Ageism is widespread worldwide and stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination based on age have only been amplified by the Covid-19 pandemic, the United Nations said yesterday.

North Korea accused the new US administration of adopting “lunatic theory” yesterday, ruling out any engagement with Washington unless it changed course.

An Indian passenger train rolled backwards for 35 kilometres, reports said yesterday, in an alarming but injury-free incident caught in a video that went viral on social media.

The Atlantic hurricane names Dorian, Laura, Eta and Iota are being retired due to the trail of death and destruction left in their wake, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization said Wednesday.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte claimed an “overwhelming” victory in elections on Wednesday, vowing to use his fourth term in office to rebuild the country after the coronavirus pandemic.

Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday mocked US President Joe Biden over his “killer” comment but said that Moscow would not sever ties with Washington over the spat.

Financial woes brought by last year’s coronavirus pandemic have pushed about 32 million Indians out of the middle class, undoing years of economic gains, a report showed yesterday, while job losses pushed millions into poverty.

A top Taiwanese official yesterday issued a plea for people to stop changing their name to “salmon” after dozens made the unusual move to take advantage of a restaurant promotion.

Russia wants an apology from the United States after President Joe Biden said he thought Vladimir Putin was a killer and may retaliate against Washington unless it gets one, a senior Russian lawmaker said on Thursday.

The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at record highs after the Fed predicted a fast economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and said it would maintain its interest rate at close to zero.

Georgia authorities charged a man with the fatal shootings of eight people, including six Asian women, at Atlanta-area spas, and the violence heightened fears among Asian Americans already rattled by a rise in hate crimes directed at them since the Covid-19 pandemic began.

The Biden administration is crafting a plan aimed at resetting US ties with the Palestinians that all but collapsed under former President Donald Trump, according to an internal draft memo.

The following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for Covid-19, the illness caused by the virus.

Tanzania’s President John Magufuli, one of Africa’s most prominent coronavirus sceptics, has died aged 61.

The European Union yesterday agreed to blacklist Chinese officials for human rights abuses, two diplomats said, the first sanctions against Beijing since an EU arms embargo in 1989 following the Tianamen Square crackdown.

Former president Donald Trump on Tuesday encouraged his Republican supporters -- one of the main groups resistant to Covid-19 vaccines -- to get their shots.

Sri Lanka faced renewed criticism yesterday over a new “de-radicalisation” law which rights groups see as another weapon targeting dissidents and minorities in the fractured nation.

Australia’s endangered regent honeyeater bird is losing its song, a sign that it could be nearing extinction, scientists warned in new research released yesterday.

Six Asian women were among eight people shot and killed at spas around the US city of Atlanta Tuesday, with a white man in custody on suspicion of staging all three attacks, police said.

President Joe Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin will face consequences for directing efforts to swing the 2020 US presidential election to Donald Trump, and that they would come soon.