DIRECTOR Chloe Zhao’s meditative drama “Nomadland” emerged as the top winner at the virtual 74th British Academy Film and Television Awards (BAFTA) by bagging four major awards, including the best film. The movie’s lead star Frances McDormand picked up the best actress trophy while the best director award went to Zhao. The film was a winner in the cinematography category as well. Zhao, who became the first woman of colour to win the best director at the BAFTA, dedicated the award to the nomadic community ..

ALIBABA Group, the world’s biggest e-commerce company, was fined 18.3 billion yuan (USD 2.8 billion) by Chinese regulators on Saturday for anti-competitive tactics, as the ruling Communist Party tightens control over fast-growing tech industries...

AS FACEBOOK CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s phone number also emerged among the leaked data of 533 million Facebook users, a security expert has revealed that the Facebook CEO uses Signal. According to media reports, the leaked data includes Zuckerberg’s phone number, Facebook user ID, personal details like location, marriage details and birth date. “In another turn of events, Mark Zuckerberg also respects his own privacy, by using a chat app that has end-to-end encryption and isn’t owned by @facebook,” Dave ..

THE asteroid impact that wiped out dinosaurs from Earth also gave birth to the Amazon rainforest, says a new study. In an analysis of thousands of fossil pollen and leaves, the researchers found that the cataclysmic asteroid impact that resulted in the destruction of nearly 75 per cent of all terrestrial life on Earth drastically restructured tropical forests. It set the stage for the evolution of what has become one of the planet’s most diverse ecosystems -- the neotropical rainforest, according ..

CHRISTIANS in the Holy Land are marking Good Friday this year amid signs the coronavirus crisis is winding down, with religious sites open to limited numbers of faithful but none of the mass pilgrimages usually seen in the Holy Week leading up to Easter. ..

A TRAIN partially derailed in eastern Taiwan on Friday after being hit by an unmanned vehicle that had rolled down a hill, killing 48 people. With the train still partly in a tunnel, survivors climbed out of windows and walked along the train’s roof to reach safety after the country’s deadliest railway disaster. ..

US PRESIDENT Joe Biden has invited 40 world leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to the Leaders’ Summit on Climate to underscore the urgency and the economic benefits of stronger climate action, the White House said. The two-day summit will be held virtually on April 22-23 and will be telecasted live for public viewing...

THE Taliban warned Washington on Friday against defying a May 1 deadline for the withdrawal of American and NATO troops from Afghanistan, promising a “reaction,” which could mean increased attacks by the insurgent group. ..

IN THE first visit by a top Biden administration official, US Defence Secretary Lloyd J Austin arrived in India on Friday on a three-day visit and called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. ..

WHEN the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a pandemic one year ago Thursday, it did so only after weeks of resisting the term and maintaining that the highly infectious virus could still be stopped. A year later, the UN agency is still struggling to keep on top of the evolving science of COVID-19, to persuade countries to abandon their nationalistic tendencies and help get vaccines where they’re needed most. The agency made some costly missteps along the way: It adviced people against ..

BREAKING its silence over Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey, the Buckingham Palace on Tuesday said it has taken “very seriously” their revelations and those will be addressed by the family privately. On the couple’s reference to unnamed royals raising concerns over their son Archie’s mixed-race heritage, the palace said the concerning issues of race would be addressed privately as a family matter...

BANGKOK OIL prices rose on Monday as Saudi Arabian oil facilities were targeted by drone strikes just days after the largest crude exporting nations in the world said they would not increase output. Brent crude, the international standard, surpassed $70 per barrel for the first time in over a year, gaining $1.14 to $70.47 a barrel. It surged $2.62 on Friday...

IN yet another big cyber-attack after SolarWinds, at least 30,000 organisations across the US, including Government and commercial firms, have been hacked by China-based threat actors who used Microsoft’s Exchange Server software to enter their networks. According to KrebsOnSecurity, the China-based espionage group exploited four vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange Server email software...

JAPANESE billionaire Yusaku Maezawa has invited eight people to join him for a free Moon voyage on SpaceX Starship rocket sometime in 2023. In a video, Maezawa who is the founder of Japan’s largest online fashion retailer Zozotown, said that he wants people from all backgrounds to join. “It will be 10 to 12 people in all, but I will be inviting 8 people to come along on the ride,” he said in the YouTube video...

