BEIJING: China should expand its stock of nuclear warheads to 1,000 soon, Global Times editor-in-chief Hu Xijin said on Friday, even as US President Donald Trump repeats his call for China to join an arms control treaty, foreign media reported.The Global Times is published by the People’s...

SEIBERSDORF, Austria: Shortages of materials needed in tests for the novel coronavirus remain "critical", according to the head of a UN lab, which is supplying countries with COVID-19 detection kits.In particular the chemical reagents for the tests are still in short supply, said Giovanni Cattoli,...

PARIS: Donald Trump has not donned one. Emmanuel Macron boasted a small French flag on his. Slovakia´s president made a fashion statement by sporting a fuchsia-coloured one to match her outfit.As the world starts emerging from coronavirus lockdowns, political leaders are being closely...

PARIS: A host of state intelligence services warned early of a new coronavirus with the potential to wreak havoc worldwide, yet many governments failed to heed the warnings — a mistake that experts say they are unlikely to make again.The scramble to contain the outbreak has underscored for...

RAMALLAH: The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees launched an emergency coronavirus appeal Friday, saying Palestinians across the Middle East were suffering a devastating socio-economic impact.The agency appealed for $93.4 million for the next three months to provide food and cash...

PARIS: In his ninth-floor office on Paris’s Avenue Montaigne, Europe’s wealthiest man, Bernard Arnault, is spending long hours plotting a post-virus future for his luxury goods empire, LVMH. At 71, the billionaire has lived through several crises, but none quite like this one, with his...

LONDON: Major social advances have often emerged from the depths of disaster: the Black Death brought an end to serfdom, and Britain’s welfare state emerged from the ruins of World War II. As the coronavirus outbreak took hold, many governments brought in policies previously dismissed as...

HERAT, Afghanistan: Afghanistan has recovered 18 bodies of migrants who were allegedly beaten and tortured before being forced into a river by Iranian border guards last week, a senior Afghan official said Friday.Afghan authorities are investigating claims the migrants drowned while illegally...

SEIBERSDORF: Shortages of materials needed in tests for the novel coronavirus remain “critical”, according to the head of a UN lab, which is supplying countries with COVID-19 detection kits. In particular the chemical reagents for the tests are still in short supply, said Giovanni...

AHMEDABAD: Hundreds of paramilitary forces have been deployed in coronavirus-hotspot Gujarat state as India on Friday faced a surge in the number of deaths and infections from the outbreak. Official data show the deadly disease is taking a growing toll in the country of 1.3 billion people even as...

TEHRAN: Virus-hit Iran allowed worshippers to attend Friday prayers for the first time in more than two months, but the capital remains under restrictions amid the Middle East’s deadliest coronavirus outbreak. Since reporting its first cases in mid-February, the Islamic republic has...

WASHINGTON: A study performed in New York hospitals found no evidence of either harm or benefit from giving the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine to severely ill coronavirus patients. “The risk of intubation or death was not significantly higher or lower among patients who received...

BEIJING: China said Friday it supports a World Health Organization-led review into the global response to the coronavirus outbreak, but only “after the pandemic is over”.The comments from foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying came as China faces increasing global pressure to allow...

BEIJING: China should expand its stock of nuclear warheads to 1,000 soon, Global Times editor-in-chief Hu Xijin said on Friday, even as US President Donald Trump repeats his call for China to join an arms control treaty, foreign media reported.The Global Times is published by the People’s...

AHMEDABAD, India: Hundreds of paramilitary forces have been deployed in coronavirus-hotspot Gujarat state as India on Friday faced a surge in the number of deaths and infections from the outbreak.Official data show the deadly disease is taking a growing toll in the country of 1.3 billion people...

FRANKFURT AM MAIN: An Indian national will stand trial in Germany accused of spying on Sikh and Kashmiri communities for New Delhi’s secret service, a court said on Friday.Federal prosecutors allege the suspect, identified as 54-year-old Balvir, has been working with the Indian foreign...

CARACAS: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro says there is evidence his American counterpart Donald Trump “personally ordered” the recent military raid on the Latin American country, arguing that Washington swiftly cut remaining ties with Caracas thereafter. Maduro made the comments in...

HONG KONG: Rival Hong Kong lawmakers clashed on Friday inside the city’s legislature which has been paralysed for seven months as pro-democracy politicians attempt to scupper a controversial law that bans insulting China’s national anthem.The chaotic scenes come weeks after Beijing...

NEW YORK: A five-year-old boy in New York state has died from a rare inflammatory disease believed to be caused by the new coronavirus, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Friday.“There have been 73 reported cases in NY of children getting severely ill with symptoms similar to Kawasaki disease...

HERAT, Afghanistan: Afghanistan has recovered 18 bodies of migrants who were allegedly beaten and tortured before being forced into a river by Iranian border guards last week, a senior Afghan official said on Friday.Afghan authorities are investigating claims the migrants drowned while illegally...

SEOUL: North Korea condemned the South on Friday for holding military drills, saying the situation was returning to before the diplomatic rapprochement of 2018, as leader Kim Jong Un – whose health was the subject of intense speculation in recent weeks – reached out to traditional ally...

EDINBURGH: The number of cases of Covid-19 needs to come down “substantially” and consistently before there can be any return to normality, a disease expert has said.Professor Hugh Pennington said that while “we may be past the peak of the coronavirus pandemic, the number of...

French police have dismantled smuggling networks trying to take advantage of a rush to buy medical supplies including face masks to tackle the coronavirus epidemic, the interior minister said Friday.

Venezuela has charged two former US soldiers with "terrorism" and "conspiracy" for allegedly taking part in a failed invasion bid to topple President Nicolas Maduro, the attorney general said Friday.

