Variety

Workers scaled a giant statue of a Buddhist goddess in Japan on Tuesday to place a custom-made mask on her face, an act meant to be a prayer for the end of the coronavirus pandemic. It took four workers three hours to carry the massive mask on ropes up the …

A huge red banner welcomed nearly 9,000 students in Wuhan for a massive graduation ceremony over a year after the city was battered by the first global outbreak of COVID-19. Students in navy gowns and mortarboards sat in crowded rows, without social distancing or face masks, beneath the sign that …

Heightened workloads and household responsibilities during the COVID-19 pandemic are driving deep dissatisfaction among many women in the workforce, according to a new report released on Monday from Deloitte Global. Seventy-seven percent of respondents said their workload increased since the pandemic crisis broke. “Women @ Work: A global outlook,” found …

Swiss voters rejected a trio of environmental proposals on Sunday, including a new law intended to help the country meet its goal for cutting carbon emissions under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. A new CO2 law was narrowly rejected, with 51.6% of voters opposing it in a nationwide referendum …

For $28 million, a civilian will see space. That’s the winning bid for a seat aboard the New Shepard when Jeff Bezos’ space tourism venture Blue Origin flies people to space for the first time next month. The live auction lasted under 10 minutes Saturday, after opening at $4.9 million …

Saudi Arabia will limit this year’s Hajj pilgrimage to 60,000 residents and nationals living in the Kingdom due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah announced in a statement Saturday. “In light of what the whole world is witnessing from the continuing developments of the coronavirus …

Pulitzer Prizes were awarded to Reuters, the New York Times, the Atlantic, and the Minneapolis Star Tribune on Friday for their coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic and racial inequities in U.S. policing, topics that dominated the ceremony. The Star Tribune won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news reporting for what …

Two passengers on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean have tested positive for Covid-19. The pair were traveling on the MSC Seaside cruise ship and disembarked with their families in Syracuse, Sicily, on Tuesday, MSC said on Wednesday. The two passengers were asymptomatic. The cruise had previously docked in Malta …

The Indian government has ordered the temporary closure of all tiger reserves to tourism, after a spate of Covid-19 outbreaks in zoos around the country. The National Tiger Conservation Authority, an agency under the government’s environmental ministry, issued its order on Monday after the death of a Covid-positive lioness a …

Meghan, Britain’s Duchess of Sussex, has given birth to her second child, a girl, whom she and her husband Prince Harry have named after Queen Elizabeth and his late mother Princess Diana. Lilibet ‘Lili’ Diana Mountbatten-Windsor was born on Friday at the Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital in California, with Harry …

Filming in Britain on the latest installment of the Tom Cruise franchise is halted for two weeks after people working on the movie tested positive for coronavirus. Filming in Britain on the latest “Mission: Impossible” movie has been shut down for two weeks after some people working on the movie …

A huge mass of marine mucilage has bloomed in Turkey’s Marmara, as well as in the adjoining Black Sea and the Aegean Sea. Turkey’s president has promised to rescue the Marmara Sea from an outbreak of “sea snot” that is alarming marine biologists and environmentalists. A huge mass of marine …

The first cruise ship to leave Venice since coronavirus restrictions were eased set sail on Saturday, but some local residents protested over the return to normal, unhappy about the passage of giant liners through the historic lagoon city. Hundreds of people rallied on land and small boats fluttering flags saying …

The award-winning seven-year-old rodent has detected 71 landmines and 38 items of unexploded ordnance, according to his employers. Magawa, an award-winning giant African pouched rat, is retiring after five years of sniffing out land mines and unexploded ordnance in Cambodia. The seven-year-old rodent, originally from Tanzania, was trained by the …

China announced on Monday that married couples may have up to three children, a major policy shift from the existing limit of two after recent data showed a dramatic decline in births in the world’s most populous country. The change was approved during a politburo meeting chaired by President Xi …

Iraq ranked sixth as the happiest country in the Middle East during 2021, according to Global Finance magazine. As to the report, people living in Middle Eastern countries tend to be either very happy or very unhappy. The 2021 World Happiness Report paints a picture of extremes in the Middle …

British PM Boris Johnson married his fiancee Carrie Symonds in a secret ceremony at Westminster Cathedral on Saturday. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson married his fiancee Carrie Symonds in a secret ceremony at Westminster Cathedral on Saturday, the Sun and Mail on Sunday newspapers reported. A spokeswoman for Johnson’s Downing …

Spain will allow cruise ships to dock in its ports from June 7, the transport ministry said on Saturday, hoping to salvage the country’s battered tourism sector in time for the summer season. Spain’s maritime authorities approved the reopening because of falling COVID-19 incidence rates and an increase in vaccinations, …

Pyongyang has declared North Korea coronavirus-free, with zero confirmed cases since the outbreak of the global pandemic, while the authorities have imposed severe restrictions to stop the disease from entering the country. North Korean authorities have ordered the elimination of cats and pigeons in border areas due to pandemic fears, …

Property owners operating with ‘total impunity’ in areas where the building is forbidden, zone’s head says. Just beyond the towering pyramids of what was once the largest city of the Americas, an illegal building project threatens to cause irreparable harm to the remains of temples and some two dozen other …