Barcelona prosecutors have filed suit against energy giant Endesa for the deaths of hundreds of birds electrocuted by its high-wire power lines, court documents show.

EU lawmakers yesterday called for the bloc’s top two officials to explain a snowballing diplomatic scandal that saw Commission head Ursula von der Leyen left without a chair at talks with Turkey’s president.

A French documentary has cast fresh doubts over the world’s most expensive painting, the “Salvator Mundi” credited to Leonardo da Vinci, revealing a resulting diplomatic tussle between France and its Saudi owner.

India, South Korea and Thailand faced mounting coronavirus infections yesterday, undermining cautious hopes that Asia might be emerging from the worst of the pandemic as worries about safety threatened to delay vaccination drives.

Myanmar security forces have arrested Paing Takhon, a model and actor who had spoken out against the coup, as activists placed shoes filled with flowers in parts of Yangon to commemorate dead protesters.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern temporarily suspended entry for all travellers from India, including its own citizens, following a high number of positive coronavirus cases arriving from that country.

The Biden administration announced it would provide $235 million in US aid to the Palestinians, restarting funding for the United Nations agency supporting refugees and restoring other assistance cut off by then-President Donald Trump.

Troops in Myanmar opened fire on pro-democracy protesters, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens, the latest victims of a campaign to crush opposition to the ruling military junta, activists and media said.

Diplomats from major powers met separately with Iran and the United States to discuss how to bring both back into compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal that Washington abandoned three years ago.

Italy recommended that AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 shot only be used on those over 60 and Britain that people under 30 should get an alternative, due to possible links between the vaccine and very rare cases of blood clots.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani yesterday said that talks in Vienna on rescuing a troubled 2015 nuclear deal had opened a “new chapter”.

India’s Election Commission yesterday issued a notice to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee asking her to explain her comments made during an election campaign meeting on April 3 when she asked the Muslims not to vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party.

One in three Covid-19 survivors in a study of more than 230,000 mostly American patients were diagnosed with a brain or psychiatric disorder within six months, suggesting the pandemic could lead to a wave of mental and neurological problems, scientists said on Tuesday.

Pakistan rights campaigners have accused Prime Minister Imran Khan of “baffling ignorance” after the former playboy cricketer blamed how women dress for a rise in rape cases.

In its latest annual report detailing the state of human rights across the world, Amnesty International denounces world leaders for weaponising the Covid-19 pandemic to ramp up their assault on basic rights, while failing to stand up to the challenges posed by the coronavirus.

India yesterday reported a record 115,736 new coronavirus cases as world grappled with new surge in infections amid a shortage of vaccines which WHO called a ‘travesty’.

Two Uyghur former government officials in China's Xinjiang have been handed death sentences for carrying out "separatist activities", a court said, as Beijing comes under increasing fire for its actions towards minority groups in the region.

Mexico’s health regulator Cofepris has authorised the emergency use of India’s Covid-19 vaccine COVAXIN, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said.

The United States said it would discuss calls to boycott the Beijing Olympics with its allies after growing pressure to shun the Winter Games on human rights grounds.

The University of Oxford said it had paused a small UK trial testing the Covid-19 vaccine it developed with AstraZeneca Plc in children and teenagers, as it waits for more data on rare blood clotting issues in adults who received the shot.