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 […]
Year: 2020
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, […]
WELLINGTON: New Zealand marked 100 days without a domestic transmission of the coronavirus on Sunday (Aug 9), but warned against complacency as countries like Vietnam and Australia which once had the virus under control now battle a resurgence in infections. New Zealand’s successful fight against COVID-19 has made the Pacific […]
MUMBAI: At least seven people died after a massive fire broke out at a hotel that was being used as a COVID-19 facility in India’s southern Andhra Pradesh state early on Sunday, police said. “Several people who were trapped and injured have been rescued and moved to a government hopsital. […]
NAGASAKI: The Japanese city of Nagasaki on Sunday (Aug 9) commemorates the 75th anniversary of its destruction by a US atomic bomb, with the coronavirus pandemic forcing a scaling back of ceremonies. Nagasaki was flattened in an atomic inferno three days after Hiroshima – twin nuclear attacks that rang in […]