Health authorities are closely watching an outbreak of respiratory illness caused by a new strain of coronavirus known as COVID-19. Here are the answers to key questions about the outbreak: What is the new virus? Scientists have identified the virus as a novel, or new, coronavirus. The name comes from the Latin word for crowns or halos, which coronaviruses resemble …

The Dallas City Council passed a new budget late Wednesday that keeps police funding in place despite loud calls to slash it, and while a crowd of marchers assembled outside City Hall to protest police violence. Hours before the final vote, news broke that no officers would be held accountable for the shooting death of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ky. …

ISLAMABAD: Anti-polio drive giving positive results across the country, as National Anti-Polio Programme has achieved 85 per cent of its set target in three days, citing sources.  Well-informed sources said that in first three days of the anti-polio drive as many as 30.4 million children have been vaccinated against the crippling disease, out of the set target of 40.16 million. …

LONDON: Robots that can kill the coronavirus with ultraviolet light have been brought in at one of London’s biggest train stations, St Pancras International, as it tries to restore customer confidence in the safety of travel hubs. Stations suffered a blow on Tuesday when Prime Minister Boris Johnson told people to work from home again where possible and also ordered restaurants …

ISLAMABAD: Amid concerns in Pakistan and some other Asian countries over lack of content regulations at its platform, TikTok has established a regional Safety Advisory Council to advise its management on content moderation policies and safety issues specific to Asia Pacific. One of the leading short video platforms, TikTok has introduced its Asia Pacific (APAC) Safety Advisory Council which consists …

m TOKYO: Olympic athletes could face strict controls on movement and repeated coronavirus (Covid-19) tests under measures discussed on Wednesday by a task force charged with finding ways to safely hold the postponed Tokyo 2020 Games. With less than a year until the Olympics, organisers and Japanese officials met for the second time with a long list of possible requirements …

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s conjoined head coach and chief selector Misbah-ul-Haq believes it is very important from players’ development point of view to play the longer version game, adding that at the end of the day Test records were considered more important as compared to the One-day internationals (ODIs) and T20s. ”People remember how many centuries Mohammad Yousuf made, Younis Khan scored …

HAMBURG: Top seed Daniil Medvedev suffered a stunning 6-4, 6-3 defeat by Frenchman Ugo Humbert in his first claycourt match of the 2020 season at the Hamburg European Open on Tuesday. Fresh off his run to the US Open semi-finals, world number five Medvedev struggled to find his feet on clay as he was broken three times by Humbert in …

KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Wednesday sold Market Treasury Bills (MTB) worth Rs520.55 billion from the three-, five- and 12-month tenors, a press release showed. The SBP had set an auction target of Rs450bn against a maturing amount of Rs603.9bn. The data showed that the cut-off yields for three-, six- and 12-month papers were relatively unchanged at …

LAHORE: Pakistan’s young fast bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi says he wants to achieve more success after his superb six-wicket show in a recent T20 Blast match that featured four wickets in as many balls. Representing Hampshire, left-armer Shaheen claimed a magnificent 6-19 — which was also his county’s best-ever T20 bowling figures — against Middlesex at the Rose Bowl, Southampton last Sunday. …