ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s president yesterday approved a new anti-rape law which will speed up convictions and launch the country’s first national sex offenders registry. The law, which goes into effect immediately but must be ratified by parliament within three months, was prompted by the gang rape of a mother in front […]
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ROME: Nearly one in four people may not get Covid-19 vaccines until at least 2022 because rich countries with less than 15 per cent of the global population have reserved 51 per cent of the doses of the most promising vaccines, researchers said yesterday. Low- and middle-income countries — home […]
TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has drawn criticism for joining end of year social gatherings after imploring residents to avoid such parties as the country sees record numbers of coronavirus cases. Despite his own public warnings against large group meals, Suga went ahead with a series of get-togethers this […]
PARIS: While many scientists are racing to find vaccines to tame the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, other researchers are probing the past, trying to unravel one of the greatest mysteries of the virus: Exactly where it came from. The World Health Organization has assembled an international team of 10 […]
HONG KONG: Petrol bombs were hurled at a Hong Kong police recreation club in the early hours of today, a rare attack on a police facility since Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law. Police said they received a report of three men dressed in black hurling Molotov cocktails into […]
HONG KONG: Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam today again urged residents of the densely populated city to stay at home and avoid unnecessary family gatherings as the global financial hub scrambles to contain a rise in coronavirus cases. Lam was speaking at her weekly press conference a day after the […]
HANOI: Facebook and Google are fast becoming “human rights-free zones” in Vietnam, Amnesty International warned today, accusing the tech titans of helping censor peaceful dissent and political expression in the country. Communist Vietnam has long jailed its critics but has come under fire in recent years for targeting users on […]
WASHINGTON: Hopes for a first wave of vaccinations before the end of 2020 received a boost with US firm Moderna saying it was filing yesterday for emergency authorization of its Covid-19 vaccine in the United States and Europe. After top US scientists warned Americans to brace for a “surge superimposed […]
LONDON: British telecommunications firms must not install new Huawei 5G kit after September 2021, the government said on Monday (Nov 30), as part of a plan to purge the Chinese firm’s equipment from high-speed mobile networks. Britain has already ordered all Huawei equipment to be removed from its 5G network […]
LONDON: A coroner’s inquest starts in London today to determine whether air pollution played a role in the death of a nine-year-old girl who lived near a busy road. The hearing, which is due to last 10 days, could set a new legal precedent if it is found poor air […]