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.

Two Army jawans were killed in ceasefire violation by Pakistan in Sunderbani Sector of Rajouri district in Jammu and Kashmir yesterday.

Pressure on the French government and police leadership intensified yesterday after the police beating of a black music producer in Paris sparked outrage across the spectrum, from top politicians to football stars.

Nearly 100,000 Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia’s Tigray region will run out of food as early as next week if parties to the conflict do not allow humanitarian access, the UN refugee agency said yesterday.

Swiss politicians have voiced outrage and demanded an investigation after revelations that a second Swiss encryption company was allegedly used by the CIA and its German counterpart to spy on governments worldwide.

Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon said an independence referendum that could wrench apart the United Kingdom after Brexit should take place in the earlier part of the devolved parliament’s next term, which begins next year.

Commemorations for Tamil Tiger rebels killed in Sri Lanka’s decades-long civil war were banned yesterday after court petitions by the government of strongman President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

Brazil president Jair Bolsonaro has said he will not take a vaccine against the coronavirus even after it receives approval from his own government.

An Iranian diplomat on trial in Belgium for allegedly plotting to bomb an Iranian opposition rally outside Paris has refused to appear in the dock, his lawyer said yesterday.

South Korea’s intelligence agency foiled North Korean attempts to hack into South Korean companies developing coronavirus vaccines, lawmakers said yesterday.

An Iranian scientist long suspected by the West of masterminding a secret nuclear bomb programme was killed in an ambush near Tehran on Friday, likely to provoke confrontation between Iran and its foes in the last weeks of Donald Trump’s presidency.

Eleven Bangladeshi universities have made the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) list of best universities in Asia.

Days after grabbing headlines with its Covid-19 “vaccine for the world”, AstraZeneca is facing tricky questions about its success rate that some experts say could hinder its chances of getting speedy US and EU regulatory approval.

Two Army soldiers have been killed in a terrorist attack near the HMT area on the outskirts of Jammu and Kashmir’s capital, Srinagar, police said yesterday.

Russia’s foreign minister accused the West of interfering in Belarus yesterday as he met strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko who has faced months of protests over his disputed re-election.

President-elect Joe Biden pleaded with Americans on Wednesday to take steps to remain safe over the Thanksgiving holiday as Covid-19 cases soar, while President Donald Trump pardoned a former aide who twice pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed yesterday ordered Ethiopia’s army to launch a final offensive against Tigray’s dissident leaders in their regional capital Mekele, saying the deadline for surrender had expired.

The Israel-led blockade of the Gaza Strip cost the Palestinian enclave more than $16bn and pushed more than one million people below the poverty line in just more than 10 years, according to a new United Nations report.

Countries must do more to combat racial profiling, UN rights experts said yesterday, warning that artificial intelligence programmes like facial recognition and predictive policing risked reinforcing the harmful practice.

A Turkish court jailed 337 former pilots and other suspects for life in one of the largest trials stemming from the bloody 2016 coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.