World News

New York: More than 200 scientists from 32 nations have written to the WHO, saying there is evidence that the coronavirus is airborne and even smaller particles can infect people, a significant departure from the UN health agency’s claims so far that COVID-19 is spread primarily through coughs and sneezes. A report in The New York Times says that clusters …

Beijing: China on Monday accused the US of flexing its military muscles in the South China Sea by conducting joint exercises with two US Aircraft carrier groups in the strategic waterway. Foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said the exercises were performed “totally out of ulterior motives” and undermined stability in the area. “Against such a backdrop, the US deliberately dispatched …

Dubai: Some 8 lakh Indians could be forced to leave Kuwait after a parliamentary committee approved a draft expat quota bill seeking to gradually slash the number of foreign workers in the Gulf country, according to media reports. The National Assembly’s legal and legislative committee has determined that the expat quota bill is constitutional. According to the bill, Indians should …

London: An estimated 13 UK universities, educating around 5 per cent of students in the country, would not be able to survive the coronavirus pandemic lockdown without a government bailout support, a new report claimed on Monday. The Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) estimates that long-term losses for the UK’s higher education sector could come in anywhere between 3 billion …

Beijing: China on Monday said the front-line troops are taking “effective measures” and making “progress” to disengage and ease the tensions in the Galwan Valley along the Line of Actual Control with India. The remarks of China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian came after government sources in New Delhi said the Chinese Army was seen removing tents and moving back …

Greenville: A shooting at a South Carolina nightclub left two people dead and eight wounded, a sheriff’s official said. Two Greenville County sheriff’s deputies noticed a disturbance at Lavish Lounge just before 2.00 am, and saw a large crowd running out of the building, Sheriff Hobart Lewis said at a press conference. There was “active gunfire from inside the building,” …

London: UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will lead a nationwide clap to mark the 72nd anniversary of the state-funded National Health Service (NHS) on Sunday. The British public are being encouraged to join in the round of applause at 1700 hrs (local time) for all the NHS key workers who helped save lives during the coronavirus pandemic. “Seventy-one times before, …

Tokyo: Deep floodwaters and the risk of more mudslides that left at least 34 people confirmed or presumed dead hampered search and rescue operations Sunday in southern Japan, including at elderly home facilities where more than a dozen died and scores were still stranded. Helicopters and boats rescued more people from their homes in the Kumamoto region. More than 40,000 …

Washington: President Donald Trump has said that America loves India, as he thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for greeting him and the people of the country on the occasion of the 244th Independence Day of the United States. The Fourth of July — also known as the Independence Day — is a federal holiday in the US commemorating the publication …

AFP Geneva The World Health Organization has updated its account of the early stages of the Covid crisis to say it was alerted by its own office in China, and not by China itself, to the first pneumonia cases in Wuhan. The UN health body has been accused by US President Donald Trump of failing to provide the information needed …