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As Britain celebrates the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, an opulent 260-year-old gilded carriage is hitting the streets again for the first time in two decades. The Gold State Coach, which first transported a young Queen Elizabeth II from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey on her coronation day in 1953, will lead a spectacular procession on the streets of London as part of the Platinum Jubilee pageant on Sunday.

Source: cnn.com

A train accident in the Alps in southern Germany on Friday left at three people dead and dozens injured, authorities said. The regional train headed for Munich appears to have derailed shortly after noon in Burgrain, near the resort town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, according to federal police. Three carriages overturned at least partly, and people were pulled out of the windows to safety. The cause was not immediately clear.

Source: apnews.com

Japan recorded a record low number of births in 2021, prompting the biggest ever natural decline in the population, government data showed on Friday. There were 811,604 births last year, the fewest in health ministry data going back to 1899. Deaths climbed to 1,439,809, leading to an overall drop of 628,205 in the population. Japan has one of the fastest aging populations on earth.

Source: bbc.com

Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck are reportedly moving in together after purchasing a $60 million mansion. The couple are rumoured to have found their dream home in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles. Some of Jennifer's cars and a couple of moving trucks were parked outside the sprawling mansion. The mansion was most recently owned by Australian billionaire James Packer, who's the former fiancé of Mariah Carey. Previous owners of the huge mansion include Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman.

Source: mirror.co.uk

Afirst edition of "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", with some errors and signed by author J.K. Rowling, is going up for a private sale at Christie's in London, with the auction house inviting offers starting from $250,000 (£200,000). The publication is one of 500 hardback copies of the book that were printed in an initial run in 1997. Three hundred of those were sent to libraries. Christie's "Art of Literature" event is open to the public June 7-15.

Source: cnn.com

A team of Indian officials has met the acting foreign minister of Afghanistan to discuss bilateral ties and humanitarian aid, the Taliban said, in what was the first such visit to Kabul since the group took control of the country last year. Poverty and hunger have rocketed in Afghanistan since the Taliban took power after the United States pulled out, and India has sent food grains and other aid.

Source: aljazeera.com

Fly Arna, Armenia’s national airline and a joint venture company between the Armenian National Interests Fund (ANIF) and Air Arabia Group, today announced that it has received its Air Operating Certificate (AOC) and Air Operator License (AOL), which allow it to start operating from Yerevan’s Zvartnots International Airport. Fly Arna has been assigned the reservation code G6 by the International Air Transport Association (IATA). The carrier will use Airbus A320 aircraft and will follow the low-cost business model of Air Arabia.

Source: ‘Fly Arna’ 

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has a "super bad feeling" about the economy and wants to cut about 10% of jobs at the electric carmaker, he said in an email to executives on Thursday seen by Reuters. The message came two days after the world's richest man told employees to return to the workplace or leave the company. Tesla employed around 100,000 people at the end of 2021, according to its annual SEC filing.

 

New York prosecutors have seized five Egyptian antiques from the Metropolitan Museum of Art as part of an international trafficking investigation involving the former head of Paris's Louvre Museum. The artifacts – which include a group of painted linen fragments, dated between 250 and 450 BC, depicting a scene from the Book of Exodus – are worth more than $3 million, according to the Manhattan district attorney's office.

Source: france24.com

A Jamaican legislator is asking the country’s parliament to name reggae legend Bob Marley a national hero, an effort that comes amid rising nationalism in English-speaking Caribbean countries that are distancing themselves from their colonial past. The proposal by lawmaker Lisa Hanna would make the iconic singer a national hero, a title already held by seven Jamaicans including Black nationalist leader Marcus Garvey and the nation’s first prime minister Alexander Bustamante.

Source: euronews.com

Lazio coach Maurizio Sarri has extended his contract with the Roman outfit until 2025, the Serie A club confirmed on Thursday. The 63-year-old former Chelsea, Juventus and Napoli boss agreed a two-year extension to the deal he signed in June last year after Simone Inzaghi left for Inter Milan.

Source: france24.com

Two men have been arrested in Norway and Bulgaria respectively for having “expressed support” for Al-Qaida “through “internet-based activities,” Norway’s domestic security agency said Wednesday. One suspect was arrested in Oslo and the other - identified as a Norwegian student - was taken into custody in Bulgaria as part of a coordinated action in the early hours of Tuesday, said Thomas Blom, a prosecutor with the agency, known by its acronym PST. Norwegian media said there is a family connection between the men.
Source: https://apnews.com/article/arrests-bulgaria-denmark-norway-228b6036de5fbc0eb02a8e2b5fa0a853

More than 50 people have also been injured in the blaze at the facility for dementia patients near Prague. The fire broke out for an unknown reason on Wednesday at the facility in Roztoky, north of Prague.

Source: aljazeera.com

Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt have announced that they are pregnant with "Miracle baby #2." The couple who met and fell in love on MTV's hit "The Hills" which premiered in 2006, shared the news on social media. "My heart is overflowing with joy! I'm excited to share that I am pregnant!" Montag wrote in the caption on her verified Instagram account, which accompanied a picture of her on the cover of Us Weekly with her baby bump. "I have been hoping and praying for this moment for so long!" Montag and Pratt have a 4-year-old son, Gunner Stone.

Source: cnn.com

Dozens of Israeli fighter jets conducted exercises over the Mediterranean and warships held Red Sea drills this week, the army said Thursday, as it readies for different "scenarios" against Iran. The two arch enemies have been locked in a shadow war that comes amid tensions over stalled efforts to revive a deal meant to ensure Iran is unable to develop a nuclear weapon. Israel is staunchly opposed to the 2015 nuclear deal and has vowed to do whatever it takes to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb.

Source: france24.com

Spain’s armed forces have fired an army captain after a video showed some 30 soldiers of the officer’s unit kneeling in front of the Valley of the Fallen mausoleum, the most potent existing symbol of the dictatorship of the late Gen. Francisco Franco. The Defense Ministry said Thursday that the captain was dismissed within hours of the video being posted on social media and that an investigation into the incident would be completed within 48 hours.

Source: apnews.com

A study published Wednesday in the journal Plos One offers further evidence that dogs can indeed be trained to detect Covid. The dogs tested in the research accurately identified 97 percent of positive cases after sniffing human sweat samples. That made them more sensitive than some rapid antigen tests.

Source: nbcnews.com

At least two people caused a disturbance at a military parade in London which launches celebrations for Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee on Thursday, running out in front of marching soldiers before being arrested, TV pictures showed. Two men ran out from behind barriers where tens of thousands of people had gathered on the Mall boulevard, which leads to Buckingham Palace, and lay down in front of a marching band, footage showed. One of the individuals appeared to hold up a banner, before police dragged away the men, one of whom was wearing a gold crown on his head.

Source: reuters.com