Innovation in the clean energy sector has slowed, a report released yesterday found, a worrying development as plans to meet carbon emissions reductions targets rely on yet-to-be-developed technologies.

Iran’s president has ordered a probe into the “conspiracy” of leaked audio in which the foreign minister says the military was too influential in diplomacy, a government spokesman announced yesterday.

Human Rights Watch yesterday said that Israel is committing the crime of “apartheid” by seeking to maintain Jewish “domination” over Palestinians and its own Arab population, an explosive allegation fiercely denounced by Israel.

People in India are rushing unnecessarily to hospital, exacerbating a crisis over surging Covid-19 infections caused by mass gatherings, more contagious variants and low vaccination rates, the World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday.

Two Spanish journalists who went missing on Monday in Burkina Faso have been murdered, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said today.

On April 16, Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute of India (SII) -- and part-producer of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine called Covishield -- tweeted to the President of the United States Joe Biden, asking to lift the embargo on raw material exports to vaccine makers outside the United States. His tweet and subsequent pleading by many global leaders have sent ripples across the United States, with an increasing number of US lawmakers joining calls for Biden to approve exports of vaccines, raw materials, and waive IP patents on vaccines. Biden finally agreed, approving export of raw materials and agreeing to share 60 million Covid-19 vaccines with the developing world. However, the cost of months of delay to prioritise Biden’s “America First” foreign policy, in light of India’s Covid-19 woes, provides grim reminders of the costs of American Exceptionalism.

An international rights watchdog accused Israel on Tuesday of pursuing policies of apartheid and persecution against Palestinians - and against its own Arab minority - that amount to crimes against humanity.

The Brazilian health regulator Anvisa rejected importing the Russian-made Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine requested by state governors battling a deadly second wave of the virus that is battering Latin America's largest nation.

A prominent ethnic insurgent group captured and burned down a military base in eastern Myanmar near the Thai border early Tuesday morning, an official from the group said.

Thailand's Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha was fined 6,000 baht ($190) on Monday for breaching rules aimed at containing the coronavirus by not wearing a face mask, the governor of Bangkok said.

Activists opposed to Myanmar’s military junta called on people to stop paying electricity bills and agricultural loans from yesterday, and to keep their children away from school, scorning the top general’s pledge at a regional summit to end the post-coup crisis.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Sunday said Pakistan would be happy to talk out differences and resolve outstanding issues through dialogue if India was willing to revisit the unilateral decisions it took on Aug 5, 2019.

The commander of foreign forces in Afghanistan, US Army General Scott Miller, on Sunday said an orderly withdrawal of foreign forces and the handing over of military bases and equipment to the Afghan forces had begun.

A majority of Americans approve of President Joe Biden’s performance during his first 100 days in office, three new polls found Sunday. Overall, the polls showed a range of 52-58 percent of US adults who say they approve of the job Biden is doing, compared with 39-42 percent who say they disapprove.

Nasa’s mini helicopter Ingenuity on Sunday successfully completed its third flight on Mars, moving farther and faster than ever before, with a peak speed of 6.6 feet per second.

Thailand’s prime minister was fined for not wearing a mask yesterday after new Covid-19 restrictions came into force to try to halt the country’s spiralling outbreak.

Military expenditure worldwide rose to nearly $2 trillion in 2020, defying the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, researchers said yesterday.

Iran’s top diplomat complained in a leaked recording that the elite Revolutionary Guards had more influence in foreign affairs and the country’s nuclear dossier than him, in remarks that shine a light on ties between the government and the powerful force.

As India reels under an alarming surge of Covid-19 cases, the country's armed forces are recalling all their medical personnel who have retired or taken pre-mature retirement in the last two years to work in Covid-19 facilities for civilians near their present place of residence.

The Madras High Court today slammed the Election Commission of India for allowing political rallies to be conducted amid the raging coronavirus pandemic in the country, and observed that the polls body officers should probably be “booked on murder charges”.