Myanmar’s new military leader said on Monday the ruling junta would hold a fresh election and hand power to the winner, saying that campaigning in a vote last November had not been fair.

Britain will continue to administer the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine despite a new study showing its limited effectiveness against the South African variant, the vaccine minister said.

US President Joe Biden said on Sunday that the US would not first lift sanctions on Iran in order to encourage Tehran to return to the 2015 nuclear deal.

As many as 150 people were feared dead in northern India after a Himalayan glacier broke and swept away a hydroelectric dam on Sunday, with floods forcing the evacuation of villages downstream.

Tens of thousands of people rallied across Myanmar on Sunday to denounce last week’s coup and demand the release of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, in the biggest protests since the 2007 Saffron Revolution that helped lead to democratic reforms.

South Korea on Saturday eased curfews on more than half a million restaurants and other businesses outside the capital Seoul, letting them stay open an hour later, amid a public backlash over tight curbs to contain COVID-19.

Thousands of farmers in a politically important Indian state on Friday rallied in opposition to new agricultural laws, signalling growing support for a months-long campaign to have the government reforms scrapped.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted to strip Marjorie Taylor Greene of two high-profile committee assignments on Thursday, punishing the Republican congresswoman for incendiary remarks that included support for violence against Democrats.

The US has sent the USS ‘John S. McCain’ past Chinese-controlled islands in the South China Sea as a show of strength in the first mission conducted since President Joe Biden took office.

The world faces around 4,000 variants of the virus that causes COVID-19, prompting a race to improve vaccines, Britain said on Thursday, as researchers began to explore mixing doses of the Pfizer and AstraZeneca shots in a world first.

More people are now vaccinated against COVID-19 than have been infected by the virus that has swept the globe over the past year -a milestone on the road to ending the pandemic, based on data reported on Wednesday.

Myanmar police have filed charges against ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi for illegally importing communications equipment and she will be detained until Feb. 15 for investigations, according to a police document.

Iran will not accept any changes to the nuclear accord signed in Vienna in 2015, President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday.

The European Union has threatened Myanmar’s military with sanctions following its coup against the civilian government, echoing a warning by Washington.

Former US president Donald Trump has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by a right-wing populist lawmaker from Estonia.

New rules took effect just before midnight Tuesday requiring millions of travelers in the United States to wear masks on airplanes, trains, buses, ferries, taxis and ride-share vehicles and in airports, stations, ports and other transit hubs.

Myanmar’s military on Monday pledged the country would hold fresh elections in one year, shortly after arresting de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and seizing power in a coup.

Israel’s nationwide lockdown was extended Monday to contain the coronavirus which has continued to spread rapidly as the country presses ahead with an aggressive vaccination campaign.

The Kremlin on Monday defended the behaviour of Russian security forces over the weekend during mass arrests of protesters attending rallies in support of jailed dissident Alexei Navalny.

India’s prime minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday protesters that stormed New Delhi’s Red Fort had caused “insult” to the country, his first public comments on a months-long farmers’ agitation that turned violent last week.

Hong Kong residents can apply from Sunday for a new visa offering them an opportunity to become British citizens after Beijing’s imposition of a national security law in the Asian financial hub last year.

A second weekend of unauthorized rallies across Russia to demand the release of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny were under way on Sunday, with dozens of people reported detained in Moscow and elsewhere.

Johnson & Johnson said on Friday that its single-dose vaccine was 66% effective in preventing COVID-19 in a large global trial against multiple variants which will give health officials another weapon to tackle the coronavirus.

Portugal’s parliament voted on Friday to legalise euthanasia, with the country set to become the seventh in the world to allow terminally ill patients to seek assistance from a doctor to end their life. People aged over 18 will be allowed to reques

Pakistan’s Supreme Court Thursday upheld the acquittal and ordered the release of a British-born militant convicted of masterminding the kidnap and brutal murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl, who was beheaded by jihadists in 2002.

India said on Thursday it had curbed an increase in COVID-19 infections, with a fifth of its districts reporting no new cases for a week, even as its immunisation campaign has covered 2.4 million people.

The White House on Thursday denied a media report that it could split President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief proposal into two bills, as part of a strategy to get the divided Senate to quickly pass some aid for Americans.

Europe’s fight to secure COVID-19 vaccine supplies intensified on Thursday when the European Union said it would tighten oversight of exports after a row with AstraZeneca and Britain demanded that it receive all the shots it paid for.

The European Union is asking AstraZeneca to publish the contract it signed with the bloc on COVID-19 vaccine supplies, an EU official said on Wednesday, as frustrations over delivery delays bubble to the surface.

Only five Republican senators opposed a motion by colleague Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) to declare Donald Trump’s impeachment trial unconstitutional, signaling that Democrats won’t have enough votes to convict the former president.