The Delta variant of the coronavirus is as contagious as chickenpox and could cause severe illness, according to an internal document at the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), The New York Times reported. 

The Indian state of Assam has advised its residents to avoid travelling to neighbouring Mizoram after six policemen were shot dead in a rare border clash between the two regions. 

Tunisia’s President Kais Saied on Thursday appointed a former national security adviser as interior minister, days after grabbing power in what his opponents labelled a “coup”.

Sri Lanka yesterday announced it was ending its work-from-home option for civil servants, ordering all 1.2 million back to the office from Monday despite a surge in coronavirus infections.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has walked back on a decision to end a key military deal with the United States, his defence secretary said yesterday during a visit by Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin.

Britain warned the United Nations Security Council Thursday that half of coup-wracked Myanmar’s population of 54 million could become infected with Covid-19 within the next two weeks.

Flight controllers have regained control of the International Space Station (ISS) after it was knocked off course by a newly arrived Russian research module.

The lifestyles of around three average Americans will create enough planet-heating emissions to kill one person, and the emissions from a single coal-fired power plant are likely to result in more than 900 deaths, according to the first analysis to calculate the mortal cost of carbon emissions. 

1658 - Aurangzeb appoints himself Mongol emperor

The first person convicted under Hong Kong’s national security law was jailed for nine years yesterday for terrorist activities and inciting secession, judges said, in a watershed ruling with long-term implications for the city’s judicial landscape. 

Saudi Arabia will reopen its borders to tourists on Sunday for the first time in 18 months after imposing restrictions at the start of the pandemic to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

The low rates (of vaccination) we have had there need to lift and that will certainly help the efforts with the lockdown but on its own it won’t stop the lockdown.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday said the negotiating process with Iran to revive a 2015 nuclear deal could not go on indefinitely, and that the ball was in Iran’s court. 

Israel’s Defence Minister Benny Gantz told his French counterpart his country took “seriously” espionage allegations concerning the Pegasus software developed by Israeli firm NSO that is suspected of targeting President Emmanuel Macron and other French officials.

A Belgian judge on Wednesday opened an investigation for possible manslaughter over the floods there that claimed 38 lives, the prosecutors office in Liege announced.

Although more than four billion doses of anti-Covid vaccines have been administered around the world, poorer countries are still struggling to secure precious shots despite recent donations. 

A media watchdog said at least seven journalists were “physically attacked” and others threatened during protests in four EU countries at the weekend against government virus curbs and called for investigations into the incidents. 

Three people were found dead as a forest fire burned for a second day in southern Turkey yesterday, the country’s AFAD disaster agency and the agriculture minister said. 

Tunisia’s President Kais Saied accused 460 businessmen of embezzlement as he launched a crackdown on corruption, days after grabbing power in what his opponents have dubbed a “coup”. 

Two rockets were fired early yesterday at Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone which houses the US embassy, without causing any casualties or damage, an Iraqi security source told AFP.