International news

India extended a record daily run of new COVID-19 infections on Friday, as politicians pushed ahead with election rallies against advice they could worsen the outbreak.

Pakistan temporarily blocked Facebook, Twitter and several other social media apps on security grounds on Friday amid a crackdown against a violent terrorist group, officials said.

A gunman shot eight people dead and injured several others at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis before taking his own life, police said early on Friday.

Pfizer Chief Executive Albert Bourla said people will "likely" need a booster dose within 12 months of getting vaccinated, with need for annual shots.

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte said on Thursday the government can take over hotels and turn them into isolation facilities as surging COVID-19 infections put a strain on the overstretched healthcare sector.

Top UN, financial and vaccine officials on Thursday urged rich countries to donate excess COVID-19 vaccine doses to an international alliance to supply low and middle income countries.

India has recorded 200,000 new COVID-19 cases, as many hospitals treating coronavirus patients reported severe shortages of beds and oxygen supplies.

The United States on Thursday imposed a broad array of sanctions on Russia to punish it for alleged interference in the US election, cyber-hacking, bullying Ukraine and other "malign" acts.

There is a much higher risk of brain blood clots from COVID-19 infection than there is from vaccines, UK researchers said, after the rollout of inoculations was disrupted by reports of rare clots.

The police officer who fatally shot a Black motorist during a traffic stop in Minnesota, igniting several nights of civil unrest, was charged with manslaughter on Wednesday, a day after she turned in her badge.

President Joe Biden said he will begin withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan on May 1 to end America's longest war.

Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine remained in limbo on Wednesday as a U.S. health panel called for more data before making a decision on how and whether to resume use of the one-dose shot, putting off a vote for a week or more.

Denmark on Wednesday became the first country to stop using AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine altogether over a potential link to a rare but serious form of blood clot.

Bernard Madoff, who was convicted for running the largest known Ponzi scheme in history, died on Wednesday in US federal prison.

Indian state of Maharashtra will impose stringent curbs on industry and e-commerce for 15 days to slow rising coronavirus infections, its chief minister said.

A suburban Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot a Black motorist during a scuffle and the police chief who called the slaying an apparent accident both resigned in the face of civil unrest.

Moderna Inc said its COVID-19 vaccine still showed strong protection against the illness six months after people received their second shot, with efficacy of more than 90 per cent against all cases of COVID-19.

US federal health agencies have recommended pausing the use of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine for at least a few days after six women developed rare blood clots after receiving the shot.

US President Joe Biden has decided to withdraw the remaining American troops from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021, US officials said on Tuesday.

Prosecutors have neared the end of their case in the murder trial of former Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin, calling George Floyd's younger brother to the stand for an emotional testimony.

Japan will release more than 1 million tonnes of contaminated water from the destroyed Fukushima nuclear station into the sea, the government said on Tuesday.

US President Joe Biden has called for protests over the fatal police shooting of a Black man in Minnesota to be "peaceful" and said accountability needed to be assured through a probe into the incident.

Australia has no current plans to add Johnson & Johnson's one-dose coronavirus vaccine to its immunisation drive, as it moves away from procuring vaccines under review over blood clots.

An expert panel of India's drugs regulator has recommended emergency use approval for Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, two sources said on Monday, which could make it the nation's third to be approved.

Protests erupted against police when an officer fatally shot a young Black man after stopping his vehicle for a traffic violation on Sunday about 16 km from where George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis last May.

China's top disease control official has said the country is formally considering mixing COVID-19 vaccines as a way of further boosting vaccine efficacy.

A tropical cyclone off Australia's west coast destroyed several homes and cut electricity to tens of thousands of people overnight before weakening in power on Monday morning.

India reported a record daily tally of 168,912 COVID-19 infections on Monday, overtaking Brazil to become the second-most affected country globally by the coronavirus.

South Korean authorities said they will move ahead with a coronavirus vaccination drive this week, after deciding to continue using AstraZeneca PLC's vaccine for all eligible people aged 30 years or over.

France will lengthen the period between the first and second shots of mRNA anti-COVID vaccines to six weeks from four weeks as of April 14 to accelerate the inoculation campaign.

Eight miners have been rescued and 21 remain trapped in a coal mine that flooded in northwest China's Xinjiang region, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported on Sunday, citing a local emergency department.

Tropical cyclone Seroja strengthened off Western Australia on Sunday, with emergency services opening shelters in preparation for high winds and coastal flooding later in the evening.

Gun salutes were fired across Britain on Saturday to mark the death of Prince Philip as tributes flooded in for a man who was a pillar of strength for Queen Elizabeth during her record-breaking reign.

Thailand plans to install 10,000 field-hospital beds in Bangkok, a health official said on Saturday, as the country strains to cope with a third wave of COVID-19 infections.

A magnitude 5.9 earthquake off Indonesia's Java island on Saturday killing at least one person and damaged buildings in several cities, media reports said.

India's daily coronavirus cases on Saturday rose by a record for the fifth time this week and deaths surged to the highest in more than five months, with hospitals and crematoriums overflowing in parts of the country.

Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh has died aged 99, Buckingham Palace said on Friday.

Britain's Prince Philip will not have a state funeral nor lie in state for the public to pay their respects ahead of the funeral.

India reported another record number of new COVID-19 infections on Friday with daily deaths also hitting their highest in more than five months.

Nepal is battling its worst forest fires in years, with smoke wafting across its mountains and souring the air as it settles into the bowl that holds capital city Kathmandu.

Students in the Swiss city of Basel falsified positive COVID-19 results in a bid to skip school, resulting in the entire class being put in quarantine, and now disciplinary measures after the hoax was discovered.

Anti-coup demonstrators in Myanmar fought back with hunting rifles and firebombs against a crackdown by security forces in a town in the northwest, which left at least 11 of the protesters dead.

India reported a record 126,789 COVID-19 cases as several states struggle to contain a second surge in infections, complaining of vaccine shortages and demanding inoculations be expanded to younger people.

New Zealand on Thursday temporarily suspended entry for all travellers from India, including its own citizens, for about two weeks following a high number of positive coronavirus cases arriving from the South Asian country.

Philippine health authorities have suspended the use of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine for people below 60 years of age to investigate reports of blood clots coming from overseas.

One in three COVID-19 survivors in a study of more than 230,000 mostly American patients were diagnosed with a brain or psychiatric disorder within six months, scientists said on Tuesday.

Myanmar troops fired at anti-coup protesters on Wednesday, killing at least five people and wounding several, media said, as activists defied a bloody crackdown and internet blockade by the ruling junta.

Thai rescue workers said on Wednesday they had freed a Buddhist monk trapped inside a flooded cave in Thailand's Phitsanulok province, after he went inside days ago to meditate.

The University of Oxford said it had paused a small UK trial testing the COVID-19 vaccine it developed with AstraZeneca Plc in children and teenagers, as it waits for more data on rare blood clotting issues in adults.

US President Joe Biden on Tuesday moved up the COVID-19 vaccine eligibility target for all American adults to April 19, but warned that with new virus variants spreading "we're still in a life-and-death race".

New Zealand will allow quarantine-free visits by Australians from April 19, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Tuesday, creating a "travel bubble" for the neighbouring nations.

Many Indian state leaders have asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to open up vaccinations to most of the country's hundreds of millions of adults, following a second surge in infections.

Starting April 8, entry into Oman will be limited only to its citizens and residents as pressure ramps up on the health service, following a sharp rise in the number of infections and hospital admissions.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday everyone in England will be able to take a COVID-19 test twice a week in a new drive to track the pandemic as society reopens.

India reported a record rise in coronavirus infections on Monday, becoming only the second country after the United States to register more than 100,000 new cases in a day.

The death toll from floods and landslides triggered by the tropical cyclone Seroja in a cluster of islands in southeast Indonesia rose to at least 55, with 40 still missing, the disaster agency BNPB said on Monday.

Taiwanese rescuers were trying on Monday to retrieve the last body of a passenger from wreckage of a deadly train crash last week.

A Singaporean blogger said he has raised S$133,000 (around AED 362,770) via crowdfunding on social media to cover damages he was ordered to pay Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in a defamation case.

As many as 5,273 people in France were admitted to intensive care units (ICU) for COVID-19 on Saturday, a rise of 19 from the previous day, as the country entered its third national lockdown.

The United States has put Johnson and Johnson in charge of a plant that ruined 15 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine and has stopped British drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc from using the facility.

Divers were scouring the waters of the Java Sea on Sunday for 17 fishermen reported missing after their boat capsized following a crash involving a bulk carrier.

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has extended a strict lockdown in the capital region and adjacent provinces by at least one week to try to contain a renewed surge in coronavirus infections, his spokesman said on Saturday.

India's biggest cities braced for stricter lockdowns and other COVID-19 curbs on Saturday as infections hit a six-month high, as a month-long surge continued in the country third-worst hit by the pandemic.

The last ships stranded by the grounding of a giant container vessel in the Suez Canal should pass through the waterway on Saturday, according to the canal authority, which said an investigation into the incident would report its findings soon.

The World Bank on Friday announced a new Climate Change Action Plan aimed at helping developing countries achieve measurable reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and pledging to mobilise large-scale resources to aid the transition out of coal.

A Taiwan express train with almost 500 aboard derailed in a tunnel on Friday, killing at least 48 passengers and injuring 66 in the island's worst rail disaster in almost four decades.

More than 70 British lawmakers have signalled their opposition to the introduction of so-called vaccine passports that the government is considering bringing in to help to open the economy as it starts lifting COVID-19 lockdown restrictions.

India batting great Sachin Tendulkar said on Friday he has been admitted to hospital as a precautionary measure after contracting the novel coronavirus last week.

At least 36 people were killed and some 70 remain trapped in wreckage after a Taiwan train derailed in a tunnel on Friday when it apparently hit a truck that slid off a road leading to a nearby construction site.

