SEOUL: South Korea reported a record number of coronavirus deaths today as the country’s largest wave of infections strains hospitals and contact tracers. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported that there had been 22 additional deaths as of midnight yesterday, sharply up from a previous high of […]
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SINGAPORE: The World Health Organization said today that China had welcomed an international team of investigators into Covid-19 expected to travel to the country in early January. Babatunde Olowokure, the WHO’s regional emergencies director in the Western Pacific, told a news conference that the organisation was in talks with Beijing […]
WELLINGTON: New Zealand roared back from a coronavirus-induced recession with record economic growth of 14 per cent in the July to September quarter, official data showed on Thursday (Dec 17). The strong figures followed an 11 per cent decline in the previous quarter – when New Zealand was in a […]
FRANKFURT: German streets were quiet “like Sunday” on the first day of a new partial lockdown to try to halt surging infections, as the country reported a record number of Covid-19 deaths. A total of 952 people died in the previous 24 hours, according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) […]
LONDON: Nearly 140,000 people in the United Kingdom have received their first Covid-19 shots in the first week of roll-out of the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, the minister in charge of the programme said today. The vaccine was approved for emergency use two weeks ago, with rollout commencing […]
PARIS: Tunisia has no plans to match Morocco’s decision to recognise Israel, Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi said, insisting that establishing relations with the Jewish state was “not on the agenda”. Last week, Morocco became the fourth country in the Arab League to recognise Israel since August, in a flurry of […]
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 […]
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 […]