SEOUL: South Korea reported more than 1,200 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, the highest daily count since late December, Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum told a COVID-19 response meeting on Wednesday. Kim said social distancing measures will be extended for the next few days and officials will consider whether to toughen existing rules as the country battles a …

OTTAWA: Canada named Mary Simon on Tuesday as its first indigenous governor general — Queen Elizabeth II’s official representative in the Commonwealth country — as the nation faces a reckoning with its colonial history. “Today, after 154 years, our country takes a historic step,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a news conference. “I cannot think of a better person to …

LAHORE: Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti on Tuesday took oath as the 51st chief justice of the Lahore High Court at a ceremony held at the Governor House. Governor Chaudhry Sarwar administered the oath to Justice Bhatti. Chief Minister Usman Buzdar also graced the occasion. LHC senior puisne judge Justice Malik Shahzad Ahmed Khan and other senior judges, Punjab Assembly Deputy …

Riyadh: The first road connecting Saudi Arabia and Oman will be opened soon, announced Salem Muhammad Al-Nuaimi, the undersecretary at the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology in the Sultanate of Oman. In an interview with Oman TV, Al-Nuaimi said that the road is almost complete and work is now in full swing to establish the necessary facilities to …

SINGAPORE: Singapore researchers have developed a smart foam material that allows robots to sense nearby objects, and repairs itself when damaged, just like human skin. Artificially innervated foam, or AiFoam, is a highly elastic polymer created by mixing fluoropolymer with a compound that lowers surface tension. This allows the spongy material to fuse easily into one piece when cut, according …

Top Biden administration officials on Tuesday hosted a brother to Saudi Arabia’s powerful crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, in the highest-level such visit known since the United States made public intelligence findings linking the crown prince to the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The Biden administration did not publicly disclose the visit by Prince Khalid bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s deputy defence minister, …

More than 125 people who attended a camp hosted by a Galveston County church late last month have since tested positive for COVID-19 — and health officials say the more-contagious delta variant has been identified in at least three test samples. Clear Creek Community Church, based in League City, hosted a ministry for students in sixth through 12th grades at …

AUSTIN — Gov. Greg Abbott directed members of the Public Utility Commission of Texas on Tuesday to take additional, stronger steps to improve the state’s electricity reliability and regain public trust. Abbott’s letter to the PUC comes amid speculation the governor will not include additional grid reform measures in his call for a special session to be released prior to …

WASHINGTON — Joey Reed has spent the past two years tirelessly attempting to get his son, former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed, out of a Russian prison. A Texan by birth, he rented an apartment in Moscow and lived in it for 14 months while monitoring Trevor’s convoluted legal case in Russia. On Tuesday, he brought that fight to the White …

A man who is serving a life sentence for the 2014 rape and murder of his 5-year-old cousin was found guilty Tuesday of capital murder in another Dallas slaying that happened that same year. Angel Lisandro Sanches Zenteno, 23, had pleaded not guilty in the murder of Martin Ontiveros, who was found dead in his Dallas apartment July 26, 2014. …