Russia yesterday added Alexei Navalny’s political network to its database of terrorist and extremist organisations, as Moscow moves closer to shutting down the jailed opposition politician’s movement against President Vladimir Putin.

Nearly three-quarters of female journalists say they have been victims of harassment online and for 20 percent this has transferred into offline attacks, according to a UNESCO study published yesterday.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday postponed planned parliamentary elections amid a dispute over voting in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem and splits in his Fatah party.

A massive stampede at a densely packed Jewish pilgrimage site killed at least 44 people in Israel yesterday, blackening the country’s largest Covid-era gathering.

At least 44 people were crushed to death at an over-crowded religious bonfire festival in Israel on Friday, medics said, in what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described as a "heavy disaster".

Alexei Navalny’s political network yesterday said it is disbanding, as the jailed Kremlin critic appeared in court, gaunt and shaven headed, for the first time since ending his hunger strike.

Two Myanmar air force bases came under rocket attack yesterday, the military said, as the country grapples with violence in the wake of the February 1 coup.

China yesterday warned the United States against imposing its democratic ideals, while criticising trade sanctions and military moves in Beijing’s backyard just hours after President Biden’s speech on American geopolitical priorities.

Nearly all of the world’s glaciers are losing mass at an ever increasing pace, contributing to more than a fifth of global sea level rise this century, according to unprecedented research released Wednesday.

Scientists have backed Brazil’s drug regulator’s decision to stop the import of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine on the basis that batches they tested carried a live version of a common cold-causing virus.

President Joe Biden triumphantly declared that the United States is “on the move again” in a rousing speech to Congress yesterday, calling for trillions of dollars to rebuild the post-pandemic US middle class and give new life to “forgotten” workers.

The Booker Prize-winning Indian novelist Arundhati Roy claimed that the world is “witnessing a crime against humanity”, referring to the unfolding Covid-19 crisis in India. In her long-form The Guardian piece published on April 28, she claimed, “The system hasn’t collapsed. The government has failed. Perhaps ‘failed’ is an inaccurate word, because what we are witnessing is not criminal negligence, but an outright crime against humanity.”

Facebook has restored the #ResignModi hashtag, which calls for the resignation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, reports CNET.

Myanmar’s pro-democracy unity government, formed to oppose the military junta that seized power nearly three months ago, yesterday ruled out talks on the crisis until all political prisoners are released.

The United States has ordered non-essential staff to leave its Kabul embassy, citing increased threats as Washington prepares to end its 20-year war in Afghanistan.

A strong earthquake and nerve jangling aftershocks cracked walls and sent inhabitants pouring onto the streets in several towns across northeastern India yesterday.

The European Parliament yesterday overwhelmingly ratified the EU’s post-Brexit trade deal with Britain, but promised to keep a close eye on London with cross-channel hostility still high.

One dose of the Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccines reduces the chances of someone infected with coronavirus from spreading it to other household members by up to 50 percent, according to a English study published yesterday.

Civil unrest and military exercises pose heightened risk to more than 200 threatened species, including elephant populations and the critically-endangered Eastern gorilla, conservationists warned yesterday.

The United Nations and NGOs said Tuesday that a record 29 million people need humanitarian assistance in the Sahel, noting “unparallelled” insecurity and hunger across six countries in the war-torn African region.