INTERNATIONAL

Russia has denied the reports that claimed it offered Taliban-linked militants bounties to kill US troops in Afghanistan. The accusation that a Russian military intelligence unit had paid bounties last year was reported by US officials, The New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal. The same Russian military intelligence unit has been linked to assassination attempts in Europe. The New York Times, citing unnamed officials, stated that the US intelligence agencies had come to a conclusion months ago that a unit of Russia's GRU military intelligence agency had tried to destabilise its opponents by offering bounties for successful attacks on the US troops. Although the New York Times said it was not clear on which deaths of the US troops are under suspicion, 20 Ameri...

Johns Hopkins University has reported more than 500,000 people dead as a result of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Since last year, when the virus first emerged in Wuhan, China, there have been more than 10 million coronavirus cases globally according to the Johns Hopkins reports. Although half of the world’s cases have been in Europe and the US, the virus has also affected South Asia, Africa and is now rapidly growing in the Americas. In the last six days, one million new cases were reported world-wide. The US is reported as the country with the highest number of recorded cases of 2.5 million and 125,000 deaths with Covid-19 so far. Brazil has recorded the second-highest number of Covid-19 cases with a total of 1.3 million positive cases and 57,000 deaths. Statistics f...

On Sunday, the global coronavirus cases neared 10 million, stated a Reuters tally. The coronavirus has killed approximately half a million people in the last seven months. This tally comes amidst several hard-hit countries easing lockdowns while making alternations at work and social gatherings. Practising these alternations might last for a year or more until a vaccine is available. Experts state that countries experiencing a resurgence in cases and responsible authorities partially reinstating lockdowns could be a recurring pattern into 2021. Covid-19 has resulted in more than 497,000 deaths so far, which is nearly the same as the number of influenza fatalities reported annually. India and Brazil account for over a third of all new cases reported in the past week as the tw...

Global investors who previously ignored concerns about new cases of coronavirus in the US, Germany, China as well as the surge of the caseload in Latin America and the Caribbean, are now showing signs of discomfort. Since Wednesday this week, the price of gold has climbed above $1,776 (134,315.33 INR) per ounce, marking its highest price level in nearly eight years. The rise in the price of the essential safe-haven asset, gold, is a result of the falling stock market around the world. In Germany, even as the closely-watched Ifo business survey was higher than expectations and indicated that the country's recovery is underway, the DAX (German blue-chip stock market index) fell more than 2%. In the US, stock futures are also lower as investors show signs of discomfort with the cl...

After more than 90 advertisers join the boycott Facebook campaign, Facebook says it will start to label potentially harmful posts, that it leaves up due to their news value, as ‘problematic’. This campaign called the "Stop Hate for Profit", was started by US civil rights groups after the death of George Floyd under police custody, in May 2020. This approach comes as Facebook's faces pressure to improve its method of moderating the content on its platform. These include posts by the United States President Donald Trump. Companies that joined the boycott include Unilever, the maker of Dove soap and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. The consumer goods company Unilever stated 'polarized election period' in the US as their reason for boycotting Facebook advertising. The maker of Dove soa...

For the first time, India acknowledges that it has matched China in gathering troops at their Himalayan border with China. India’s foreign ministry accuses China of escalating tensions and triggering a deadly clash last week. The Indian foreign ministry stated that China violated bilateral agreements by deploying a large number of troops and weapons along the contested Himalayan border. The Indian foreign ministry spokesman, said China’s actions are “not in accordance with the provisions of our various bilateral agreements" referring to the 1993 treaty that dictates that both sides will maintain limited border deployments. Srivastava stated that India had "to undertake counter deployments" because of the Chinese buildup. This is for the first time India acknowledged it has matched...

United Nations (UN) human rights experts ask India to "immediately" release people arrested during the country’s highly controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests last year. A statement by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Friday said, "These defenders, many of them students, appear to have been arrested simply because they exercised their right to denounce and protest against the CAA." The statement further stated that the arrests seem “clearly designed to send a chilling message to India's vibrant civil society that criticism of government policies will not be tolerated.” The UN experts statement said that the cases of arrests included "serious allegations of human rights violations" and "torture and ill-treatment" in custody. While urging...

The Democratic Republic of Congo has won the battle against Ebola, making the world’s second-deadliest Ebola outbreak over, the country’s health minister, Eteni Longondo, announced on Thursday. The World Health Organization regional director for Africa, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, stated that the announcement was made after no new cases of Ebola were reported 42 days since the last patient tested negative. The country battled their 10th Ebola outbreak for almost two years with the help of around 16,000 front line workers. More than 2,200 lives were claimed by the outbreak, despite successful deploying of two separate vaccines. The response was continually hindered due to mistrust amongst community and violence in the country’s north-eastern provinces.

United States secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, said that the US’s move to reduce its troops in Europe is due to China’s “threats to India” and Southeast Asia. Pompeo told the Brussels Forum that the decision to withdraw troops in Germany was part of a well-thought-out strategy. Pompeo said “We are going to make sure we are postured appropriately to counter the PLA (China).buy kamagra oral jelly online https://blackmenheal.org/wp-content/themes/twentytwentytwo/inc/patterns/new/kamagra-oral-jelly.html no prescription We think that is the challenge of our time and we are going to make sure we have resources in place to do that.”

John Biden, the presidential nominee and former vice president of the United States has said that he wants New Delhi to take necessary measures to restore rights of all Kashmiris. He has also has expressed dissatisfaction over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act as well as the implementation of the National Register of Citizens, which evoked massive resistance from people in India. “Such measures are inconsistent with the country's long tradition of secularism and with sustaining a multi-ethnic and multi-religious democracy,” according to the policy paper -- ‘Joe Biden's agenda for Muslim American community' posted recently on his campaign website. A group of Hindu Americans from India expressing their anger reached out to the Biden campaign and asked Biden to change his words against...