Thai workers killed in Israel-Palestinian conflict as truce calls mount

Israel bombarded Gaza with air strikes and Palestinian militants resumed cross-border rocket fire on Tuesday after a brief overnight lull during which the U.N. sent a small fuel convoy into the enclave, where it says 52,000 people are now displaced.

India logs record number of Covid deaths as caseload hits 25 million

India became the second country after the United States to report more than 25 million cases of Covid-19 as it registered 263,533 new infections in the past 24 hours on Tuesday.

Calls for ceasefire after Gaza’s deadliest day

Israel killed a senior Palestinian militant commander in heavy air strikes on Gaza on Monday and Islamist groups renewed rocket attacks on Israeli cities despite mounting international calls for a ceasefire.

UFOs spotted daily for ‘A couple of years’: Ex-Navy pilot

A former Navy pilot has claimed that encounters with unidentified flying objects were commonplace during his years of military service, as the US government finalizes a much-anticipated report on such sightings.

Myanmar’s Miss Universe contestant pleads “our people are dying”

Myanmar’s Miss Universe contestant, Thuzar Wint Lwin, used the pageant on Sunday to urge the world to speak out against the military junta, whose security forces have killed hundreds of opponents since it seized power in a Feb. 1 coup.

Israel strikes Gaza from ground and air, escalating offensive

Israel bombarded Gaza with artillery and air strikes on Friday in response to a new barrage of rocket fire from the Hamas-run enclave, intensifying a conflict that has now claimed more than 100 Palestinian lives.

China reports first local COVID-19 cases in more than 3 weeks

Mainland China reported seven new COVID-19 cases on May 13, including its first local transmissions in more than three weeks, the country’s national health authority said on Friday.

India records over 4,000 deaths per day amid clamour for vaccine

India recorded more than 4,000 COVID-19 deaths for a second straight day on Thursday as infections stayed below 400,000, and extended the interval between doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to up to 16 weeks amid a dire shortage of shots in the country.

French court to rule on Air France, Airbus trial

A French court will rule Wednesday whether Air France and Airbus should stand trial over the 2009 crash of a Rio de Janeiro to Paris flight that killed all 228 people on board.

Hamas hits deep in Israel, as Israel pummels Gaza

Hamas launched rockets at Tel Aviv and toward Jerusalem early on Thursday and Israel vowed to keep pummeling Hamas in Gaza.

Scarcity of oxygen: Nepal’s hospitals stop admitting Covid-19 patients

Patients in Nepal are gasping for breath, as authorities said they were facing an acute shortage of medical oxygen due to which 16 people infected with Covid-19 died recently, according to media reports.

Fears of war as Israel-Gaza violence escalates

Israel said it killed 16 members of the Hamas military wing in a Gaza air strike on Wednesday and Palestinian militants rained rockets into Israel as global concern mounted over their most intense hostilities in years.

India’s official Covid-19 death toll passes 250,000

India’s daily Covid-19 death count hit 4,205 on Wednesday, setting a new daily record and taking the total fatalities due to the disease in the country past 250,000.

Myanmar protesters decry arrests, beatings as junta fights for control

Myanmar security forces fired shots and arrested about 30 people at an anti-coup rally in the country’s second-biggest city on Wednesday, witnesses said, as protesters defy a months-long crackdown by a junta struggling to impose order.

India’s seven-day COVID average at new high, WHO issues warning on strain

India’s coronavirus crisis showed scant sign of easing on Tuesday, with a seven-day average of new cases at a record high and international health authorities warning the country’s variant of the virus poses a global concern.

Moscow rejects US ransomware attack claims

Russia on Tuesday rejected US accusations that a Russia-based group was behind a ransomware attack that forced the shutdown of the largest oil pipeline in the eastern United States.

UN calls for greater international pressure on Myanmar’s junta

Thousands of people in Myanmar turned out to protest against the military coup on Tuesday, marking the 100th day of demonstrations despite the violent crackdown by security forces.

Hundreds injured in renewed fighting at Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa Mosque

Fighting between Israeli security forces and protesters left hundreds injured in clashes prompted by a dispute about access to parts of the Old City and attempts to evict the members of a Palestinian family from their home.

Maldives arrests third suspect in Nasheed assassination plot

The Maldivian police Sunday arrested a third suspect in the attempted assassination of former president Mohamed Nasheed, officials said as a manhunt continued for others who may have been involved.

India reports decline in new Covid-19 cases, deaths

India saw a significant drop in daily coronavirus infections on Monday, with 366,161 reported - after logging more than 400,000 cases for four straight days - but this would have likely been due to relatively lower testing at the weekend, experts said.

Chinese rocket debris lands in Indian Ocean, draws criticism from NASA

Remnants of China’s biggest rocket landed in the Indian Ocean on Sunday, with most of its components destroyed upon re-entry into the atmosphere, ending days of speculation over where the debris would hit but drawing U.S. criticism over lack of transparency.

‘I’m good’: Former Maldives president after surviving bomb blast

Former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed is conscious after life-saving surgery, his family said on Saturday, as police made two arrests in connection with a blast they said was being treated as a terror attack.

India turns to ex-army medics as COVID surge calls for lockdown

India is to recruit hundreds of former army medics to support its overwhelmed healthcare system, the defence ministry said on Sunday, as the country grapples with record COVID-19 infections and deaths amid angry calls for a complete nationwide lockdown.

Maldives ex-president Nasheed, wounded in blast, undergoing surgery

Maldives’ former president Mohamed Nasheed was undergoing surgery on Friday after he was hit by shrapnel from a bomb blast outside his home, his party said.

‘Don’t learn from ostriches’ :Beijing tells Tokyo

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has hit out at Tokyo once again as Japan refuses to respond to international criticism over its plans to dump supposedly treated nuclear wastewater from the Fukushima plant into the sea.

India’s Opposition demands faster vaccinations after 1.5 million new Covid cases

India’s opposition leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday demanded the government rapidly vaccinate the entire country and scientifically track the coronavirus in an effort to curb a deadly second wave which saw 1.5 million new cases in a week.

Record cases in India could be linked to ‘double mutant’ virus strain

India logged another grim global record of 412,262 Covid-19 cases on Thursday as officials said a “double mutant variant” could be linked to the deadly second wave sweeping across various states.

China suspends economic accord with Australia

China said on Thursday it had suspended an economic agreement with Australia, in an apparent tit-for-tat response to Canberra’s scrapping of a Belt and Road infrastructure pact and threat to undo a deal leasing Darwin Port to a Chinese company.

EU pushed to debate Covid-19 vaccine patent waiver after US U-turn

The leaders of the European Union are to discuss waiving intellectual property protections for Covid-19 vaccines this week, after the United States shifted position on the policy that could allow many poorer countries to produce their own vaccines.

India accounts for 46% of world’s new COVID-19 cases, quarter of deaths

India accounted for 46% of the new COVID-19 cases recorded worldwide last week and one in four of deaths, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Wednesday.