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.

Iran and world powers held what they described as “constructive” talks and agreed to form working groups to discuss the sanctions Washington might lift and the nuclear curbs Tehran might observe as they try to revive the 2015 nuclear deal.

The United States is set to start talks with EU negotiators yesterday in Austria’s capital Vienna aimed at salvaging an international agreement on Iran’s nuclear programme, which Washington withdrew from in 2018.

Rescuers were searching for dozens of people still missing yesterday after floods and landslides swept away villages in Indonesia and East Timor, killing at least 120 people and leaving thousands more homeless.

Coronavirus-related deaths worldwide crossed 3 million yesterday, according to a Reuters tally, as the latest global resurgence of Covid-19 infections is challenging vaccination efforts across the globe.

Jordan yesterday banned all news outlets and social media users from publishing any content related to King Abdullah’s half-brother Prince Hamza after the latter was accused of plotting to destabilise the country.

US climate envoy John Kerry yesterday pressed India, the world’s third-biggest carbon emitter, to set more ambitious green goals ahead of UN talks in late 2021 and Joe Biden’s upcoming climate summit.

Nepal is experiencing its worst fire season in almost a decade, officials said yesterday, as huge blazes rage across the country’s forests, engulfing the Himalayan nation in a shroud of brownish haze.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday said “false narratives” are being built around with Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and that “there is a big conspiracy behind it.”

Myanmar’s pro-democracy protesters sprayed red paint on roads in Yangon yesterday in a reminder to the junta that it had blood on its hands as the crisis created by a military coup in the Southeast Asian nation dragged on with no end in sight.

Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday gave final approval to legislation allowing him to hold office for two additional six-year terms, giving himself the possibility to stay in power until 2036.

The man behind Vietnam’s successful handling of the coronavirus pandemic, Nguyen Xuan Phuc, was formally sworn in as president in Hanoi yesterday.

Israeli prosecutors yesterday accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of treating favours as “currency” at the opening of a corruption trial which, along with an inconclusive election, has clouded his prospects of remaining in office.

Protesters in Myanmar clapped together yesterday in the latest show of dissent against the military junta, as a regional bloc prepared for talks on the crisis that has killed nearly 600 people.

Ahead of the third phase of assembly elections in West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee yesterday expressed confidence in her chances to win the assembly election. She said, “I will win Bengal on one leg and in the future, will get victory in Delhi on two legs.”