Pfizer Inc and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine is around 91 per cent effective at preventing the disease, they said on Thursday, citing updated trial data that included participants inoculated for up to six months.

A Hong Kong court found seven prominent democrats guilty of unauthorised assembly charges, including barrister Martin Lee and media tycoon Jimmy Lai, as part of an intensifying crackdown by China.

Australia ended a lockdown of Brisbane on Thursday, just in time for Easter holidays, as only one new locally transmitted COVID-19 case in Queensland state eased fears of a widespread outbreak.

Facebook has removed a video of an interview with former US President Donald Trump, who remains banned from the platform, from his daughter-in-law Lara Trump's Facebook page.

President Emmanuel Macron has ordered France into its third national lockdown and said schools would close for three weeks as he sought to push back a third wave of COVID-19 infections.

Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE said on Wednesday their COVID-19 vaccine was safe and effective and produced robust antibody responses in 12- to 15-year olds.

Divers have recovered the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) from a Sriwijaya Air plane that crashed into the Java Sea shortly after take-off from the Indonesian capital Jakarta in January.

Prosecution witnesses have described watching the final moments of George Floyd's life as they testified against Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis policeman charged with Floyd's murder.

A total of 14 countries are expressing concerns that the World Health Organisation's (WHO) report on COVID-19's origins was delayed, and lacked access to complete data.

Former US police officer Derek Chauvin betrayed his badge by "grinding" his knee into George Floyd's neck during a deadly arrest last May, a prosecutor said on Monday at a murder trial.

Shipping was on the move again late Monday in Egypt's Suez Canal after tugs refloated a giant container ship which had been blocking the channel for almost a week.

Republican former President Donald Trump has launched an official website, a platform for his supporters to stay in touch and to showcase his time in office.

Egyptian authorities have announced that a giant ship, which has been blocking the Suez Canal for nearly a week, has finally been freed.

After a slow start, India is picking up the pace of its immunisation campaign, simplifying the process, opening more centres and turning to social media as it tries to head off a new surge in infections.

Saudi Arabia said on Monday it would allow people who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 to attend sporting events at stadiums at a capacity of 40 per cent starting May 17.

India reported the highest daily increase in coronavirus cases in five months on Monday, with the second wave of the disease driven by surging infections in the state of Maharastra.

The Philippine passed the 10,000 mark for new daily coronavirus infections for the first time on Monday and put its capital region back on one of its toughest levels of lockdown.

The stranded container ship that blocked the Suez Canal for nearly a week was almost fully re-floated on Monday and has restarted its engines, a shipping source with knowledge of the matter said.

Indonesian state oil company Pertamina said on Monday it has shut its Balongan oil refinery in West Java as it battles to control a massive fire that broke out overnight, injuring five people.

The Czech Republic's richest man, billionaire Petr Kellner, was killed in a helicopter crash in Alaska, his financial group PPF said on Monday. He was 56.

Myanmar security forces killed an anti-coup protester in fresh violence overnight, media reported on Monday, as activists called on armed ethnic groups to back their struggle against military rule.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged people to be cautious as a stay-at-home order and some other lockdown measures are lifted in England, citing rising cases in other parts of Europe.

Australian authorities announced a snap three-day COVID-19 lockdown in the northern city of Brisbane from Monday afternoon, as they attempt to stamp out an outbreak of the virulent UK variant of the virus.

Two suspected bombers blew themselves up outside a church in the Indonesian city of Makassar on Sunday, wounding 14 people on the first day of the Easter Holy Week.

Myanmar security forces opened fire on Sunday, witnesses said, at people gathered for the funeral of one of the 114 people killed the previous day, the bloodiest day of protests since the military coup.

The Indian state of Maharashtra has imposed night curfew to tackle a record surge in COVID-19 cases, with the city of Mumbai reporting single-day record of 6,123 new cases.

The Chinese capital Beijing woke on Sunday morning shrouded in thick dust carrying extremely high levels of hazardous particles, as a second sandstorm in two weeks hit the city.

Spain is to require people arriving by land from France to present a negative COVID-19 test, the Health Ministry said on Saturday, amid rising numbers of French arrivals and an uptick in Spain's coronavirus rate.

The Philippines will reimpose stricter quarantine measures in the capital Manila and nearby provinces, a senior official said on Saturday, as the country battles to contain a surge in COVID-19 cases that put a bigger strain on hospitals.

The launch in India of a new COVID-19 vaccine developed jointly by the Serum Institute of India and U.S.-based biotech firm Novavax is likely to be delayed to September, the Indian company's boss said on Saturday.

Five people were killed and 24 injured when a Cairo apartment building collapsed in the early hours of Saturday, Egyptian state news agency MENA reported.

A giant container ship grounded in the Suez Canal could be freed by the start of next week if heavier tugboats, dredging and a high tide succeed in dislodging it, a Dutch firm working to free the vessel said.

Singapore is reviewing penalties for violent offences following an outcry over a 12-day prison sentence for a student who strangled his girlfriend until she blacked out.