Middle-age patients too at high risk

Middle-aged people, and not just the elderly, have a dramatically higher risk of dying or developing serious illness from COVID-19, new research from Britain showed yesterday.
31 March 2020, 18:00 PM

Nature takes back world’s empty city streets

As humans retreat into their homes as more and more countries go under coronavirus lockdown, wild animals are slipping cover to explore the empty streets of some of our biggest cities.
30 March 2020, 18:00 PM

Germany ramps up virus testing

In the race against the coronavirus, Germany is betting on widespread testing and quarantining to break the infection chain, a strategy borrowed from South Korea whose success in slowing the outbreak has become the envy of the world.
30 March 2020, 18:00 PM

Worship that set a virus time bomb in France

From the stage of an evangelical superchurch, the leader of the gospel choir kicked off an evening of prayer and preaching: “We’re going to celebrate the Lord! Are you feeling the joy tonight?”
30 March 2020, 18:00 PM

Germany to carry out 5,00,000 tests

Germany has boosted its coronavirus test rate to 500,000 a week, a virologist said yesterday, adding that early detection has been key in keeping the country’s death rate relatively low.
26 March 2020, 18:00 PM

Alarm as US, UK teen die of coronavirus

Two healthy teens in US and UK died of coronavirus raising doubts on the narrative that the virus is not deadly for youths.
25 March 2020, 18:00 PM

Quarantine dodgers may get 7-year-jail in Russia

Russian lawmakers have proposed imposing severe punishments -- including up to seven years in prison -- for people breaking coronavirus quarantine rules.
25 March 2020, 18:00 PM

Social media sees virus solidarity bloom in UK

Help groups on social media are connecting people with those most in need during the coronavirus lockdown, fostering a community spirit often neglected in the capital’s fast-paced life.
25 March 2020, 18:00 PM

Elite hackers target WHO as virus cyberattacks spike

Elite hackers tried to break into the World Health Organization earlier this month, sources told Reuters, part of what a senior agency official said was a more than two-fold increase in cyberattacks.
24 March 2020, 18:00 PM

US can be the new virus epicenter: WHO

The COVID-19 outbreak in the United States has the potential to exceed that in Europe, the World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday as the number of reported US cases surges.
24 March 2020, 18:00 PM

One lakh cameras are watching in Moscow

A vast and contentious network of facial recognition cameras keeping watch over Moscow is now playing a key role in the battle against the spread of the coronavirus in Russia.
24 March 2020, 18:00 PM

Loss of smell could reveal hidden cases

From a mother unable to smell her baby’s nappy to a lawmaker who suddenly could not taste food, some coronavirus patients have described a loss of olfactory senses -- and experts say this might be a new way to detect the virus.
24 March 2020, 18:00 PM

UK wakes up to lockdown

Britain awoke to a virtual lockdown yesterday after Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered people to stay at home, shops to close and an end to all social gatherings to halt the spread of coronavirus.
24 March 2020, 18:00 PM

Amid crisis, God goes online

As coronavirus closes churches, synagogues and mosques worldwide, religious leaders are taking faith online to ensure God’s word gets to the millions marooned by the pandemic.
20 March 2020, 18:00 PM

Putin approves changes allowing him to stay in power until 2036

Russian President Vladimir Putin opens the door to constitutional changes that would allow him to remain in power until 2036, but said he favored term limits once the country became politically “mature”.
11 March 2020, 00:36 AM

Italy locks down millions as army chief of staff affected by coronavirus

Italy orders a virtual lockdown across much of its wealthy north, including the financial capital Milan, in a drastic new attempt to try to contain a outbreak of coronavirus that saw the number of deaths leap again sharply.
9 March 2020, 09:45 AM

Walkouts as Roman Polanski wins best director at French Oscars

Roman Polanski wins best director for "An Officer and a Spy" at a fractious ceremony for the French Oscars, the Cesars, that ends in walkouts and recrimination in Paris.
29 February 2020, 07:04 AM

‘The world is on fire,’ Greta Thunberg tells UK rally

Greta Thunberg denounced politicians and the media yesterday for ignoring a looming climate cataclysm, saying that they were failing her generation with their inaction in the face of a world on fire.
28 February 2020, 18:00 PM

Scottish parliament approves free sanitary products for all women

The Scottish parliament has approved plans to make sanitary products freely available to all women, the first nation in the world to do so.
27 February 2020, 02:01 AM

Russia rejects Idlib ceasefire

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov yesterday rejected calls for a halt to a Russia-backed Syrian offensive in Idlib in northwest Syria.
25 February 2020, 18:00 PM