Extreme heat and humidity are increasing across the globe, threatening millions of lives and economies in places where it could become fatal to work outdoors, scientists said Friday.

A second White House worker this week has tested positive for coronavirus, officials said Friday, even as President Donald Trump continued to go mask-free at a World War II commemoration with veterans in their 90s.

The United States recorded Friday its steepest job losses in history over the coronavirus pandemic as Europe moved to keep its borders shut for another month.

Britain plans to introduce a 14-day mandatory quarantine for most international arrivals, reports said Saturday, despite growing pressure on the government to relax virus lockdown measures.

The World Health Organization (WHO) plans to launch an app this month to enable people in under-resourced countries to assess whether they may have the novel coronavirus, and is considering a Bluetooth-based contact tracing feature too, an official told Reuters Friday.

President Donald Trump needled his Democratic rival Joe Biden Friday for limiting his campaign appearances to virtual events from the basement of his home in Delaware.

Global leaders marked 75 years since the end of World War II in Europe Friday, urging citizens to draw inspiration from the historic victory as the world battles against the coronavirus pandemic.

The biggest threat to Brazil's ability to successfully combat the spread of the coronavirus and tackle the unfolding public health crisis is the country's president, Jair Bolsonaro, according to British medical journal The Lancet.

Fresh coronavirus outbreaks at slaughterhouses in Germany and new cases reported Saturday in South Korea linked to a man who had visited multiple nightclubs highlighted the challenges authorities face as they seek to open up their economies.

NEW DELHI: The National Green Tribunal on Friday issued notices to South Korean company LG Polymers, Union Environment Ministry, Central Pollution Control Board and others regarding the Vizag gas leak incident.The NGT has directed LG Polymers, India, at whose plant the gas leakage occurred, to...

ISLAMABAD: A senior member of the Prime Minister’s Office has approached the Federal Ombudsman over the ‘extreme injustice’ of out of turn allotment of second residential plots in the federal capital to a selected few in the bureaucracy in a non-transparent and unjust manner.The...

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-N President and National Assembly opposition leader Shahbaz Sharif has demanded an in-depth investigation into the medicine scandal through a parliamentary committee.“Coming on the heels of sugar, wheat and IPPs scandals, the latest drug scandal indicates how...

RAWALPINDI/LAHORE/PESHAWAR: The workers of Jang, Geo and The News along with representatives of civil society and political workers continued countrywide protest on Friday against illegal arrest of Editor-in-Chief of Geo and Jang Group Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman and pledged that the protest will...

ISLAMABAD: Eight out of 10 coronavirus patients didn’t have symptoms but found positive only after they were tested, countrywide data obtained by The News has determined.Similarly, local transmission of pandemic has considerably increased as around nine in 10 patients have contracted virus...

RAWALPINDI: US Special Representative for Afghan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad Friday called on Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa here on Friday. During the meeting, issues of mutual interest and overall regional security situation, including Afghan reconciliation process, came...

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah declared that the Sindh government will work alongside the Centre to implement the new lockdown measures for the mitigation of the coronavirus outbreak."We will implement the federal government's lockdown decisions to the extent of 99pc if not...

ISLAMABAD: The State Bank of Pakistan’s Refinance Scheme for Small Businesses has so far failed to take off due to multiple reasons as the commercial banks are not designed and fully equipped to provide credit line to Small and Medium Enterprises .“The SBP’s Refinance Scheme for...

RAWALPINDI: Six security forces personnel, including one officer, were martyred and another injured as an improvised explosive device hit their reconnaissance vehicle in Buleda near the Pakistan-Iran border, the military's media wing said in a statement released Friday.According to the...

ISLAMABAD/LAHORE: Pakistan’s position in the global ranking in respect of COVID-19 dropped from 24th to 22nd on Friday after the number of positive cases increased to 26,806 with addition of 1,791 new cases.The country ranked 20th and 29th in the global ranking on May 6 after reporting 1,000...

ISLAMABAD: The State Bank of Pakistan’s Refinance Scheme for Small Businesses has so far failed to take off due to multiple reasons as the commercial banks are not designed and fully equipped to provide credit line to Small and Medium Enterprises .“The SBP’s Refinance Scheme for...

ISLAMABAD: A senior member of the Prime Minister’s Office has approached the Federal Ombudsman over the ‘extreme injustice’ of out of turn allotment of second residential plots in the federal capital to a selected few in the bureaucracy in a non-transparent and unjust manner.The...

MUMBAI: Fourteen migrant labourers walking back to their villages after being left destitute by India´s strict coronavirus lockdown were killed Friday after being hit by a train, officials said.The men were returning home when they were hit by the goods train in the western state of...

tNEW DELHI: The National Green Tribunal on Friday issued notices to South Korean company LG Polymers, Union Environment Ministry, Central Pollution Control Board and others regarding the Vizag gas leak incident.The NGT has directed LG Polymers, India, at whose plant the gas leakage occurred, to...

KARACHI: Afghan Taliban chief Mulla Akhtar Mansour’s five properties of over Rs32 million in Karachi have been seized by the anti-terrorism court for auction, sources said on Thursday.Mulla Mansour, who was killed in a drone strike along the Pakistan-Iran border on May 21, 2016, had...

RAWALPINDI/LAHORE/PESHAWAR: The workers of Jang, Geo and The News along with representatives of civil society and political workers continued countrywide protest on Friday against illegal arrest of Editor-in-Chief of Geo and Jang Group Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman and pledged that the protest will...

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-N President and National Assembly opposition leader Shahbaz Sharif has demanded an in-depth investigation into the medicine scandal through a parliamentary committee.“Coming on the heels of sugar, wheat and IPPs scandals, the latest drug scandal indicates how...