An international conference in Paris aims to raise more than $500 million towards ensuring fair access to coronavirus tests, treatment and vaccines for all, including poor countries, the organisers said yesterday.

US President-elect Joe Biden rang round allies in Seoul, Sydney and Tokyo yesterday, vowing to repair frayed partnerships and reaffirming mutual-defence pacts thrown in doubt by the current White House.

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for an attack on a non-Muslim cemetery in the Saudi Red Sea city of Jeddah which wounded several people, without providing any evidence.

A helicopter with the US-led Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) in the Egyptian Sinai crashed on Thursday near the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, killing seven members of the peacekeeper force, the MFO said.

Ethiopia’s military has defeated local forces in the west of Tigray state, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed says, accusing his foes of atrocities during a week of fighting that threatens to destabilise the Horn of Africa.

In their first calls with Joe Biden since the US election, the leaders of Japan, South Korea and Australia have reaffirmed plans to form close ties with the president-elect to tackle issues including climate change and regional security.

The Malaysian government will implement two plans involving undocumented migrants, including regulating their presence in the country by ensuring that they are legally employed, Malaysia’s Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin has announced.

Dr AA Mamun, a renowned professor of Physics department at Jahangirnagar University, has been selected among the top two percent of the most cited scientists in the world in a journal published by Stanford University based researchers in the US.

Warmer seas caused by climate change are making hurricanes stronger for longer after landfall, increasing the destruction they can wreak on impact, a new study has found.

US President-elect Joe Biden on Wednesday announced he has chosen Ron Klain, a seasoned Democratic operative, as his chief of staff, his first public personnel choice for the White House.

The United States embassy in Islamabad has apologised for retweeting an "unauthorised" post about Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan by PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal after it sparked outrage on social media.

The United Kingdom has passed 50,000 deaths linked to Covid-19, with a recent rise in infections leading to a new grim milestone for the European country hit hardest by the pandemic.

A blast at a World War One remembrance ceremony in Jeddah wounded several people yesterday, France said, urging its citizens living in Saudi Arabia to exercise maximum vigilance following what it called an attack using an explosive device.

Hong Kong’s pro-democracy lawmakers yesterday said they would all quit in protest at the ousting of four of their colleagues by the city’s pro-Beijing authorities.

The Democratic Party secured control of the US House of Representatives but with a slimmer majority after winning at least 218 seats, the Associated Press reported.

Myanmar’s military-aligned opposition party yesterday rejected the results of this week’s election as “unfair” and called for a fresh vote -- a demand immediately rebuffed by the election authorities.

The Indian government has issued an order bringing online news portals and content providers such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Hotstar under the Information and Broadcasting ministry.

Thousands of people were evacuated from their homes in storm-battered parts of the Philippines yesterday as the third typhoon in as many weeks barrelled towards the country.

Bahrain’s Prince Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa, the world’s longest-serving prime minister who had held the post since independence in 1971, died Wednesday at the age of 84, state media announced.

Australia’s parliament will launch an inquiry into media ownership, a prominent senator said yesterday, after more than half a million people signed a petition demanding a probe into Rupert Murdoch’s news dominance.