WASHINGTON: Mortgage rates are finally ticking up in the United States, one year after the Federal Reserve cut its lending rate to boost the economy as the COVID-19 pandemic arrived, but that’s not expected to cool the hot housing market. 

MOSCOW: Russian construction executive Vitaly Lychits bemoans a shortage of cheap foreign workers during the coronavirus pandemic as he walks across frost-covered ground at a building site in southwest Moscow.

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s worst economic downturn in decades has pushed a battered population to the brink with no solution in sight as the country’s barons wrangle over forming a new government. 

KUWAIT: Zain Group Annual General Meeting (AGM) was held today at Zain Group’s headquarters in Kuwait, with a livestreaming available for shareholders and qualified parties, attended with a quorum of 72.49 percent that approved the recommended cash dividend of 33 percent (33 fils per share) to the shareholders already registered in the company’s record as of 1 April 2020. Cash dividends will be paid to shareholders commencing April 7, 2021.

PARIS: Global oil demand will return to pre-pandemic levels in two years and reach record heights by 2026 unless governments take swift action to meet climate goals, the International Energy Agency said yesterday. 

KUWAIT: Kuwait yesterday reported 1,504 new coronavirus infections, taking total cases to 213,673, while eight people died, taking the death toll to 1,194. 

KUWAIT: Passengers from 11 countries are required to submit a PCR test result before their arrival to Kuwait that is approved by the Medical Utility Network Accreditor (MUNA) system, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said. 

DAMASCUS: Damascus has raised petrol prices in government-held parts of Syria by more than 50 per cent after the Syrian pound hit record lows in the black market. 

BEIJING: The encrypted messaging app Signal, recommended by Tesla’s Elon Musk, appeared to have been blocked in China yesterday, closing off one of the last US social media platforms still freely available in the country.