World

Russian President Vladimir Putin, in advance of his June 16 meeting with United States President Joe Biden, said relations between the US and Russia are at a nadir. “We have a bilateral relationship that has deteriorated to its lowest point in recent years,” Putin told NBC News in an interview broadcast Friday with an English translation of his remarks. Putin and Biden will meet in Geneva next

South Africa’s NICD (National Institute for Communicable Disease) has announced that the country has technically entered the third wave of COVID-19. "South Africa technically entered the third wave today as the national 7-day moving average incidence (5959 cases) now exceeds the new wave threshold as defined by the Ministerial Advisory Committee," the institute tweeted. The MAC advisory defined

Ottawa, June 8: A man driving a pick-up truck slammed into and killed four members of a Muslim family in the south of Canada’s Ontario province, in what police said on Monday was a “premeditated” attack. A 20-year-old suspect wearing a vest “like body armour” fled the scene after the attack on Sunday evening, and was arrested at a mall seven kilometres (four miles) from the intersection in London

Washington, June 1: Joe Biden warned in a speech commemorating America’s war dead on Memorial Day that US democracy was “in peril” and called for empathy among his fellow citizens. Speaking at Arlington National Cemetery, the US president, joined by first lady Jill Biden, Vice-President Kamala Harris and her husband, paid tribute to America’s war dead whom he described as making the ultimate

The World Health Organization said Wednesday that a variant of Covid-19 behind the acceleration of India's explosive outbreak has been found in dozens of countries all over the world. The UN health agency said the B.1.617 variant of Covid-19, first found in India in October, had been detected in more than 4,500 samples uploaded to an open-access database "from 44 countries in all six WHO regions"

Seychelles, which has vaccinated more of its population against Covid-19 than any other country, saw active cases more than double in the week to May 7, raising concerns that inoculation is not helping turn the tide in some places. The World Health Organization said vaccine failure couldn’t be determined without a detailed assessment and that it was working on evaluating the situation. Kate O

Geneva, May 11: The World Health Organziation said on Monday that the B.1.617 variant first identified in India last year was being classified as a variant of global concern. "We classify it as a variant of concern at a global level," Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO technical lead on Covid-19, told a briefing. "There is some available information to suggest increased transmissibility." Indian coronavirus

Kabul, May 9: The death toll from an explosion outside a school in Afghanistan's capital city Kabul has risen to 58, Afghan officials say. Officials said on Sunday that medical staff in hospitals were struggling to provide medical care to at least 150 people, mostly schoolgirls, who were injured in the blast on Saturday. The blast occurred in front of a school in the Shia majority neighborhood of

Male, May 7: The Maldives speaker of parliament and former president, Mohamed Nasheed, was in critical care on Friday after being severely wounded in a bomb blast outside his home, hospital authorities said, in what police are treating as a terrorist attack. Nobody has claimed responsibility for Thursday's explosion in the capital Male that has revived security concerns in the Indian Ocean islands

United Nations, May 6: At least 155 million people faced acute hunger in 2020, including 133,000 who needed urgent food to prevent widespread death from starvation -- and the outlook for 2021 is equally grim or worse, a report by 16 organizations said Wednesday. The report, which focuses on 55 countries that account for 97% of humanitarian assistance, said the magnitude and severity of food crises