You and I are human beings, with family, perhaps children and grandchildren, certainly with friends and neighbours. We are of different nationalities, ethnicities, beliefs. We have all seen extreme poverty, and witnessed wars and the killing and the dying, whether firsthand or through the news.

Top US infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci has called on China to release the medical records of nine people whose ailments might provide vital clues into whether COVID-19 first emerged as the result of a lab leak, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.

Facebook Inc on Friday suspended former U.S. President Donald Trump from its platform until at least January 2023 and announced changes to how it will treat rule-breaking world leaders in the future.

The number of babies born in Japan hit a new record low last year, official data showed, highlighting concern over the pandemic’s impact on one of the world’s lowest fertility rates.

A single car parking space has been sold for a whopping HK$10 million ($1.3 million) at a luxury Hong Kong apartment complex, local media reported yesterday.

A London panel investigating the plight of Uyghurs in China yesterday heard witness testimony of torture and gang rapes, in a process slammed by Beijing as a mendacious smear.

There is no evidence that unexplained aerial phenomena spotted in recent years by US military personnel are aliens, an upcoming government report quoted by The New York Times Thursday said, but officials still can’t explain the mysterious aircraft.

Previous Covid-19 infection substantially reduces the risk of a new infection for up to 10 months afterwards, according to a study of care home residents and staff by University College London (UCL) scientists.

Group of Seven finance ministers kicked off talks yesterday, with optimism growing that the world’s wealthiest countries will support US-backed plans for a minimum global level of corporate tax.

The EU and the UK launched parallel competition probes yesterday against Facebook, accused of using data from advertisers to unfairly dominate the online classifieds market.

Envoys from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations arrived in Myanmar for talks with junta leader Min Aung Hlaing, as the coup-stricken nation enters its fifth month of crippling unrest.

Two envoys from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) held talks in Myanmar with military ruler Min Aung Hlaing, army-run TV reported, as part of a visit aimed at ending a bloody crisis in the country.

India has decided to extend the validity of its visa or stay stipulation period for foreign nationals, who are stuck in that country due to Covid-19 induced suspension of normal international flights, from June 30 to August 31.

The Lahore High Court yesterday acquitted a Christian couple of blasphemy charges and set aside their death sentence awarded by a district and sessions court in 2014.

A member of the committee that organizes Hong Kong’s annual candlelight vigil for the victims of the Tiananmen Square crackdown was arrested early Friday on the 32nd anniversary.

A court in military-ruled Myanmar on Wednesday jailed two journalists for incitement and spreading false news, their organisations said, part of an ongoing crackdown that a top US official called an attack on freedom of expression.

The coronavirus pandemic has severely affected children’s rights worldwide, with young people risking a “generational catastrophe” if governments do not act, a rights group said in an annual survey yesterday.

The head of a Pakistani province yesterday ordered that government employees who refuse to be vaccinated against Covid-19 would not be paid from next month.

The US military on Wednesday took responsibility for unintentionally killing 23 civilians in foreign war zones in 2020, a death toll far below figures compiled by NGOs.

Prosecutors on Wednesday asked a US judge to sentence the white former police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd, an unarmed Black man whose death last year sparked nationwide protests, to 30 years in prison.