BEIJING: A rare tiger that attacked a villager and damaged a car in northeast China was caught after an hours-long pursuit by police and forestry officials and will be held for 45 days of observation, state media reported on Monday. A resident in the village of Linhu in Heilongjiang province, which borders Russia, was sent to hospital for surgery and …

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly has unanimously adopted a resolution aimed at allowing Facebook’s monetisation in Pakistan. Moved by MPA Ziaullah Bangash of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, the resolution recommended to the provincial government to ask the federal government to take steps to “turn on” Facebook’s monetisation so that its users, especially the youth, could benefit from the positive use of …

A Covid-19 outbreak that forced Fiji’s capital into lockdown after the island nation avoided transmission for a year was confirmed as the Indian variant Tuesday, with health officials saying they feared a “tsunami” of cases. The Pacific country had largely dodged community transmission before a cluster emerged this month centred on a quarantine facility in Nadi, the city that is …

MOSCOW: Russian prosecutors on Monday suspended the activities of Alexei Navalny’s regional offices, in a move his team said would essentially shut down the jailed opposition figure’s decade-long movement against President Vladimir Putin. The order came as a court began considering whether to designate Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) and his regional offices as extremist organisations, putting them on par with …

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday announced a full lockdown from April 29 to May 17 to fight a surging third wave of coronavirus infections. The nation of 84 million has seen daily Covid-19 death tolls rise to around 350 — higher than during two previous spikes last year. Turkey’s 37,312 new infections reported on Monday were the highest …

BRUSSELS: The European Union’s executive branch said on Monday that it has launched legal action against coronavirus vaccine-maker AstraZeneca for failing to respect the terms of its contract with the 27-nation bloc. The AstraZeneca vaccine has been central to Europe’s immunisation campaign, and a linchpin in the global strategy to get vaccines to poorer countries. But the slow pace of …

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday urged the world, particularly Asian countries, to jointly fight challenges, including the deadly Covid-19 pandemic. Addressing the opening segment of the 77th session of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), the prime minister said: “Pakistan has shifted its focus from geopolitics to geo-economics. We are ready …

LONDON: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday denied airily dismissing the prospect of thousands dying from Covid-19, as a row over government “sleaze” escalated with a call for his resignation. In a front-page headline, the Daily Mail newspaper reported Johnson had said he would rather see “bodies pile high in their thousands” than impose a third coronavirus lockdown. Ultimately, Johnson did …

DUBAI: An Iranian court sentenced British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe to another year in jail, just weeks after she finished a prior five-year sentence, a decision Britain called “inhumane”. When Zaghari-Ratcliffe was freed from house arrest last month at the end of a sentence for seeking to overthrow Iran’s government, her family had hoped she could go home to London. …

Much needed medical supplies poured into India on Tuesday as overrun hospitals turned away patients due to a shortage of beds and oxygen supplies and a surge of infections pushed the Covid-19 death toll towards 200,000. A shipment of medical supplies from Britain, including 100 ventilators and 95 oxygen concentrators, arrived in Delhi early on Tuesday, Reuters partner ANI reported. France is also sending …