BRASILIA: Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro on Tuesday (Aug 11) angrily denied the existence of fires in the Amazon rainforest, calling it a “lie”, despite data produced by his own government showing that thousands of fires are surging across the region. Bolsonaro last year similarly denied a spike in fires that […]
Day: August 11, 2020
WELLINGTON: New Zealand officials are investigating the possibility that its first Covid-19 cases in more than three months were imported by freight, as the country plunged back into lockdown today. The discovery of four infected family members in Auckland led Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to swiftly reimpose tight restrictions on […]
SEOUL: South Korea and the United States will kick off their annual joint military drills this week but without mobilising US-based troops after scaling back the programme due to COVID-19 concerns, South Korean media reported on Wednesday (Aug 12). The allies have been discussing how to adjust the exercises, which […]
SYDNEY: Australia recorded its deadliest day of the coronavirus pandemic today and the biggest daily rise in infections in three days, denting hopes that a second wave gripping the state of Victoria may be stabilising. Victoria reported 21 deaths — two more than the previous deadliest days earlier this week […]
SYDNEY: Australia recorded its deadliest day of the coronavirus pandemic today and the biggest daily rise in infections in three days, denting hopes that a second wave gripping the state of Victoria may be stabilising. Victoria reported 21 deaths — two more than the previous deadliest days earlier this week […]
WELLINGTON: New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern today delayed a key step toward next month’s general election, as the country was plunged back into lockdown after the discovery of the first Covid-19 cases in more than three months. Ardern said she was suspending the dissolution of parliament, which was due […]
WASHINGTON: Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden picked Kamala Harris as his running mate on Tuesday (Aug 11), a landmark pick that puts the senator in contention to become America’s first female, and first black vice-president. The daughter of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father, Harris is also the first […]
GENEVA: The World Health Organization said any WHO stamp of approval on a Covid-19 vaccine candidate would require a rigorous safety data review, after Russia announced yesterday it had approved a vaccine. President Vladimir Putin said Russia had become the first country to approve a vaccine offering “sustainable immunity” against […]
MINSK: Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanouskaya said todbelay she had fled abroad for the sake of her children, after two nights of clashes following the contested re-election of strongman President Alexander Lukashenko. Tikhanouskaya, a 37-year-old former English teacher, emerged from obscurity to mount the biggest challenge in years to Lukashenko, […]