MIAMI: Miami resident Maria Ruby learned last month that her rent will shoot up 65 percent in February. She cannot afford it and does not know where to go. Her plight illustrates an unexpected effect of the coronavirus pandemic: Miami is seeing some of the highest housing cost increases anywhere in the United States. 

OTTAWA: Hundreds of trucks and thousands of people blocked the streets of central Ottawa on Saturday as part of a self-titled “Freedom Convoy” to protest vaccine mandates required to cross the US border. 

BEUNOS AIRES: Argentine President Alberto Fernandez unveiled what he called a “reasonable” new debt repayment deal with the International Monetary Fund on Friday, the day a $700-million repayment was due. 

SYDNEY: Australia unveiled a billion-dollar package to protect the climate-ravaged Great Barrier Reef on Friday, hoping to prevent the vast network of corals from being removed from UNESCO’s World Heritage list.

ISTANBUL: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened Turkish media with legal action over content “incompatible with national and moral values,” in a move seen by critics as an attempt to stifle the dissent. 

BANGKOK: Oil washing up on a beach on Thailand’s east coast could be the “nail in the coffin” for pandemic-hit hotels and restaurants, local hospitality businesses said yesterday. 

KUWAIT: The Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK) will hold an event tomorrow (31 January 2022) to unveil the CBK’s enhanced capabilities in bolstering monetary stability and financial stability titled, “Stability and Enablement”.

MUMBAI: Air India, India’s ailing national carrier, landed back in the hands of its founders on Thursday decades after it was nationalized and following years as a monumental burden on the public purse. 

MANILA: The Philippine economy rebounded stronger than expected in 2021 after a relaxation of COVID-19 rules fuelled consumer spending and got more people back to work, officials said yesterday as they forecast a return to pre-pandemic growth this year.