A new strain of Covid-19 identified in the United Kingdom can spread more quickly and urgent work is under way to confirm that it does not cause a higher mortality rate, England’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said on Saturday.

Suspected Russian hackers who broke into US government agencies also spied on less high-profile organizations, including groups in Britain, a US internet provider and a county government in Arizona, according to web records and a security source.

The Trump administration has notified Congress that it intends to shutter the last two remaining US consulates in Russia.

The International Organization for Migration’s (IOM)’s Missing Migrants Project has recorded over 3,000 deaths on migratory routes worldwide so far in 2020.

Super cyclone Yasa flattened entire villages as it tore through Fiji, aid agencies said yesterday, with a baby among two confirmed deaths and rescue workers racing to the worst-hit communities.

More than 300 Nigerian schoolboys seized in a mass abduction claimed by Boko Haram experienced their first full day of freedom yesterday after a nearly week-long ordeal.

A suspected rickshaw bomb killed at least 15 civilians, including 11 children, at a Koran recitation ceremony in central Afghanistan yesterday, officials said.

All five babies born to women with Covid-19 infection during a study in Singapore have had antibodies against the virus, although the researchers said it is not yet clear what level of protection this may offer.

British and EU negotiators plunged into the “final hours” of their scramble for a post-Brexit trade deal yesterday, deeply divided on the highly-charged issue of fishing rights.

US President-elect Joe Biden unveiled his environment team Thursday, choosing congresswoman Deb Haaland to serve as the first Native American interior secretary and Jennifer Granholm, a former Michigan governor, as energy secretary.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday said his government was a victim of “lies and conspiracy” as it struggled to defuse growing protests by tens of thousands of farmers threatening to encircle New Delhi.

Vice President Mike Pence became the highest ranking US official to receive the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine on Friday in a live-television event aimed at reassuring Americans the shot is safe. He celebrated the milestone as “a medical miracle” that could eventually contain the raging pandemic.

Johnson & Johnson said on Thursday it has enrolled about 45,000 participants for the first late-stage trial of its Covid-19 single-dose vaccine candidate and that it expects interim data by late-January.

Sony is pulling Cyberpunk 2077 from its PlayStation Store only a week after its debut in the wake of complaints of glitches in the video game created by Poland’s CD Projekt.

The head of the Food and Drug Administration said late Thursday that his agency will move to quickly authorize the second COVID-19 vaccine to fight the pandemic, hours after the shot won the key endorsement of a government advisory panel.

The United States is set to add dozens of Chinese companies, including the country’s top chipmaker SMIC, to a trade blacklist today, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday.

US intelligence agencies have warned a “significant” cyber attack on several federal departments uncovered over the weekend remains ongoing as the government rushes to assess the extent of the breach.

Russian President Vladimir yesterday Putin said that he hopes the administration of incoming US President Joe Biden will work with Russia to resolve disagreements between their countries.

As Covid-19 vaccines are rolled out worldwide, a push for identity proofs and digital certificates risks excluding poorer and vulnerable groups from vaccination and the benefits that come with it, according to rights experts.

The weeks-long farmers’ protest at the borders of Delhi must continue and the national capital cannot be blocked, the Indian Supreme Court said while hearing a series of petitions on the issue.