There is a link between AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine and very rare blood clots in the brain but the possible causes are still unknown, a senior official for the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said in an interview published on Tuesday. “In my opinion we can now say it, it is clear that there is an association with the vaccine. However, we …

American actor and singer Rita Wilson and husband Tom Hanks were one of the first few celebrities to have been diagnosed with COVID-19 last year at the start of the pandemic. Over a year later, as the vaccine roll-out begins across the globe, the Sleepless In Seattle star revealed that she and her husband are still not vaccinated against the …

Saudi authorities said on Monday only people immunised against Covid-19 will be allowed to perform the year-round Umrah pilgrimage from the start of Ramazan. The Haj and Umrah ministry said in a statement that three categories of people would be considered “immunised” — those who have received two doses of the vaccine, those administered a single dose at least 14 …

MAPUTO: Mozambique’s military says it is regaining territory in the northern town and gas hub of Palma, seized by the activists of the militant Islamic State group last month, claiming a “significant” number of jihadists had since been killed in fighting. Palma was taken in a coordinated attack on March 24, in a major escalation of an insurgency that has …

MOSCOW: Russia said on Monday it would extend a punitive slowdown of Twitter until May 15, though it acknowledged the US social media company had speeded up deletion of what Moscow calls banned content. Moscow has traditionally taken a more hands-off role in policing the internet than neighbouring China. But as friction has grown this year over the arrest and …

JERUSALEM: Israel’s legal and political dramas converged Monday, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced court in his corruption trial while his bid to form a government after another inconclusive election reached a critical phase. The 71-year-old veteran premier — who last month contested his fourth election in less than two years — arrived at the Jerusalem courthouse where he was …

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law that could keep him in the Kremlin until 2036, the government said on Monday. The legislation allows him to run for two more six-year terms once his current stint ends in 2024. It follows changes to the constitution last year. Those changes were backed in a public vote last summer and …

BHUBANESWAR: Indian security forces have stepped up operations against ultra left-wing guerrillas deep in the forests of a mineral-rich central state after they killed 22 police in an ambush at the weekend, a top police officer said on Monday. At least 30 other members of the security forces were wounded in a four-hour gun battle with Maoist rebels that erupted …

LEMBATA: Tropical cyclone Seroja pounded Indonesia and East Timor on Monday after torrential rains triggered floods and landslides that have killed at least 113 people and left dozens more missing. Packing heavy winds and rain, the storm heaped more misery on the Southeast Asian nations after Sunday’s disaster turned small communities into wastelands of mud, uprooted trees and forced thousands …

UNITED NATIONS: Enabling poorer countries to make Covid-19 vaccines is the only effective way of defeating the pandemic that has already killed almost three million people, says a UN report released on Monday. The United Nations has launched a global campaign called COVAX to get two billion vaccine doses to inoculate around a quarter of the world’s poor by the …