Myanmar’s major trade unions called on members to shut down the economy from Monday to support a campaign against last month’s coup, turning up the pressure on the junta as security forces cracked down on demonstrators staging widespread protests

A far-right proposal to ban facial coverings in Switzerland was headed toward a narrow victory in a binding referendum on Sunday viewed as a test of attitudes toward Muslims.

Indian police have detained more than 150 Rohingya refugees found living illegally in the northern region of Jammu and Kashmir and a process has begun to deport them back to Myanmar, two officials said on Sunday.

Australia has asked the European Commission to review its decision to block a shipment of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine, as countries importing EU-made shots fear a potential impact on supplies.

Japan extended a state of emergency in the Tokyo area by two weeks on Friday to try to combat COVID-19, prompting a “heartfelt apology” by Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.

Tens of thousands of farmers are camping at the Delhi borders to protest against the three farm laws termed historic by the Centre.

Police in Myanmar broke up demonstrations in several places with tear gas and gunfire on Thursday as protesters took to the streets again undeterred by the rising death toll in a crackdown on opponents of last month’s military coup.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is launching a fast-track procedure to test the Russian coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V.

Security has been tightened around the US Capitol in Washington - scene of a deadly assault in January - after police warned that a militia group might try to attack it on Thursday, an important day in the calendar for some pro-Trump conspiracy theor

Myanmar security forces opened fire on protests against military rule on Wednesday, killing at least 13 people, witnesses and media reported, a day after neighbouring countries called for restraint and offered to help Myanmar resolve the crisis.

Australia’s attorney general outed himself as the unnamed cabinet minister accused of raping a 16-year-old girl, denying the decades-old allegation Wednesday and seeking to draw a line under a crisis consuming the country’s conservative governmen

President Joe Biden on Tuesday called on U.S. states to prioritize COVID-19 vaccinations for teachers to ensure children could return to school quickly and safely, and said every educator should receive at least one shot by the end of March.

The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on Russian individuals and entities over Russia’s attempt to kill opposition figure Alexei Navalny with a nerve agent, senior Biden administration officials said.

Israel estimates that hundreds of its citizens might be subject to war crimes probes by the International Criminal Court, whose jurisdiction it rejects, and is working on how to protect them, the Defence Minister said on Tuesday.

The United States reported a 3% decline in new cases of COVID-19 last week, a much smaller drop than in the previous six weeks, and health officials warned that progress against the global pandemic was stalling.

Two new charges were levelled against Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar on Monday, a month after she was ousted from her position at the top of the government and put under house arrest after a coup.

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has been sentenced to three years on charges of bribery and influence peddling, a court in Paris ruled in an historic sentence on Monday.

India expanded its large but floundering Covid-19 vaccination campaign on Monday to cover people aged 60 and up as it hopes to address a spike in infections as well as “vaccine hesitancy” among people.

Myanmar police fired on protesters around the country on Sunday in the bloodiest day of weeks of demonstrations against a military coup and at least 18 people were killed, the U.N. human rights office said.

Security forces battling a decades-long insurgency in Indian-controlled Kashmir are alarmed by the recent arrival in the disputed region of small, magnetic bombs that have wreaked havoc in Afghanistan.

Forty-seven supporters of the pro-democracy opposition in Hong Kong have been arrested for alleged violations of a controversial security law, local media reported on Sunday.

The World Health Organization’s global vaccine sharing scheme COVAX delivered its first COVID-19 shots on Wednesday, as the race to get doses to the world’s poorest people and tame the pandemic accelerates.

Malaysia sent more than 1,000 Myanmar nationals back to their strife-torn homeland on Tuesday despite a court order to halt the deportation, a move rights groups said could endanger the deportees’ lives.

An Indian climate change activist was granted bail on Tuesday, 10 days after being arrested for allegedly creating a “toolkit” to help the country’s farmer protests that was tweeted by Greta Thunberg.

An emotional President Joe Biden called the milestone of more than 500,000 US deaths from Covid-19 “heartbreaking” on Monday and urged the country to unite against the pandemic.

India said on Tuesday mutated versions of coronavirus were not responsible for an upsurge in cases in two states, a potential relief for a country where mask-wearing and social distancing have largely disappeared.

Facebook will restore Australian news pages, ending an unprecedented week-long blackout after wringing concessions from the government over a proposed law that will require tech giants to pay traditional media companies for their content.

Campaigners against the military coup in Myanmar called a general strike on Monday as enormous crowds flooded towns and cities across the country despite threats of violence from the new regime.

A whopping 240 mutated coronavirus strains have been discovered across India, health officials have said, warning that some of them may potentially be more infectious, and may even be capable of evading immune response altogether.

EU foreign ministers have agreed to pursue fresh sanctions against Russia following the jailing of dissident Alexei Navalny, diplomatic sources confirmed to dpa on Monday.