US Secretary of State Antony Blinken today made a strong pitch for a vibrant civil society in India and America in order to make their democracies more open, inclusive and equitable.

At least 18 people, mostly farm labourers, were killed and 25 injured when a truck rammed into a stationary double-decker bus in India’s Barabanki district of Utttar Pradesh state, police said today.

A new World Bank financing mechanism will allow developing countries to purchase Covid-19 vaccines collectively through the Covax facility, it was announced Monday.

The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday cut this year’s economic growth forecast for emerging Asia, as a spike in coronavirus cases from new variants and slow vaccinations cloud the region’s recovery prospects.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar yesterday called on the UN Security Council and member states to push for an emergency “Covid ceasefire” in light of an explosion of Covid-19 infections and deaths in Myanmar where attacks against the health workers escalated. 

The first person charged under Hong Kong’s national security law was found guilty yesterday of terrorism and inciting secession in a landmark case that carries long-term implications for how the legislation will reshape the city’s common law traditions. 

Antibodies triggered by Sinovac Biotech’s Covid-19 vaccine declined below a key threshold from around six months after a second dose for most recipients, although a third shot had a strong booster effect, according to a lab study.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee yesterday met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his official residence in New Delhi, their first meeting after the West Bengal state polls.

Bhutan has inoculated most of its eligible population with second doses of Covid-19 vaccinations in a week, in a speedy rollout hailed by Unicef as a “success story” for international donations. 

North and South Korea signalled a surprise thaw in relations yesterday, announcing the restoration of cross-border communications that were severed more than a year ago and an agreement between their two leaders to improve ties.

Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin yesterday said that Beijing’s expansive claims in the South China Sea have “no basis in international law”, taking aim at China’s growing assertiveness in the hotly contested waters. 

The bodies of three mountaineers who died during a winter expedition on Pakistan’s K2 have been found months after they went missing while scaling the world’s second-highest peak, officials said yesterday.

A Harappan-era city in the Rann of Kutch in western Indian state of Gujarat, was today declared India’s 40th Unesco World Heritage site.

Journalists from several media outlets covering recent floods in China were harassed online and by local residents, with staff from the BBC and Los Angeles Times receiving death threats, according to the Foreign Correspondents' Club of China (FCCC).

The Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) of Uttar Pradesh police arrested three persons today, including the gang leader, responsible for trafficking women and children from Bangladesh and Myanmar to India with forged documents.

The Indian Home Ministry told the parliament that it has sought six more months till January 9, 2022, to frame rules for the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

North and South Korea have restored suspended communication channels between them and their leaders agreed to improve ties, both governments said Tuesday, despite a 2 ½ year-stalemate in US-led diplomacy aimed at stripping North Korea of its nuclear weapons.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee yesterday announced the setting up a committee comprising retired judges Justice Madan B Lokur and Justice Jyotirmoy Bhattacharya to probe the Pegasus spyware controversy.

Rescuers waded through waist-deep mud in western India yesterday to reach injured residents and start a massive clean-up after heavy monsoon rains triggered landslides and floods that killed 159 people.

Myanmar’s junta yesterday cancelled the results of 2020 polls won by Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, announcing they were not “free and fair” almost six months after deposing the Nobel laureate in a coup.