World

Islamabad, Jan 10: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday alleged that minorities in India were being targeted by extremist groups and warned that such an agenda "is a real and present threat" to regional peace. Khan took to Twitter to make the allegations in the wake of alleged inflammatory and provocative speeches against Muslims at an event in Haridwar in Uttarakhand held in December. On

Individuals who have recovered from Covid-19 are three to five times more likely to be reinfected with the Omicron variant compared to Delta, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). According to Hans Henri P Kluge, the WHO's Regional Director for Europe, Omicron variant can evade previous immunity in people. "So it can still infect those who have had Covid-19 in the past, those who are

Beijing, Dec 31: China on Friday defended the renaming of 15 more places in India's northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, claiming that the southern part of Tibet is an "inherent part" of its territory. India on Thursday strongly rejected China renaming 15 places in Arunachal Pradesh and asserted that the state has "always been" and will "always be" an integral part of India and that assigning

The number of daily new Covid cases worldwide has crossed one million for the first time since the pandemic began two years ago, according to an AFP tally Thursday. The figures for 23-29 December, the highest since the virus first emerged at the end of 2019, are based on tolls given daily by health authorities in each country. More than 7.3 million new Covid-19 cases were detected around the world

New York, Dec 28: Global travel chaos that convulsed the Christmas weekend spilled into Monday with major flight cancellations impacting millions returning from holiday breaks, as Covid-19 cases surge to record levels in Europe and several US states. Some 11,500 flights have been scrapped worldwide since Friday and tens of thousands more delayed, during one of the year's busiest travel periods --

Millions of people are facing travel disruption and increased Covid restrictions over Christmas, as the surging Omicron variant sees flights cancelled and safety curbs tightened. Italy, Spain and Greece have made face masks compulsory outdoors again. Catalonia, in northern Spain, has imposed an overnight curfew, and the Netherlands is in a strict lockdown. Despite early findings that Omicron is

Geneva, Dec 9: Certain features of the Omicron variant, including its global spread and large number of mutations, suggest it could have a major impact on the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, said the chief of the World Health Organization (WHO). With the Omicron variant now present in 57 countries, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned at a press briefing that it can spread more

The Covid-19 virus is spreading faster than ever in South Africa, the country’s president said Monday, an indication of how the new Omicron variant is driving the pandemic, but there are early indications that Omicron may cause less-serious illness than other forms of the virus. Researchers at a major hospital complex in Pretoria reported that their patients with the coronavirus are much less sick

London, Dec 6: The lead developer of the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine warned the next pandemic could be "more lethal", urging better preparedness in a speech set to be aired Monday. Sarah Gilbert, who is credited with saving millions of lives through her role in designing the jab, said the world must build on key lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic. "This will not be the last time a virus

Geneva, Dec 4: The Omicron variant has been detected in 38 countries but no deaths have yet been reported, the WHO said on Friday, as authorities worldwide rushed to stem the spread of the heavily mutated Covid-19 strain. The United States and Australia became the latest countries to confirm their first locally transmitted cases of the variant, as the number of Omicron infections from a Christmas