An international rights watchdog accused Israel on Tuesday of pursuing policies of apartheid and persecution against Palestinians - and against its own Arab minority - that amount to crimes against humanity.

The Brazilian health regulator Anvisa rejected importing the Russian-made Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine requested by state governors battling a deadly second wave of the virus that is battering Latin America's largest nation.

A prominent ethnic insurgent group captured and burned down a military base in eastern Myanmar near the Thai border early Tuesday morning, an official from the group said.

Thailand's Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha was fined 6,000 baht ($190) on Monday for breaching rules aimed at containing the coronavirus by not wearing a face mask, the governor of Bangkok said.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Sunday said Pakistan would be happy to talk out differences and resolve outstanding issues through dialogue if India was willing to revisit the unilateral decisions it took on Aug 5, 2019.

The commander of foreign forces in Afghanistan, US Army General Scott Miller, on Sunday said an orderly withdrawal of foreign forces and the handing over of military bases and equipment to the Afghan forces had begun.

A majority of Americans approve of President Joe Biden’s performance during his first 100 days in office, three new polls found Sunday. Overall, the polls showed a range of 52-58 percent of US adults who say they approve of the job Biden is doing, compared with 39-42 percent who say they disapprove.

Nasa’s mini helicopter Ingenuity on Sunday successfully completed its third flight on Mars, moving farther and faster than ever before, with a peak speed of 6.6 feet per second.

Thailand’s prime minister was fined for not wearing a mask yesterday after new Covid-19 restrictions came into force to try to halt the country’s spiralling outbreak.

Military expenditure worldwide rose to nearly $2 trillion in 2020, defying the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, researchers said yesterday.

Iran’s top diplomat complained in a leaked recording that the elite Revolutionary Guards had more influence in foreign affairs and the country’s nuclear dossier than him, in remarks that shine a light on ties between the government and the powerful force.

Activists opposed to Myanmar’s military junta called on people to stop paying electricity bills and agricultural loans from yesterday, and to keep their children away from school, scorning the top general’s pledge at a regional summit to end the post-coup crisis.

As India reels under an alarming surge of Covid-19 cases, the country's armed forces are recalling all their medical personnel who have retired or taken pre-mature retirement in the last two years to work in Covid-19 facilities for civilians near their present place of residence.

The Madras High Court today slammed the Election Commission of India for allowing political rallies to be conducted amid the raging coronavirus pandemic in the country, and observed that the polls body officers should probably be “booked on murder charges”.

India has firmly backed the ASEAN summit’s latest initiatives to help resolve Myanmar's political crisis.

Germany will send oxygen and medical aid to India in the coming days to help it tackle its Covid-19 crisis, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Monday.

More than one billion doses of coronavirus vaccines have been administered worldwide, less than five months after the first mass inoculation programmes began to be rolled out, according to an AFP tally.

Yemen’s Huthi rebels have made important gains in the battle for the government’s last northern stronghold, advancing close to the centre of Marib city despite heavy casualties, military sources said yesterday.

A fire sparked by an oxygen tank explosion killed at least 82 people and injured 110 at a hospital in Baghdad that had been equipped to house Covid-19 patients, an Interior Ministry spokesman said yesterday.

Indian coronavirus patient Vidhya Devi, 70, should have been in emergency care at a New Delhi hospital, but instead she lay on the backseat of a car outside a Sikh temple, battling for breath, as she was connected to an oxygen tank on the street.