Afghan leaders leave for Doha seeking to revive stalled peace talks on July 16, 2021A delegation of Afghan political leaders led by top peace official Abdullah Abdullah left for Qatar on Friday to attempt to breathe life into stalled talks with the Taliban as violence escalates around the country. Abdullah, head of the country’s High Council for National Reconciliation and former government chief executive, said that even as conflict […]
Ethereum breaks past $3,000 to quadruple in value in 2021 on May 3, 2021Cryptocurrency ether broke past $3,000 on Monday to set a new record high in a dazzling rally that has outshone the bigger bitcoin, as investors bet that ether will be of ever greater use in a decentralised future financial system. Ether , the token transacted on the ethereum blockchain, rose 3% on the Bitstamp exchange […]
44 crushed to death 103 injured at an over-crowded religious bonfire festival in Israel on April 30, 2021At 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”. The crush occurred as tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews thronged to the Galilee tomb of 2nd-century sage Rabbi Shim Bar Yochai for annual […]
World to spend $157bn on coronavirus vaccines till 2025: report on April 29, 2021Driven by mass vaccination programs underway and “booster shots” expected every two years, total global spending on COVID-19 vaccines is projected to reach $157 billion by 2025. This was said by the US health data company IQVIA Holdings Inc in a report released on Thursday. IQVIA, which provides data and analytics for the healthcare industry, […]
Germany will send oxygen, medical aid to India to help in Covid crisis on April 26, 2021BERLIN: 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. India is suffering from a spike in coronavirus infections, with the number of cases surging by 349,691 in the past 24 hours, the fourth straight day of […]
US military starts final withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan on April 26, 2021KABUL: The commander of foreign forces in Afghanistan, U.S. 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. Miller said he was acting on orders based on U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to end America’s longest […]
India’s coronavirus crisis intensifies as Britain, Germany and US pledge aid on April 26, 2021NEW DELHI: India’s new coronavirus infections hit a record peak for a fifth day on Monday as countries, including Britain, Germany and the United States, pledged to send urgent medical aid to fight the crisis overwhelming its hospitals. Infections in the past 24 hours rose to 352,991, with overcrowded hospitals in Delhi and elsewhere turning […]
Israel logs Indian COVID-19 variant, sees some vaccine efficacy against it on April 20, 2021Israel has registered eight cases of a coronavirus variant first identified in India and believes that the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is at least partially effective against it, an Israeli health official said on Tuesday. An initial seven cases of the Indian variant were detected in Israel last week among people arriving from abroad and who have since undergone preliminary […]
UK’s Boris Johnson cancels India trip over coronavirus fears on April 19, 2021LONDON: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday cancelled a planned trip to India, scheduled to take place next week, due to the current coronavirus situation in India, Johnson’s office said. Johnson had already postponed the trip once from January, when COVID-19 infections were high in Britain. Infections in India are currently surging as the […]
India’s General Bipin Rawat concerned’ about US pullout from Afghanistan on April 15, 2021NEW DELHI: India is concerned about a vacuum developing in Afghanistan following the proposed withdrawal of United States and NATO forces from the country, the chief of the defence staff said on Thursday. General Bipin Rawat told a security conference that the worry was “disruptors” would step into the space created by the withdrawal of […]