Five years ago pop star Justin Bieber was locked in a contest for Britain’s favourite Christmas song with a group of little known health workers. He gave in. This year, the Canadian singer-songwriter and the health workers are back, singing his hit Holy  together to raise funds to help Britain’s state-run National Health Service (NHS) tackle the coronavirus pandemic. Bieber’s 2015 …

Following the massive success of The Crown’s fourth season, the cast, crew and the makers have all been enjoying the fame and glory. However, not all is rainbows and sunshine for actor Gillian Anderson and creator of the show, Peter Morgan. According to Page Six, Anderson and Morgan parted ways not long after the former took the spotlight in the latter’s regal …

GENEVA: The World Health Organisation and partners said on Friday that the Covax facility, created to ensure equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines worldwide, expected to begin delivering jabs early next year. The UN health agency, the Gavi vaccine alliance, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) announced they had now secured nearly two billion doses of various vaccine candidates still …

WASHINGTON: US Vice President Mike Pence received a Covid-19 jab on live television on Friday as the country prepared to greenlight its second vaccine in a boost to the planet’s unprecedented immunisation campaign. Pence’s move comes as inoculation efforts are unfurling around the world in the race to halt a pandemic that has claimed at least 1.66 million lives and …

CAPE CANAVERAL: Jupiter and Saturn will merge in the night sky on Monday, appearing closer to one another than they have since Galileos time in the 17th century. Astronomers say so-called conjunctions between the two largest planets in our solar system aren’t particularly rare. Jupiter passes its neighbor Saturn in their respective laps around the sun every 20 years. But …

GHAZNI: At least 15 children were killed when a motorbike laden with explosives blew up near a religious gathering in eastern Afghanistan on Friday, officials said. The children had gathered at a home in Ghazni province to recite verses of the Holy Quran, a regular activity on Friday, when the blast took place. Violence has surged in Afghanistan in recent …

ROME: After decades of neglect, one of ancient Rome’s most important monuments, the mausoleum of the first emperor Augustus, has been restored and will reopen early next year, city officials announced on Friday. The mausoleum is the largest circular tomb in the world and was constructed in 28 BC near the banks of the river Tiber to house the remains …

WASHINGTON: US President-elect Joe Biden unveiled his environment team on Thursday, choosing congresswoman Deb Haaland to serve as the first Native American interior secretary and Jennifer Granholm, a former Michigan governor, as energy secretary. He also nominated Michael Regan, a North Carolina environmental regulator who is Black and brokered the nation’s largest coal ash cleanup, to be administrator of the …

WASHINGTON: A devastating cyberattack on US government agencies has also hit targets worldwide with the list of victims still growing, according to researchers, heightening fears over computer security and espionage. Microsoft said late on Thursday that it had notified more than 40 customers hit by the malware which security experts say came from hackers linked to the Russian government and …

NEW DELHI: Indian and Chinese foreign ministry officials held another round of talks on Friday but didn’t report any breakthrough in ending a months-long military standoff along their disputed border in eastern Ladakh. The two sides agreed to continue to work towards a complete disengagement of troops at all friction points along the Line of Actual Control, Indian External Affairs …