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.

Injured West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, in a video message from hospital bed, said that she would return to the campaign trail in two to three days and also urged her supporters to maintain peace and restraint.

China’s rubber-stamp parliament yesterday voted for sweeping changes to Hong Kong’s electoral system -- including powers to veto candidates -- as Beijing moves to ensure only “patriots” run the city following huge pro-democracy rallies.

Prince William yesterday defended the British royal family after his younger brother Harry and wife Meghan accused them of racism in a bombshell interview watched around the world.

A bus carrying dozens of pilgrims plunged down a steep ravine on Indonesia’s Java island, killing at least 27 people including junior high school students, authorities said yesterday.

Closed schools, surging poverty, forced marriages and depression -- after a year of the pandemic, indicators measuring child and adolescent development have all regressed, a setback that heralds lasting stigma for an entire generation, Unicef warned yesterday.

The world yesterday marked one year since the coronavirus threat was declared a pandemic, with vaccinations offering hope but much of humanity still enduring highly restricted lives and no clear path back to normality.

Myanmar’s junta added new bribery allegations to its charges against deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi, while an advocacy group said security forces killed 12 protesters in one of the deadliest days since the military took power.

Prince William has denied that Britain’s royals were racist after Meghan, wife of his younger brother Harry, said one unnamed member of the family had asked how dark their son Archie’s skin might be.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit the United Arab Emirates on Thursday and may meet the Saudi crown prince there in an opportunity to showcase new Gulf ties before a closely contested election in Israel, its public broadcaster Kan said.

Callers seeking the parents of lost children have been regularly dialling in to radio and television programmes since a series of explosions levelled much of Equatorial Guinea’s largest city and sent thousands fleeing for the countryside.

Russia and China unveiled plans Tuesday for a joint lunar space station, as Moscow seeks to recapture the glory of its space pioneering days of Soviet times, and Beijing gears up its own extraterrestrial ambitions.

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) yesterday launched a $3.5 billion five-year strategy to tackle future pandemic risks and set out what it called its “moonshot” plan to ensure new vaccines against emerging disease epidemics within 100 days.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee yesterday alleged she was pushed by four or five men when she was trying to get into her car during campaign for coming assembly polls in Nandigram in east Midnapore district leaving her injured in the leg.

Sri Lanka has invited the new foreign minister of Myanmar’s junta to a regional meeting next month, sparking accusations on social media that Colombo is tacitly endorsing the military coup.

India yesterday said the first summit of the leaders of the so-called Quad framework will take place virtually on March 12. The leaders of India, Australia, Japan and the United States will address “regional and global issues of shared interest, and exchange views on practical areas of cooperation towards maintaining a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific region,” a statement by India’s foreign ministry said.

China could invade Taiwan within the next six years, as Beijing accelerates its moves to supplant American military power in Asia, a top US commander said Tuesday.

Russia plans to hold a conference on Afghanistan in Moscow later this month, the TASS news agency said on Tuesday, but the US State Department did not confirm American attendance.

Average life expectancy in Italy has been shortened by almost one year to 82.3 years because of the coronavirus pandemic, national statistics office Istat said yesterday.

Britain’s royal family has begun a fight back against explosive racism claims made by Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, indicating the couple’s comments will not go unchallenged as the country divides into partisan camps.