“NOMADLAND”, director Chloe Zhao’s moving drama about van dwellers and Sacha Baron Cohen’s satire “Borat 2” won top movie honours at a scaled-down virtual ceremony at the Golden Globes, which was held bi-coastally due to the coronavirus pandemic. Zhao, a Chinese-American filmmaker, also won the best director trophy, becoming the only second woman director and the first woman director of Asian descent to win at the Globes. Her film “Nomadland”, starring Frances McDormand as a widow who hits the road ..

NEPAL Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli will not resign immediately and implement the Supreme Court’s verdict against him by facing Parliament that is due to convene within two weeks, an official representing the embattled Premier said on Wednesday. In a landmark ruling, a five-member constitutional bench led by Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher on Tuesday annulled the Oli Government’s “unconstitutional” decision to dissolve the 275-member Lower House of Parliament. Court also ordered Government to summon ..

NEPAL’S Supreme Court in a historic verdict on Tuesday reinstated the dissolved House of Representatives, in a setback to embattled Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli who was preparing for snap polls. A five-member Constitutional bench led by Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher annulled the Government’s decision to dissolve the 275-member Lower House of Parliament, according to a notice issued by the apex court...

MORE than 200 Indian-origin people occupy leadership positions in as many as 15 countries, including the US and the UK, building a legacy for future generations, according to a first-of-its-kind list by a US-based organisation working among the Indian diaspora. The 2021 Indiaspora Government Leaders List, which was released on Monday, had drawn from Government websites and other publicly-available resources to prepare the report to showcase the achievements of the community leaders across different ..

A DAY after seizing control of the country, the military in Myanmar on Tuesday released a majority of the detained regional and State Chief Ministers, but there was no word on Nobel Laureate and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President U Win Myint. Confirming the development to Xinhua news agency, a military official said: “There may be a reshuffle among Chief Ministers by appointing qualified ones.”..

THE US economy contracted 3.5 per cent in 2020 amid the raging COVID-19 pandemic, the worst annual decline of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) since 1946, according to data released by the Commerce Department. ..

A NASAL spray which can prevent a coronavirus infection for up to two days is being prepped for mass production by scientists at the University of Birmingham with the hope of having them available over-the-counter in pharmacies in a few months, a UK newspaper report said on Sunday. Dr Richard Moakes, the study’s lead researcher, told ‘The Sunday Telegraph’ that he is confident in the spray’s formula to help unlock society from social distancing restrictions and “get schools going again”...

ASTRONOMERS, with the help of India’s first multi-wavelength space satellite AstroSat, have spotted a massive intriguing globular cluster in the Milky Way galaxy with rare hot UV-bright stars in it, the Department of Science and Technology said on Thursday. These stars whose inner core is almost exposed, making them very hot, exist in the late stages of evolution of a Sun-like star. It is not clear how these stars end their lives as not many of them are detected in these fast-evolving phases, ..

TWIN suicide bombings ripped through a busy market in the Iraqi capital on Thursday, killing at least 32 people and wounding dozens, officials said. The rare suicide bombing attack hit the Bab al-Sharqi commercial area in central Baghdad amid heightened political tensions over planned early elections and a severe economic crisis. Blood smeared the floors of the busy market amid piles of clothes and shoes as survivors took stock of the disarray in the aftermath. No one immediately took responsibility ..

CHINA’S highest-profile entrepreneur, Jack Ma, appeared on Wednesday in an online video, ending a 2 1/2-month absence from public view that prompted speculation about the future of the e-commerce billionaire and his Alibaba Group. In the 50-second video, Ma congratulated teachers supported by his foundation and made no mention of his disappearance or official efforts to tighten control over Alibaba and other Internet companies over the past six months. The video appeared on Chinese business news and ..

IRAN’S military kicked off a ground forces drill on Tuesday along the coast of the Gulf of Oman, state TV reported, the latest in a series of snap exercises that the country is holding amid escalating tensions over its nuclear programme and Washington’s pressure campaign against Tehran. According to the report, commando units and airborne infantry were participating in the annual exercise, along with fighter jets, helicopters and military transport aircraft. Iran’s National Army chief Abdolrahim ..

UK PRIME Minister Boris Johnson has invited his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi for the G7 summit as he confirmed details on Sunday for the high-level meeting to be presided over by Britain in the coastal region of Cornwall between June 11 and 13. Johnson had extended an invitation to Modi during a phone call last year when India was chosen alongside South Korea and Australia as guest countries of the multilateral summit...

