ARLINGTON: When his father lost his job last year, Togi, then 16, wasted little time before looking for work to support his family, even though he knew it could put him at risk of contracting COVID-19. 

WASHINGTON: The US commerce secretary appealed Sunday for vigilance from the private sector in the face of increasingly serious cyberattacks, saying the threat is “here to stay” and may even worsen. 

FRANKFURT: Surging inflation and an economic rebound as virus curbs ease will be in focus when European Central Bank policymakers meet Thursday, testing their commitment to keeping pandemic-era stimulus measures in place. 

PARIS: France’s competition regulator fined Google 220 million euros ($267 million) yesterday after finding it had favored its own services for placing online ads at the expense of rivals, as US tech giants face growing pressure in Europe. 

ZURICH: The idyllic image of peaceful Swiss Alpine pastures is being shattered by upcoming votes on pesticides which have sharply divided opinion in rural Switzerland. 

COLOMBO: The dramatic recent fire on a container ship off Sri Lanka highlighted the risks involved in the island nation’s ambitions to become one of the world’s busiest maritime transport hubs. The MV X-Press Pearl burned for 13 days, releasing tons of chemicals and plastics. The sinking ship’s nearly 300 tons of fuel oil may now leak into the Indian Ocean.

PARIS: France has opened a probe into the personal wealth of Riad Salameh, central bank chief in crisis-hit Lebanon, sources said yesterday. Paris financial prosecutors have opened a preliminary probe into criminal association and money laundering by Salameh, a source close to the investigation and a judicial source said, following a similar move by Switzerland.

KUWAIT: Kuwait’s Ministry of Health confirmed yesterday there was a daily inventory of COVID-19 vaccines being received and actually used, therefore the whole quantity was accounted for. 

ABUJA: Telecoms operators in Nigeria restricted Twitter yesterday, a day after the government announced its indefinite suspension for activities “capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence”. International human rights groups have already condemned the move.