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Israel’s Tel Aviv has leapfrogged Hong Kong and Singapore to become the world’s most expensive city to live in, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). The Israeli city climbed from fifth place last year to top the Worldwide Cost of Living 2021 report for the first time, pushing Paris down to the joint second place with Singapore. Zurich and Hong Kong rounded out the top five.  The soaring shekel and price increases for goods including groceries and transport were the main factors in Tel Aviv taking the top spot, according to the EIU. It said prices for goods and services studied across cities had risen 3.5% year-on-year in local currency terms, compared with 1.9% last year. The inflation rate was the fastest recorded for the past five years. Cost increases were the biggest for transport as higher oil prices boosted the price of unleaded petrol by 21%. Other key findings in the study include: Rome saw the biggest drop in the ranking from 32nd to 48th place Tehran leaped fro

  Taiwan tightens border controls on six African countries due to new Omicron variant  Taiwan has announced tighter border controls due to the new Covid-19 variant Omicron, the island’s Central Epidemic Command Centre (CECC) announced Friday. South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, and Zimbabwe have been added to its list of "high-risk countries" beginning Monday, November 29, the government said. Passengers who have traveled to or transited through these six countries in the past 14 days will have to undergo 14 days quarantine at a government quarantine facility and Covid-19 testing. Flight crew members of Taiwanese airlines returning from or who have transited through high-risk countries will also be required to undergo quarantine in a designated hotel or a company dormitory for 14 days.  Taiwan's CECC classifies the new variant as "highly transmissible” and states the new measures aim to “reduce the risk of the variant entering the community." Hon