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Sales of video games, consoles and accessories hit a record high in the United States last year as people hunkered down at home due to the pandemic turned to play. Video game spending in the U.S. totaled $56.9 billion last year, 27% more than what was spent in 2019, according NPD market research group analyst Mat Piscatella. A total of $7.7 billion of that was spent in December, which posted the highest sales figures ever for that month, NPD figures showed. And that did not even count money spent on smartphone games. Nintendo Switch was the top selling console last year, with the PlayStation 5 coming in second, according to Piscatella. Sony's PlayStation 5 and Microsoft's...

Keep on reading: Video game sales hit US high in pandemic-plagued 2020

MANILA, Philippines --- President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday night said he would not allow any company to benefit from its franchise unless it had its obligations with the government. "There will be no opening. I assure you, all franchises will not be implemented. I will not implement them until they settle their full accounts with the government," Duterte said, speaking partly in Filipino, during a meeting with select Cabinet officials. "For all I care, you can have a thousand franchises. You will not see the light until you come to government with clean hands," he added. The President did not identify which company he was referring to. But he made this announcement after Batang...

Keep on reading: Duterte to firms: No franchise until you settle your accounts with gov’t

Procedures to diagnose and treat heart disease fell by almost two-thirds in spring 2020 compared to 2019, a study suggested Friday, in the latest sign of the coronavirus pandemic's effect on broader healthcare systems. The survey from the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) found there was a 64% reduction in cardiology diagnostic procedures in March to April 2020 compared with the same period in the previous year, with "abrupt and significant" impact on services evident across all regions. Around 718,000 cardiac diagnostic procedures were not performed in the centers surveyed in those two months due to the effects of the first wave of the pandemic, the author...

Keep on reading: Pandemic leads to slump in heart disease tests, says study

The former Florida data analyst who has accused state officials of covering up the extent of the pandemic has turned herself in to authorities days after a warrant was issued for her arrest, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE).

Twelve miners trapped underground for more than a week in a Chinese gold mine have managed to get a note to rescuers, state media reported Monday.

When Finlay McAfee boarded a flight from Edinburgh to Paris to surprise his girlfriend Salma, he knew it was a big, romantic gesture.

FRANKFURT --- Norway has changed its policy on the use of Pfizer and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine to consider excluding the terminally ill, following reports of deaths in highly frail recipients after the inoculation was given, BioNTech said on Monday. "Norwegian Health Authorities have now changed (their) recommendation in relation to vaccination of the terminally ill (Clinical Frailty Scale 8 or higher)," BioNTech. The Clinical Frailty Scale, a widely used system of classification in elderly care, defines degree 8 patients as approaching end of life and typically unable to "recover even from a minor illness". The Norwegian Medicines Agency said in a statement posted on Frid...

Keep on reading: Norway advises caution in use of Pfizer vaccine for the most frail

German tenor Jonas Kaufmann says not being able to perform in front of a live audience for months has been hugely detrimental for musicians who thrive on connecting with real people. "What we miss is this connection and it doesn't matter if they wear masks or whatever," the 51-year-old told AFP on Thursday after performing at Madrid's Teatro Real opera house. "I would probably feel them, sense them even if they were behind a curtain. But they are there. This is what really matters," added the tenor, whose last performance before an audience was in November in Denmark. While many of the world's major venues are shut, Spain's main opera house has remained open, although with s...

Keep on reading: ‘We need you,’ German tenor Kaufmann tells pandemic public

Egypt announced Saturday the discovery of a new trove of treasures at the Saqqara necropolis south of Cairo, including an ancient funerary temple. The tourism and antiquities ministry said the "major discoveries" made by a team of archaeologists headed by famed Egyptologist Zahi Hawass also included more than 50 sarcophagi. The wooden sarcophagi, which date back to the New Kingdom, were found in 52 burial shafts at depths of 10 to 12 meters (40 feet), the ministry said in a statement. It quoted Hawass as saying that the "funerary temple of Queen Naert, the wife of King Teti" as well as three warehouses made of bricks were found on the site. Saqqara, home to more than a do...

Keep on reading: Egypt makes ‘major discoveries’ at Saqqara archaeological site

The French government has put an abrupt end to a $20 billion takeover of the country's biggest retailer by Canada's largest convenience store operator.