THE Indian diaspora, one of the most “vibrant and dynamic”, is the largest in the world, with 18 million people from the country living outside their homeland in 2020, the UN has said. The United Arab Emirates, the US and Saudi Arabia host the largest numbers of migrants from India, it said...

US President-elect Joe Biden has announced a USD 1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package to tackle the economic fallout from the pandemic, including direct financial aid to average Americans, support to businesses and to provide a boost to the national vaccination programme. ..

AS THE wan winter Sun sets over France’s Champagne region, countdown clock kicks in. Labourers stop pruning the vines as the light fades at about 4:30 pm, leaving them 90 minutes to come in from the cold, change out of their work clothes, hop in their cars and zoom home before a 6 pm coronavirus curfew. Forget about any after-work socialising with friends, after-school clubs for children or doing any evening shopping beyond quick trips for essentials. Police on patrol demand valid reasons from ..

AN UPGRADED SpaceX cargo Dragon spacecraft has successfully undocked from the International Space Station (ISS), heading for splashdown on Earth on Thursday morning with key science experiments, including mice. It is the first undocking of a US commercial cargo craft from the International Docking Adapter on the station’s space-facing port of the Harmony module. Previous cargo Dragon spacecraft were attached and removed from the space station using the station’s robotic Canadarm2...

CARBON dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere this year will reach levels 50 per cent higher than before the Industrial Revolution due to human-caused emissions, according to the annual forecast of the UK Met Office. The increase is driven by emissions from fossil fuel burning and deforestation, but will be slightly smaller than usual due to a temporary strengthening of natural carbon sinks, Xinhua news agency quoted the British national weather service as saying in the forecast released Friday...

THE number of people who have tested positive for the new UK variant of SARS-CoV-2 in the country has climbed to 73, the Union Health Ministry said on Wednesday. These 73 cases include the 58 which were announced by the Ministry till Tuesday. “The total number of cases infected with the new strain of the novel coronavirus first reported in the UK now stands at 73,” the Ministry said...

ACTOR Tanya Roberts, best known for James Bond movie “A View to a Kill” and TV series “That ‘70s Show”, was mistakenly announced as dead late Sunday night, her representative Mike Pingel said a day after he confirmed her demise to multiple outlets. Pingel told ‘The Hollywood Reporter’ that although her partner, Lance O’Brien, originally thought she had died, the hospital called on Monday morning to report she was still alive...

THE World Health Organisation on Sunday welcomed India’s decision giving emergency use authorisation to COVID-19 vaccines, saying it will help “intensify” and “strengthen” its fight against the ongoing pandemic. India’s drugs regulator has approved Oxford COVID-19 vaccine Covishield, manufactured by the Serum Institute, and indigenously developed Covaxin of Bharat Biotech for restricted emergency use in the country. It paves the way for the roll out of at least two vaccines in the country in the coming ..

CHIEF of Army Staff General M M Naravane held extensive talks with his South Korean counterpart General Nam Yeong Shin on ways to boost bilateral military ties, and visited several key installations, including the heavily fortified Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), during his tour of the East Asian nation, officials said on Thursday. The Chief of Army Staff also visited the Headquarters of the South Korean Army at Gyeryong city where he was given a guard of honour, they said. ..

SIXTY-ONE per cent of the new White House appointees are women and 54 per cent are people of colour, President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team has said, asserting that the Biden-Harris administration will prioritise diversity of ideology and background, and foster talent to address the country’s most complex challenges. On Wednesday, President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris surpassed their goal of naming 100 members of their incoming administration. ..

OFFICIALS in Bangladesh sent a second group of Rohingya refugees to an isolated island in the Bay of Bengal on Monday despite calls by human rights groups for a halt to the process. More than 30 buses carrying about 1,500 refugees left their camps in Cox’s Bazar district on the way to the island, a Government official said. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the media, said that the refugees will stay overnight in a temporary shelter in the south-east..

NEHA loved the hymns that filled her church with music. But she lost the chance to sing them last year when, at the age of 14, she was forcibly converted from Christianity to Islam and married to a 45-year-old man with children twice her age. She tells her story in a voice so low it occasionally fades away. She all but disappears as she wraps a blue scarf tightly around her face and head. Neha’s husband is in jail now facing charges of rape for the underage marriage, but she is in hiding, afraid after ..

