International

STOCKHOLM: Two women scientists won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday for creating genetic ‘scissors’ that can rewrite the code of life, contributing to new cancer therapies and holding out the prospect of curing hereditary diseases. Emmanuelle Charpentier, who is French, and American Jennifer Doudna share the 10 million Swedish crown ($1.1 million) prize for developing the CRISPR/Cas9 …

MOSCOW: Russia on Wednesday said it had successfully tested a new hypersonic anti-ship cruise missile in a move hailed by President Vladimir Putin as a “great event” for the country. The military said that the Tsirkon missile was fired from the Admiral Gorshkov frigate in the White Sea on Tuesday morning in the Russian Arctic and successfully hit its target. …

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump’s doctor said on Wednesday the president has had no Covid-19 symptoms for the past 24 hours, as the Republican seeks ways to get back to a normal working schedule and revive his struggling re-election bid with four weeks left until US Election Day. White House physician Sean Conley said in a statement that Trump has been fever-free …

US President Donald Trump credited an experimental drug treatment with helping his recovery from Covid-19 and suggested his diagnosis could be a “blessing in disguise” in the nation’s battle against the pandemic. But there is no way for the president or his doctors to know whether the drug had any effect. In a new White House video posted on Wednesday …

WASHINGTON: The US negotiator seeking to end Afghanistan’s war voiced hope on Wednesday that the Kabul government can reach a side deal with Pakistan, whose historic support of the Taliban has long tested relations. The Taliban and Afghan government have opened slow-moving peace talks in Qatar as the United States starts withdrawing its forces from Afghanistan to end its longest-ever …

STEPANAKERT: Clashes between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces have displaced half of the population of the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region, an official said on Wedne­sday, as Russian President Vladimir Putin urged an end to a “tragedy” that shows no sign of abating. The fighting in one of the most combustible frozen conflicts left over after the fall of the Soviet Union erupted on …

Trading barbs through plexiglass shields, Republican Mike Pence and Democrat Kamala Harris turned the only US vice presidential debate of 2020 into a dissection of the Trump administration’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, with Harris labeling it “the greatest failure of any presidential administration”. Pence, who leads the president’s coronavirus taskforce, acknowledged that “our nation’s gone through a very challenging …

STEPANAKERT: Best known for its pomegranates, vodka and “jangyl” — a delicious herb bread — the self-proclaimed capital of Nagorno-Karabakh has been turned into a ghost town after days of shelling. Normally a bustling little city known for its fresh air high in the Caucusus mountains, Stepanakert is now disfigured and most of its 55,000 ethnic Armenian inhabitants have fled …

SINGAPORE: China is in talks to have its locally-produced Covid-19 vaccines assessed by the World Health Organisation, as a step towards making them available for international use, a WHO official said on Tuesday. Hundreds of thousands of essential workers and other groups considered at high risk in China have been given locally-developed vaccines even as clinical trials had not been …

WASHINGTON: The global economy is in “less dire” shape than it was in June but risks crashing again if governments end fiscal and monetary support too soon, fail to control the coronavirus and ignore emerging market debt problems, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Tuesday. Georgieva told an online London School of Economics event that the IMF …