came to Australia when I was Foreign Secretary. Yesterday, before I boarded the flight, I launched a book in which they highlighted seven cr

The world's biggest nature conservation conference closed in Colombia on Saturday with no agreement on a roadmap to ramp up funding for species protection. The 16th Conference of Parties (COP16) to the UN's Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was suspended by its president Susana Muhamad as negotiations ran almost 12 hours longer than planned and delegates started leaving to catch flights. The exodus left the summit without a quorum for decision-making, but CBD spokesman David Ainsworth told AFP it will resume at a later date to consider outstanding issues. The conference, the biggest meeting of its kind yet, with around 23,000 registered delegates, was tasked with assessing, and ramping up, progress toward an agreement reached in Canada two years ago to halt humankind's rapacious destruction of nature's bounty. The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework that emerged from that meeting had set 23 targets to be met in just over five years from now. They