THEY resemble small fragments of charcoal, but the soil samples collected from an asteroid and returned to Earth by a Japanese spacecraft were hardly disappointing. The samples Japanese space officials described on Thursday that the big 1 centimeter (0.4 inch) and rock hard samples are not breaking when picked up or poured into another container. Smaller black, sandy granules the spacecraft collected and returned separately were described last week...

A CUSTOMER left a whopping $5,600 tip at a restaurant in the US State of Ohio, which allowed the establishment’s 28-person staff to take home $200 each, a media report said. In a Facebook post, Moussa Salloukh, the owner of Souk Mediterranean Kitchen & Bar in Toledo, said the generosity left staffers cry tears of joy, the ‘Daily Mail’ said in its report published on Monday...

THE Australian Government has announced a plan to save islands in the Great Barrier Reef, located off the coast of Queensland State, from the effects of climate change. According to the report from ‘News Corp Australia’ on Sunday, the Government will spend A..

UNITED States President-elect Joe Biden has told election-weary Americans that it is time to “turn the page”, after the Electoral College affirmed his triumph over President Donald Trump, who has refused to concede and filed a litany of legal challenges to overturn the poll results. The 538-member Electoral College on Monday pushed Biden past the 270-vote threshold to win the bitterly-contested race for the White House. It was one of the crucial steps required for the 78-year-old Democrat to take ..

HOW could scientists race out COVID-19 vaccines so fast without cutting corners? A head start helped -- over a decade of behind-the-scenes research that had new vaccine technology poised for a challenge just as the coronavirus erupted. “The speed is a reflection of years of work that went before,” Dr Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease expert, told ‘The Associated Press’. “That’s what the public has to understand.” Creating vaccines and having results from rigorous studies less than a ..

JAPAN’S space agency said its helicopter search team has retrieved a capsule, which is carrying asteroid samples that could explain the origin of life, that landed on a remote area in southern Australia as planned on Sunday. “The capsule collection work at the landing site was completed,” the space agency said in a tweet about four hours after the capsule landed. “We practiced a lot for today... It ended safe.” Hayabusa2 had successfully released the small capsule on Saturday and sent it toward Earth ..

THE US on Friday imposed visa restrictions on Chinese officials and individuals engaged in overseas influence operations, the latest punitive measures against China by the outgoing Trump administration. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the restrictions would apply to Chinese Communist Party officials or any individual taking part in propaganda or influence campaigns linked to the United Front Work Department. The Chinese C..

CHINA successfully powered up its “artificial Sun” nuclear fusion reactor for the first time, State media reported on Friday, marking a great advance in the country’s nuclear power research capabilities. The HL-2M Tokamak reactor is China’s largest and most advanced nuclear fusion experimental research device, and scientists hope that the device can potentially unlock a powerful clean energy source. ..

THE UK on Wednesday became the first country to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19, paving the way for mass vaccinations against the deadly novel coronavirus from as early as next week. The British regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s (MHRA), says, the jab, which claims to offer up to 95 per cent protection against COVID-19 illness, is safe for roll out. The UK Government said that the approval follows a “rigorous” analysis of the data, conducted at ..

DOCTOR Gaurav Sharma, one of the youngest and newly-elected MPs in New Zealand, on Wednesday took oath in Sanskrit in the country’s Parliament. Sharma, 33, hailing from Himachal Pradesh’s Hamirpur, was recently elected as the Member of Parliament from the Labour Party for Hamilton West in New Zealand. India’s High Commissioner to New Zealand and Samoa, Muktes..

AMERICAN social media personality and dancer Charli D’Amelio has become the first creator to hit 100 million followers on the Chinese short-video making app TikTok. To date, only two other TikTok creators have reached 50 million folllowers. On TikTok, that makes her more than twice as big as Will Smith, three times as big as The Rock, four times as big as Selena Gomez, and five times as big as Kylie Jenner and Ariana Grande...

LAUNCHING the second phase of RuPay card, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday announced that India will soon be sending Bhutanese satellite to space. “India opened its space sector for private enterprises. It will boost innovation, capacity and skills. ISRO will be sending Bhutan’s satellite next year and work on that is progressing fast,” he said. “Like other Indians I have great love and friendship with Bhutan, when I meet you all its like meeting our own,” Prime Minister told the Bhutanese audience ..