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Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine shows great results against the Delta coronavirus strain, with its effectiveness against it reaching around 83%, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said on Wednesday. “Today, the Sputnik V vaccine shows the most effective results in preventing and fighting the Delta strain. The latest data show that its …

US President Joe Biden celebrated the Senate’s passage of a historic, sweeping $1.2 trillion bipartisan package on Tuesday, a step toward fulfilling a key item in his legislative agenda that also amounts to the biggest bipartisan win of his presidency so far. “The death of this legislation was mildly premature,” …

Ethiopia’s government on Tuesday urged citizens to join the fight against resurgent Tigrayan forces now pushing beyond their own region in a nine-month-old war that has sparked a major refugee crisis. The call to arms came in a statement from the office of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed: “Now is the …

Taliban overruns cities of Farah and Pul-e-Khumri in fresh setbacks for Afghanistan’s government. The Taliban has captured two more cities in Afghanistan, taking the number of provincial capitals the group has seized since Friday to eight. Farah city of the eponymous southwestern province and Pul-e-Khumri of the northern province of …

A fire at the Syrian port of Latakia has been extinguished, according to state media, after a reported explosion sent black smoke billowing above the city. Some workers required oxygen and further treatment. On Tuesday, a fire broke out on a commercial vessel during maintenance operations in Syria’s Latakia port, …

In his latest sweeping crackdown on political dissent, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has ordered the arrest of at least 207 employees from different ministries under the guise of fighting corruption. The announcement came Monday from the kingdom’s so-called National Anti-Corruption Commission, known as ‘Nazaha,’ which reports directly …

Twitter’s data stands in contrast to that from the UK Football Policing Unit which said that of 207 social media posts deemed to be criminal, 34 came from accounts in Britain and 123 in other countries. Twitter has said that “the UK was – by far – the largest country …

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday he will resign after a withering report from the state’s attorney general alleged he’d sexually harassed multiple women, leading to calls from top Democrats, including President Joe Biden, that he step down. “And I think that given the circumstances the best way I …

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in a decree on Tuesday approved a new cabinet headed by Hussein Arnous, less than two weeks after the caretaker-premier was tasked with forming a new government. The final announcement about the new 21-member cabinet came in a tweet by the Syrian Presidency, with no significant …

Pakistan’s foreign minister says the international community must stop blaming Islamabad for the fast-deteriorating situation in Afghanistan against the backdrop of advances by the Taliban. Shah Mehmood Qureshi said at a news conference on Monday that the world needed to look into the “meltdown” of Afghan forces instead of blaming …

Japan’s Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi is scheduled to visit Tehran as part of a tour of West Asian meant to discuss regional security and the response to the coronavirus pandemic with officials of the new Iranian administration. Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, the top Japanese diplomat said he …

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam has thrown her weight behind the adoption of a law introduced by Beijing to uphold the territory’s sovereignty in the face of foreign interference and sanctions. Lam said on Tuesday that her government would do its utmost to fulfill its constitutional responsibility, adding, “The purpose …

Russia and China are taking part in massive joint military drills in China’s north-central region of Ningxia, in what is widely viewed as the two superpowers’ intention to boost their operational capabilities vis-a-vis the United States. Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday that more than 10,000 troops …

At least 11 Taliban members were killed in a B-52 airstrike by US forces in Kapisa province’s Nijrab district on Tuesday morning, TOLO News quoted a provincial police spokesman as saying. By Tuesday, the Taliban were in control of six Afghan provincial capitals following a blitz across the north that …

The F.B.I. said it would review some long-classified documents for possible disclosure, a decision that followed a push by families of the attacks’ victims. The Biden administration, under pressure from families of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, said on Monday that it intended to disclose some long-classified documents that …

Several rounds of meetings scheduled over three days between Zalmay Khalilzad and the Taliban as armed group makes advances. The United States envoy on Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, “will press the Taliban to stop their military offensive” at talks in Qatar’s capital this week, the Department of State announced after the …

Firefighters and helicopters are trying to contain several blazes threatening residents in Tizi Ouzou province. At least seven people have been killed in Algeria as forest fires spread in the North African country, the civil defense authority said on Tuesday. Two people were seriously injured, it added. State radio reported …

The leader of Yemen’s popular Ansarullah resistance movement said Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are hostile towards the Palestinian Hamas resistance movement because the Gaza-based group is valiantly fighting the Israeli occupation. “The religious, moral, ethnic and national duty for everyone is to support the Palestinian cause …

Bangladesh began vaccinating thousands of Rohingya Muslims on Tuesday in the world’s largest refugee settlement amid a surge in COVID-19 infections in the country, officials said. Aid workers have long warned of a potential humanitarian disaster if there is a significant outbreak in the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, the …

South Korea and the United States should pay a price for going ahead with annual joint military drills due to begin this week, Kim Yo Jong, a powerful North Korean official and sister of leader Kim Jong Un, said on Tuesday. South Korea and the United States began preliminary training …