The first Covid-19 vaccines landed on Canadian soil on Sunday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, and some Canadians are expected to roll up their sleeves for a shot as soon as Monday. Canada and the United States are set this week to become the first Western nations after the UK […]
Suspected Russian hackers spied on US Treasury emails
Hackers believed to be working for Russia have been monitoring internal email traffic at the US Treasury and Commerce departments, according to people familiar with the matter, adding they feared the hacks uncovered so far may be the tip of the iceberg. The hack is so serious it led to […]
5 million Yemenis ‘one step away from famine’ in 2021, UN warns
The United Nation’s (UN) Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) on Sunday warned that 5 million Yemenis “will likely be living just one step away from famine in the upcoming year.” In a brief statement posted on its official Twitter account, the UN organization said that more than half of Yemen’s […]
14 dead in migrant shipwreck between Venezuela and Trinidad
The Venezuelan government said Sunday it had found 14 bodies after a ship carrying migrants bound for Trinidad and Tobago was wrecked en route. The government said in a statement that 11 bodies were found by a Coast Guard patrol on Saturday afternoon, and “today, following up on the events […]
Sri Lanka records highest elephant deaths in world
Sri Lanka has recorded the highest number of elephant deaths in the world due to the human-elephant conflict, according to a media report. The island-nation’s Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) had ordered a special audit into the human-elephant conflict by renowned elephant expert Dr Prithviraj Fernando, the head of the […]
Afghanistan: Bomb and gun attacks in Kabul kill 3
Separate bomb and gun attacks on Sunday left at least three dead in Afghanistan’s capital, local police said, a day after a barrage of mortar shells shook the city. A sticky bomb attached to an armored vehicle in northern Kabul killed two, and wounded at least two others, according to […]
Lofty climate goals get reality check at global summit
Five years after the world signed the landmark Paris Agreement to avoid dangerous global warming, political momentum is building. But the lack of near-term detail means the planet is still on track for climate catastrophe. The six-hour Climate Ambition Summit on Saturday threw the problem into sharp relief: activists were […]
UPS, FedEx collaborate to ship Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines in US
Rival US companies UPS and FedEx are working side-by-side to ship the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, after it was approved for emergency use by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday. The two shipping companies said that they had put plans, which they had been working for months, into […]
China wants India to accept the new normal on LAC and move on
This month, External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar has made repeated public statements stating that the only way for restoring frozen India-China ties is to untangle the four friction points in East Ladakh by disengaging and de-escalating the military situation along the 1597 km Line of Actual Control (LAC). The Chinese […]
Indonesia asks SpaceX to study country as venue for launch site
Indonesia invited SpaceX to assess the possibility of setting up a rocket launch site in the country, according to a ministry statement. President Joko Widodo discussed the idea with SpaceX founder Elon Musk during a phone call on Friday, the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime and Investment Affairs said in the […]
Pakistan contracted USD 10.5 billion foreign loans in FY20
Cash-strapped Pakistan contracted USD 10.447 billion worth of new foreign loans from multilateral institutions and commercial banks during the fiscal year 2019-20, almost one-fourth higher than previous year’s USD 8.4 billion, according to a media report. According to the Annual Report on Foreign Economic Assistance 2019-20 released by the Ministry […]
US top court rejects outright GOP suit to overturn poll outcome in 4 states
The US Supreme Court on Friday delivered a devastating blow to President Donald Trump by rejecting a lawsuit filed by his Republican allies seeking to overturn election outcomes in the four battleground states that swung the White House race in favour of Democratic President-elect Joe Biden. The court dismissed the […]
Mexico approves Pfizer vaccine for emergency use as coronavirus surges
Mexico’s health agency Cofepris approved Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine for emergency use, Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell said at a press conference Friday night. The health agency began reviewing data on the vaccine Nov. 26 and a 24-member committee voted unanimously to approve its use, according to a statement. Mexico joins […]
UK navy to help protect fishing waters in case of no-deal Brexit
Four Royal Navy patrol ships will be ready from Jan. 1 to help Britain protect its fishing waters in case of a no-deal Brexit, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the UK was likely to complete its EU exit in three weeks without a trade deal. The Ministry of Defence […]
Canada Could Issue Order to Avoid Tariffs on UK Products
Justin Trudeau’s government expects to take stopgap regulatory measures to prevent the imposition of tariffs on UK products as it waits for Canada’s parliament to ratify a new trade pact with the European country, according to a senior government official. Britain and Canada announced a transitional trade agreement in November […]