World

Geneva, Feb 26: Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and General Assembly President Volkan Bozkir have welcomed the joint statement by India and Pakistan reaffirming their commitment to upholding the ceasefire along the Line of Control in Kashmir. Guterres's Spokesperson Stephane Guterres said on Thursday, "The Secretary-General is encouraged by the joint statement issued by the militaries of India

London, Feb 26: Oxford University has confirmed that one of its laboratories involved in COVID-19 research suffered cyberattack after an investigation by Forbes suggested that hackers were showing off access to a number of systems. The university on Thursday, however, said that there has been "no impact" on any clinical research. The hack is understood to have taken place in the middle of the

Washington, Feb 26: US President Joe Biden believes that it is important and long overdue to modernise the immigration system, and this includes taking steps to help ensure high skilled workers can stay in the country, the White House has said. Biden has revoked a policy issued by his predecessor during the COVID-19 pandemic that blocked many Green Card applicants from entering the US, a move that

Melbourne, Feb 26: Facebook announced on Friday preliminary agreements with three Australian publishers, a day after the Parliament passed a law that would make the digital giants pay for news. Facebook said letters of intent had been signed with independent news organizations Private Media, Schwartz Media and Solstice Media. The commercial agreements are subject to the signing of full agreements

Washington, Feb 26: Chinese short-video making app TikTok has agreed to pay $92 million to settle a class-action lawsuit over privacy violations in the US. According to a report in The Verge, the lawsuit claimed that the platform collected "highly sensitive personal data" to track users and put them to target advertising. "While we disagree with the assertions, rather than go through lengthy

Moody's Investors Service says that India's (Baa3 negative) weak fiscal position will remain a key credit challenge in 2021. According to Moody's, the prospects for fiscal consolidation remain weak particularly given the government's mixed track record of implementing revenue-raising measures. Although the government has not provided an explicit medium-term fiscal consolidation road map, according

London, Feb 25: Nirav Modi, the diamond merchant wanted in India on charges of fraud and money laundering in the estimated USD 2-billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam case, on Thursday lost his legal battle against extradition as a UK judge ruled that he does have a case to answer before the Indian courts. The 49-year-old appeared via videolink from Wandsworth Prison in south-west London and

Canberra, Feb 25: The Australian parliament has passed an amended version of the law forcing tech companies to share revenue with media businesses after the original variant triggered a backlash from Facebook, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg announced on Thursday. On Tuesday, the treasury presented amendments to the original bargaining code after Facebook removed posts of Australian news outlets and

Washington, Feb 25: President Joe Biden has lifted a freeze on green cards issued by his predecessor during the pandemic that lawyers said was blocking most legal immigration to the United States. Former President Donald Trump last spring halted the issuance of green cards until the end of 2020 in the name of protecting the coronavirus-wracked job market a reason that Trump gave to achieve many of

Washington, Feb 24: The Biden administration has announced to do away with the stringent Trump-era citizenship test and revert to the easier 2008 version, making the US naturalisation process more accessible to all eligible individuals. The new process comes into effect on March 1, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said in a press release on Monday. On December 1 last year, USCIS