Desperate Afghans have found a ‘new treatment’ for coronavirus – opium
Mumbai: In a remote Afghan village, Lal Mohammad says he is beating the coronavirus by consuming opium after the drug helped his relatives recover. The 48-year-old taxi driver bought 250 grams of the drug four weeks ago from a Taliban-backed farmer who grows opium poppies once year in Qarchi Gak, an arid, war-beaten village in the […]
China’s CanSino in talks for Covid-19 vaccine Phase III trial overseas
China’s success in driving down COVID-19 infections has made it harder to conduct large-scale vaccine trials, and so far only a few countries have agreed to work with it. “We are contacting Russia, Brazil, Chile and Saudi Arabia (for the Phase III trial), and it’s still in discussion,” Qiu Dongxu, executive director and co-founder of CanSino, told […]
WHO launches probe into its pandemic response
GENEVA: The World Health Organisation, which faced fierce US criticism over its handling of the coronavirus crisis, launched an independent panel on Thursday to review its response to the pandemic. The Independent panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response will be headed by former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark and former Liberian president Ellen Johnson […]
‘If Covid Made Us Anxious, This Will Make Us Fall Apart,’ Say Indian Students In US On New Visa Rules
In a move that will adversely impact hundreds of thousands of Indian students, the US immigration authority on Monday announced that foreign students will be forced to leave the country or transfer to another college if their universities offer only online classes this fall semester due to the coronavirus pandemic. This has left Tanesha Gauba […]
Afghan govt refuses to release 600 ‘too dangerous’ militants
KABUL: Afghan authorities said on Wednesday they will not release hundreds of Taliban captives deemed “too dangerous” despite planned peace talks that hinge on the prisoner exchange. Violence, meanwhile, continued to rack the war-torn country as a suicide bomber killed three security personnel near the governor’s residence and police headquarters in the province of Kandahar. […]
US warned against hasty troops withdrawal from Afghanistan
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan, Afghanistan and China on Tuesday warned the United States against precipitous withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan, saying terrorist groups could take advantage of it. A joint communique issued at the end of the meeting between representatives of the three countries held through video link said: “The three sides urged for an orderly, […]
Covid-19 imperils AIDS progress, warns UN
PARIS: Covid-19 could cause an additional half a million AIDS deaths if treatment is disrupted long term, the United Nations said on Monday in a warning that the pandemic was jeopardising years of progress against HIV. At the start of a week of virtual International AIDS Conferences, the UN said the world was already way […]
In a first in 100 years, Australia shuts state borders to check Covid-19 spread
Australian officials are closing the border between Australia’s two most populous states from Tuesday for an indefinite period as they scramble to contain an outbreak of the coronavirus in the city of Melbourne. The decision announced on Monday marks the first time the border between Victoria and New South Wales has been shut in 100 […]
WHO says first alerted to coronavirus by its office, not China
The World Health Organization has updated its account of the early stages of the Covid crisis to say it was alerted by its own office in China, and not by China itself, to the first pneumonia cases in Wuhan. The UN health body has been accused by US President Donald Trump of failing to provide […]
WHO urges focus on first wave of coronavirus
The World Health Organisation’s emergencies chief says “we need to put up a fight now” during a peak in the current wave of the coronavirus pandemic rather than focusing on when a second wave might come. Dr. Michael Ryan said the world will be much better at fighting a second wave, if people can learn the lessons of […]
