More Sections

 Fans were banned from the pandemic-postponed Tokyo Olympics which will open in two weeks, Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said after meeting with IOC and Japanese organizers on Thursday. The ban came hours after a state of emergency in the capital starting from Monday, declared by Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga …

UEFA said it was also investigating England over fans’ lighting of fireworks and disrupting the Denmark national anthem. European football’s governing body UEFA has opened disciplinary proceedings against England over a laser pen shone at Denmark goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel during the deciding moment of their Euro 2020 semi-final. Television footage …

Japan is to place its capital Tokyo under a state of emergency, which will last through the upcoming Olympic games. There are fears coronavirus could surge during the event, and at a meeting with experts on Thursday morning government officials proposed a plan to start the state of emergency from …

The container ship that blocked the Suez Canal in March and has been detained there since is due to finally resume its journey on Wednesday after the owner and insurers reached a compensation settlement with the canal authority. One of the world’s largest container ships, the Ever Given became wedged …

The leader of Australia’s New South Wales (NSW) state on Wednesday ordered a week-long extension of Sydney’s COVID-19 lockdown, warning new cases are bound to rise as the country’s biggest city grapples with the highly infectious Delta variant. Sydney, home to a fifth of Australia’s 25 million people, was plunged …

Authorities in India arrested 14 people in connection with a scheme that allegedly saw 2,000 people injected with fake COVID-19 vaccines containing saltwater in Mumbai, the New York Times reported on Sunday. A total of around $20,000 was confiscated from the arrested suspects, some of whom are medical professionals. At …

Warning by top WHO expert against premature rush back to normality comes amid growing concerns over spread of Delta variant of coronavirus. The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned governments around the world against easing COVID-19 restrictions too soon, saying countries that did so risked paying a heavy price for …

Oil prices were heading towards three-year highs on Tuesday, towing petrol currencies and bond yields with them, after the world’s main oil producers failed to agree on production plans. Europe’s stocks spluttered at the prospect of faster inflation. China had spooked its tech sector too with another high-profile clampdown, but …

Lucas Paquetá’s 36th-minute goal lifts Brazil in 1-0 victory Brazil to face either Argentina or Colombia on Saturday’s final Many Brazil players didn’t want to take part in the Copa América tournament. After the Seleção advanced to the final with a 1-0 win over Peru on Monday, some players said …

The French Senate has voted to block a referendum promised by President Emmanuel Macron on whether to enshrine the fight against climate change in the French constitution, it said in a statement on Monday. Macron had pledged to organise such a vote in response to criticism that he has not …

OPEC+ ministers will look to salvage their oil output talks on Monday after clashing last week when the United Arab Emirates balked at a proposed eight-month extension to output curbs. Saudi energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman on Sunday called for “compromise and rationality” to secure a deal after two …

Aid agencies have distributed a strawberry-flavored tablet for children living with HIV in six African countries, the first generic pediatric version of a key anti-retroviral, global health agency UNITAID said on Sunday. UNITAID and Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) funding procured 100,000 packs of the dolutegravir formulation across Nigeria, Malawi, …

Russia’s Orthodox Church admonished people refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19, calling them sinners who would have to atone for the rest of their lives, as the country reported another jump in new infections and deaths. The church urged all its faithful to be inoculated as another 24,353 new COVID-19 …

Hackers suspected to be behind a mass extortion attack that affected hundreds of companies worldwide late on Sunday demanded $70 million to restore the data they are holding ransom, according to a posting on a dark website. The demand was posted on a blog typically used by the REvil cybercrime …

The World Health Organization (WHO) warned that coronavirus variants are moving faster than the global vaccine rollout, urging leaders to increase the pace or risk being overwhelmed. Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the WHO, noted that the highly contagious Delta variant, first identified in India, is “outpacing” vaccinations, …

Indonesia has ordered oxygen makers to prioritise medical needs amid growing demand from COVID-19 patients, the government said on Sunday, following more than 60 deaths in a hospital where the supply of the life-saving gas was almost exhausted. The world’s fourth most populous nation is battling one of Asia’s worst …

The first astronauts to arrive at China’s new space station carried out their debut spacewalk, marking only the second time the country’s astronauts have ventured out of their craft while in orbit. Tang Hongbo, Nie Haisheng, and Liu Boming docked with the Tiangong space station in June, beginning a three-month …

Danish households are the richest in the European Union, according to a data analysis by the country’s central bank. The average household in Denmark had 1.88 million Danish kroner ($300,000) in financial assets as of the fourth quarter of 2020. The data, released Wednesday, was extracted from the European Central …

Portugal said on Saturday it hoped to vaccinate a further 1.7 million people against COVID-19 over the next two weeks as authorities scramble to contain a surge in infections caused by the more contagious Delta variant. Cases in Portugal, a nation of just over 10 million, jumped by 2,605 on …

A security firm said the REvil gang, allegedly a Russian-speaking ransomware syndicate appears to be responsible for the attack. A “colossal and devastating” ransomware attack is thought to have paralysed the networks of at least 200 US companies. The federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency have said it is closely …