GENEVA ---The world is on the brink of "catastrophic moral failure" in sharing COVID-19 vaccines, the head of the World Health Organization said on Monday, urging countries and manufacturers to spread doses more fairly around the world. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the prospects for equitable distribution were at "serious risk" just as its COVAX vaccine-sharing scheme aimed to start distributing inoculations next month. He noted 44 bilateral deals were signed last year and at least 12 have already been signed this year. "This could delay COVAX deliveries and create exactly the scenario COVAX was designed to avoid, with hoarding, a chaotic market, an u...

Keep on reading: Vaccine nationalism puts world on brink of ‘catastrophic moral failure’ – WHO chief

Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny was ordered to remain in custody for 30 days during a makeshift hearing in Russia on Monday, less than 24 hours after he returned to the country and five months after he was poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok.

German Alexander Zverev has parted ways with Roger Federer's sports management company Team8, the world number seven said. Zverev, who recently split with coach David Ferrer, reached his maiden Grand Slam final at the U.S. Open, picked up two ATP titles in Cologne and made the final of the ATP Masters 1000 event in Paris in 2020. "I reached my first Grand Slam final without my parents and brother being court-side due to them contracting COVID-19," Zverev wrote on Instagram. "For this reason and because of the ongoing worldwide restrictions, I have decided to go back to the roots and have my family help me with my coaching, as well as ... with my management. "I want to tha...

Keep on reading: Tennis: Zverev splits with Federer’s management firm

Dozens of tennis stars stuck in hotel quarantine ahead of the Australian Open were told Monday they would get no "special treatment" to leave their rooms to train, despite complaints from some players. Australian health authorities rejected demands for tough isolation rules to be eased, as players resorted to hitting balls off windows, walls and upturned beds in the hope of being ready for the year's first Grand Slam. The Australian Open is due to make a delayed start in Melbourne on February 8, but its troubled build-up hit further problems after positive coronavirus cases were detected on three of the 17 charter flights that carried players and staff. The 72 players on the...

Keep on reading: ‘No special treatment’: Australia rebuffs tennis stars’ quarantine complaints

MANILA, Philippines --- The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) has called out its former boss, lawyer Florin Hilbay, for his statements on the postponement of the Anti-Terrorism Act's oral arguments. Current Solicitor General Jose Calida has asked the Supreme Court to reset oral arguments on the anti-terrorism law as some OSG staff involved in the case got infected with SARS-COV-2, the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19. On Monday, OSG said Hilbay's supposedly "malicious tweet" minimizes the serious threats of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the "wisdom of the Supreme Court" in granting Calida's petition. Hilbay tweeted last Friday that it is sad the government's top lawye...

Keep on reading: OSG hits ex-chief for ‘malicious’ remark on SC deferral of anti-terror law oral debates

The United Nations aviation agency on Friday predicted "prolonged depressed demand" for air travel and more financial woes for airlines, following a year of fewer flights and big losses blamed on the pandemic Air travel plunged 60% in 2020 as nations closed borders and restricted travel to slow the spread of Covid-19, the International Civil Aviation Organization said in a report. The near-term outlook, it said, "is for prolonged depressed demand, with downside risks to global air travel recovery predominating in the first quarter of 2021, and likely to be subject to further deterioration." With just 1.8 billion passengers taking to the air during the first year of the pande...

Keep on reading: UN agency warns of another bad year for airlines

Ghana's Covid-19 infection rates are skyrocketing and include new strains of the virus not before seen in the country, filling treatment centres and threatening to overwhelm the health system, President Nana Akufo-Addo said on Sunday.

MANILA, Philippines --- The Senate Committee of the Whole will resume its public hearing into the government's Covid-19 vaccination plan on Friday, January 22, as senators plan to raise more questions on the government's deals with vaccine makers, particularly China's Sinovac Biotech. Friday's hearing will be a continuation of the two hearings conducted by the Senate last week. "With the approval of my colleagues, we will schedule another hearing on Friday at 10 a.m.," Senate President Vicente Sotto III said during the chamber's session on Monday. This developed after Senator Panfilo Lacson, in a privilege speech, suggested an executive session where vaccine czar Carlito Galvez ...

Keep on reading: Senate sets 3rd hearing on government’s vaccine plan probe

Normally accustomed to practicing for five hours a day in the build up to a grand slam, more than 70 tennis players are now limited to the confines of their hotel rooms as they begin the mandatory two-week quarantine in Melbourne ahead of the Australian Open.