The US government Wednesday announced a new $1 billion investment in a COVID-19 vaccine being developed by Johnson & Johnson, guaranteeing 100 million doses. J&J, via its subsidiary Janssen, had already received $456 million in March. The new money will allow the company to ramp...

Joe Biden will not attend the Democratic convention to accept the party's nomination to be its presidential election candidate after the event was further scaled back due to the coronavirus pandemic, officials said Wednesday. Biden "will no longer travel to Milwaukee and will instead...

Pakistani citizens living abroad should raise awareness about the plight of people in Jammu and Kashmir, which was annexed by India and reduced to a centrally administered territory a year ago, Pakistan's ambassador to Ankara said on Wednesday. Muhammad Syrus Sajjad Qazi’s comments came at...

North Korea’s test results for a man suspected of being the country’s first coronavirus case were inconclusive, though authorities have quarantined over 3,635 primary and secondary contacts, a World Health Organization official told Reuters. On July 26 North Korea said it had declared a...

The death toll worldwide from the novel coronavirus rose to 700,647 on Wednesday, according to a running tally by the US-based Johns Hopkins University. Data showed the total number of cases worldwide climbed to 18.54 million, with 11.13 recoveries. Brazil has the highest number of...

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Wednesday lay the foundation for a temple at a flashpoint holy site exactly a year after imposing direct rule on Muslim-majority Kashmir -- twin triumphs for his Hindu nationalist government. The site of Ayodhya and divided Kashmir have been two...

A US official voiced confidence Tuesday that key powers would keep recognizing opposition figure Juan Guaido as Venezuela's interim president even if he is sidelined in disputed elections. The United States and most Western and Latin American nations no longer recognize leftist Nicolas...

The US has begun late stage clinical trials into a drug formulated to fight COVID-19, officials said Tuesday. The medicine is an antibody against the new coronavirus called LY-CoV555, which was identified in the blood sample of a recovered patient by Canada's Abcellera Biologics. It was...

The World Health Organization on Tuesday urged Russia to follow the established guidelines for producing safe and effective vaccines after Moscow announced plans to start swiftly producing COVID-19 jabs. Russia said Monday it aims to launch mass production of a coronavirus vaccine in...

The aphorism "perfect is the enemy of good enough" has been played out to tragic effect in the US's inadequate testing for the coronavirus, according to researchers calling for quick tests that cost only about a dollar each, and which may not be as accurate but can be carried out several times...

Japan this week marks the 75th anniversary of the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which killed over 200,000 people and left many more deeply traumatised and even stigmatised. Here are some facts about the devastating attacks: - The bombs - The first atomic bomb was...

Thousands of Indian troops imposed a curfew in Kashmir on Tuesday, with razor wire and steel barricades blocking main roads a day ahead of the one-year anniversary of the restive region being stripped of its autonomy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi imposed direct rule last August 5, promising...

Afghan security forces Monday killed at least 10 Daesh fighters who had taken control of a prison in the eastern city of Jalalabad, ending a siege in which hundreds of prisoners escaped. At least 29 people were killed in the militants' assault on the prison Sunday evening and subsequent...

The World Health Organization warned Monday that, despite strong hopes for a vaccine, there might never be a "silver bullet" for COVID-19, and the road to normality would be long. More than 18.14 million people around the world are reported to have been infected with the disease and...

The number of coronavirus cases recorded worldwide passed the 18-million mark on Monday, with the World Health Organization warning that the effects of the pandemic "will be felt for decades to come". The virus that causes Covid-19 has killed more than 687,000 people since it first emerged...

 Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack in the Afghan city of Jalalabad, the group’s Amaq news agency said on Sunday . At least three bombs exploded outside a jail compound, officials said.

The Afghan government on Sunday urged the Taliban to extend a rare ceasefire hours before it was due to end, as a contentious prisoner swap between the two warring sides edged closer to completion. Officials said there were no reports of fighting between the enemies across much of...

It’s getting late early. President Donald Trump is privately reassuring Republicans anxious about his deficits to Democrat Joe Biden, noting there are three months until Election Day and reminding them of the late-breaking events that propelled his 2016 comeback. But four years later,...

The Afghan intelligence service says it has killed a high ranking official with the Islamic State affiliate in an operation in eastern Afghanistan. A statement released by the National Directorate of Security late Saturday said Assadullah Orakzai was an intelligence leader for the Islamic...

 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has promised to soon reveal his running mate. And as the suspense builds over who Biden will choose to be on the ticket for November's election, this much is known -- it will be a woman. About a dozen names have been bandied about by...