News in Brief(2024-04-24)

China issues highest rainstorm warning
BEIJING, Apr 23: More than 100,000 people have been evacuated due to heavy rain and fatal floods in southern China, with the government issuing its highest-level rainstorm warning for the affected area on Tuesday. Torrential rains have lashed Guangdong in recent days, swelling rivers and raising fears of severe flooding that state media said could be of the sort only "seen around once a century". On Tuesday, the megacity of Shenzhen was among the areas experiencing "heavy to very heavy downpours", the city's meteorological observatory said, adding the risk of flash floods was "very high". — AFP
Voyager-1 sends readable data again
NEW YORK, Apr 23 (BBC): The US space agency says its Voyager-1 probe is once again sending usable information back to Earth after months of spouting gibberish. The 46-year-old Nasa spacecraft is humanity's most distant object. A computer fault stopped it returning readable data in November but engineers have now fixed this. For the moment, Voyager is sending back only health data about its onboard systems, but further work should get the scientific instruments back online. — BBC
Venice will charge day trippers
ROME, Apr 23: Venice will this week begin charging day trippers for entry, a world first aimed at easing pressure on the Italian city drowning under the weight of mass tourism. On Thursday-a public holiday in Italy-day visitors will for the first time have to buy a five-euro ($5.3) ticket, monitored by inspectors carrying out spot checks at key points in the UNESCO world heritage site. — AFP
EU sanctions for Israel attack regrettable: Iran
TEHRAN, Apr 23: Iran described as "regrettable" Tuesday a decision by the European Union to expand the bloc's sanctions against its weapons programmes in response to its unprecedented retaliatory attack on Israel. "It is regrettable to see the EU deciding quickly to apply more unlawful restrictions against Iran just because Iran exercised its right to self-defence," Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said in a post on X. — AFP