New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern joined hundreds of people in Christchurch to commemorate the two-year anniversary of the country’s worst mass murder.

Sri Lanka will ban the wearing of the burqa and shut more than a thousand Islamic schools, a government minister said, the latest actions affecting the country’s minority Muslim population.

Russian police detained around 150 people at a meeting of independent and opposition politicians in Moscow on Saturday, accusing them of links to an “undesirable organisation”, a monitoring group and a TV station said.

The leaders of the United States and allies India, Australia and Japan have vowed to work together to restore democracy in Myanmar, where violence has escalated as coup leaders try to disrupt a sweeping movement of protests and civil disobedience.

The first online summit of leaders of the US, India, Japan and Australia agreed to a plan to pool their financial and logistical resources to ramp up the manufacturing of Covid-19 vaccines in India and distribution in the Indo-Pacific region.

China’s plans for electoral reform in Hong Kong, coupled with the imposition of a security law, amount to a “combination of punches” to quell unrest in the southern city, a top Beijing official said yesterday.

A person who has had Covid and receives a single dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines is equally or better protected than someone who never had Covid and got two doses, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Embattled New York Governor Andrew Cuomo found himself under increasing risk of impeachment over allegations of sexual harassment Thursday when the Democratic head of the state assembly -- until now a key ally -- greenlighted a formal investigation of the claims.

More twins -- almost one in 40 children -- are being born than ever before, according to research published yesterday, citing the rapid rise in medically assisted reproduction as a major factor.

A digital collage by American artist Beeple sold Thursday for a record $69.3 million at Christie’s auctioneers, as virtual art rapidly establishes itself as a new -- and highly profitable -- creative genre.

Difficulty breathing, concentrating and even walking: five months after being diagnosed with Covid-19, Violaine Cousineau continues to suffer severe symptoms that prevent her from resuming normal life.

Millions of people around the world risk dying of hunger and the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change are increasing the threat, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said.

The United States, India, Japan and Australia have launched a joint drive to ramp up the Covid-19 vaccine supply in Asia, mounting a challenge to China in the first-ever summit of the four democracies.

India’s federal government conveyed to four northeastern Indian states sharing borders with Myanmar to keep a very strict watch on the entry of people from that country.

A total of 65 journalists and media workers were killed worldwide in 2020 while doing their jobs, according to the International Federation of Journalists.

Myanmar’s first satellite is being held on board the International Space Station following the Myanmar coup, while Japan’s space agency and a Japanese university decide what to do with it, two Japanese university officials said.

The European Union’s medicines regulator has dismissed reports of blood clots in people who had received the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, saying that there is no indication that the vaccine is linked to an increased risk of blood clots, BBC reported.

A Ukrainian couple who grew tired of arguing are trying to mend their on-off relationship by handcuffing their hands together for three months and documenting their experiences on social media.

Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini, who saw himself as the custodian of his people’s culture and was praised by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa as a “visionary monarch”, died aged 72.

Myanmar’s military junta has removed Arakan Army (AA) insurgents from its list of terrorist groups because the faction has stopped attacks and in order to help establish peace across the country, state media said yesterday.