World

Geneva: Blanket vaccine booster programs are likely to prolong the Covid-19 pandemic rather than ending it, as a result of unequal distribution of vaccines between rich and poor countries, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news briefing that “diverting supply to countries already having […]

Rome: Plans are progressing for a possible meeting next year between Pope Francis and the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church following their historic encounter in Havana in 2016, a top Russian Orthodox official said Wednesday. Metropolitan Hilarion, foreign relations chief of the Russian Orthodox Church, met for about an hour with Francis on Wednesday […]

Kabul: In a move that can further tarnish the image of the Taliban in the international arena, the group banned the use of photos of women on storefronts in Kabul city. The spokesman of Kabul municipality, Nematullah Barakzai, said the government has ordered the municipality’s officials to remove all photos of women on the signboards […]

New Delhi: The super-mutant Omicron variant that has rapidly spread to 106 countries in less than a month from its discovery, may have peaked, suggests data from South Africa and the UK. South Africa’s Gauteng Province – the epicentre of Omicron infection – has shown a decrease, according to the country’s latest weekly epidemiological update. […]

Jerusalem: Israel on Wednesday announced plans to roll out a fourth shot of Covid vaccine to fight the new vaccine evading Omicron variant. According to the country’s Health Ministry, the Pandemic Response team on Tuesday night recommended that anyone over the age of 60 and medical workers could receive a fourth shot of the Pfizer […]

Washington: Nearly $100 billion at minimum has been stolen from COVID-19 relief programmes set up to help businesses and people who lost their jobs due to the pandemic, the US Secret Service said on Tuesday. The estimate is based on Secret Service cases and data from the Labor Department and the Small Business Administration, said […]

London: A British court on Tuesday ordered the ruler of Dubai to pay his ex-wife and their children close to 550 million pounds ($730 million), in one of the most expensive divorce settlements in British history. The High Court said Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum must pay 251.5 million pounds to his sixth wife, […]

Washington: Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has warned against the rising Omicron cases around the world, saying that the world could be entering the worst part of the pandemic as the variant will result in the “worst surge” the world has seen so far. In a series of tweets, Bill Gates said he has cancelled most […]

New Delhi: Bosses from the world’s two biggest plane makers have called on the US government to delay the rollout of new 5G phone services, BBC reported. In a letter, top executives at Boeing and Airbus warned that the technology could have “an enormous negative impact on the aviation industry”. Concerns have previously been raised […]

London: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has confirmed that he will not introduce any further Covid restrictions in the UK before Christmas, but has warned that the situation remains “finely balanced” ahead of the new year. In a video posted on social media by Downing Street, the Prime Minister said: “People can go ahead with […]

London: The protection offered by the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, named Covishield in India, declines after three months of receiving two doses, according to a study published in the journal The Lancet. The findings suggest that booster programmes are needed to help maintain protection from severe disease, said a team of researchers led by University of […]

Geneva: Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), has called on the world to pull together to end the Covid-19 pandemic within the next year. Addressing reporters here on Monday, Tedros said the “fastest way” to get back to normal is to make “hard decisions,” this festive season amid the Omicron Covid-19 […]

Washington: Even as Omicron has now become the dominant variant in the US, the country has reported its first death from the highly transmissible variant, the media reported. An unvaccinated man in his 50s with underlying health conditions is believed to have been the first American to die from the Omicron variant of Covid, Fox […]

Los Angeles: The most likely order of symptoms that patients with COVID-19 experience is different for different variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, according to a study. The researchers from the University of Southern California in the US wanted to know whether the order of COVID-19 symptoms varied in patients from different geographical regions or with […]

Ottawa: Canada’s Covid-19 cases continued to surge as the Omicron variant rapidly took hold in the country. Canada reported 9,294 new Covid-19 cases as of Monday afternoon, raising the cumulative total to 1,892,511 cases including 30,054 deaths, Xinhua news agency reported, citing the CTV. Quebec, a populous province of Canada, reported 4,571 new Covid-19 cases […]

Karachi: A man was arrested on Monday for entering and vandalising a Hindu temple in Pakistan’s Karachi. The man entered a Hindu temple in Ranchore Line area of Karachi in the evening and damaged the statue of Hindu deity Jog Maya using a hammer, Pakistani Urdu language news television network Samaa TV reported. The accused […]

Oecusse: A defrocked American priest accused of sexually abusing orphaned and disadvantaged young girls under his care in East Timor was found guilty Tuesday and sentenced to 12 years in prison, in the first case of its kind in the staunchly Catholic nation. Richard Daschbach, 84, who spent decades as a missionary in the country’s […]

PETROLIA: A 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck the Northern California coast on Monday, bringing significant shaking but likely minimal damage to the sparsely populated area. A tsunami was not expected to follow, the National Weather Service said. The earthquake occurred just after noon and was centered off the coast about 210 miles (337 kilometers) northwest of San […]

Ottawa: The number of job vacancies in Canada reached has hit a record of 912,600 in the third quarter of 2021, according to official data. The record-high job vacancies coincided with growth in overall employment and falling unemployment due to the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, Xinhua news agency quoted Statistics Canada as saying on […]

Manila: The death toll from the powerful typhoon Rai that lashed the Philippines last week has spiked to 375, a police report said, adding that 56 people were still unaccounted for. “The increase of casualties is subject to validation from the affected regions,” Xinhua news agency quoted the Philippine National Police’s (PNP) latest report as […]

Washington: US President Biden announced his intent to appoint four Indian Americans as commissioners to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders, the White House announced on Monday. The Commission will advise the President on ways the public, private, and non-profit sectors can work together to advance equity and opportunity […]

Washington: Omicron has taken the hold to become the dominant Covid-19 variant in the US as more people are travelling and gathering for holidays. The infection cases caused by Omicron amounted to 73.2 per cent of all infection cases in the week ending December 18, from 12.6 per cent of all infection cases in the […]

Beijing: An Asian American who is one of the biggest pop stars in China apologised to his family and fans on Monday and said he will take a break from performing after a public dispute on social media with his ex-wife, who accused him of infidelity and hiring prostitutes. The days long back-and-forth has riveted […]

Berlin: A study has found that a molecular switch influences addiction behaviour and determines how strong the response to addictive drugs is. The research was published in the ‘EMBO Reports Journal’. A research team at Heidelberg University and the Sorbonne University in Paris (France) made the discovery in mice treated with ,. The researchers led […]