In picture above: Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon arrives at Glasgow counting centre in the Emirates Arena in Glasgow, Scotland, Britain May 7, 2021. Jeff J Mitchell/Pool via REUTERS Pro-independence parties won a majority in Scotland’s parliament on Saturday, paving the way to a high-stakes political, legal and constitutional battle with British Prime Minister Boris Read More…
South Africa’s health ministry said on Saturday it had detected the first four cases of a new coronavirus variant that emerged in India and was responsible for a surge of infections and deaths in the Asian country. Testing had also picked up 11 cases of the variant B.1.1.7 first detected in the UK, the health Read More…
U.S. reverses stance, backs giving poorer countries access to COVID vaccine patents The World Trade Organization chief called Wednesday for international agreement on how to ensure more equal access to Covid-19 vaccines, amid an ongoing standoff over a proposed patent waiver for the jabs. “The way the WTO handles this matter is critical,” Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala Read More…
Facebook Inc’s (FB.O) independent oversight board tweeted on Monday it would announce a decision May 5 on whether to uphold former U.S. President Donald Trump’s indefinite suspension from the social media platform and Instagram. Facebook blocked Trump’s access to his Facebook and Instagram accounts over concerns of further violent unrest following the Jan. 6 storming Read More…
The couple’s separation is likely to send shock waves through the worlds of philanthropy, public health and business. Bill and Melinda Gates, two of the richest people in the world, who reshaped philanthropy and public health with the fortune Mr. Gates made as a co-founder of Microsoft, said on Monday that they were divorcing. For Read More…
Women are at the receiving end of a shadow pandemic which is not COVID-19 A new report for the Council on Criminal Justice has found that, during lockdowns, domestic violence rose by an average of about 8%, both worldwide and in the United States. That’s based on data from those who were able to seek Read More…
Myanmar security forces opened fire on some of the biggest protests against military rule in days on Sunday killing seven people, media reported, three months after a coup plunged the country into crisis. The protests, after a spell of dwindling crowds and what appeared to be more restraint by the security forces, were coordinated with Read More…
Belgian authorities this week destroyed more than 22,000 guns collected by police, melting them down into some 60 tonnes of recycled steel. About half of the firearms were collected from across the country, principally handed in by owners, some of whom had inherited but not wanted to keep them, Carina van Cauter, the governor of Read More…
Pope Francis ruled on Friday that bishops and cardinals who work in the Vatican will be judged by the same lay tribunal that hears other criminal cases and no longer by an elite panel of prelates. Francis issued a decree abrogating a provision in the Vatican’s civil criminal code whereby bishops and cardinals were judged Read More…
In picture above: Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari speaks after security forces rescued schoolboys from kidnappers, in Katsina, Nigeria, December 18, 2020. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde/File Photo The United States should consider moving its military headquarters overseeing Africa to the continent, from Germany, to better tackle growing armed violence in the region, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said on Read More…