ONE of the world’s largest diamonds has been unearthed in Botswana, the country Government said. The CNN reported that the 1,098-carat stone, believed to be the third largest “gem-quality” diamond ever found, was presented to President Mokgweetsi Masisi on Wednesday. The discovery was made earlier this month at the Jwaneng mine, around 75 miles from the country’s capital, Gaborone. ..

CHINA is all set to send on Thursday the first three crew members to its under-construction space station which is expected to be Beijing’s eye in the sky and will rival the aging International Space Station (ISS). The spaceship, Shenzhou-12, will take Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo into space for the construction of China’s space station, Ji Qiming, assistant to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) director, said at a nationally televised press conference held at the launch centre on Wednesday...

NAFTALI Bennett was on Sunday sworn in as Israel’s new Prime Minister, ending Benjamin Netanyahu’s 12-year hold on power and the political uncertainty that gripped the Jewish nation for months after inconclusive elections. Bennett, the 49-year-old leader of the Right-wing Yamina party, took oath of office after the Knesset (Parliament) elected him as the 13th Prime Minister of Israel by approved with a razor-thin majority of 60-59 in the 120-member House. One lawmaker abstained...

MEGHA Rajagopalan, an Indian-origin journalist, along with two contributors has won the Pulitzer Prize for innovative investigative reports that exposed a vast infrastructure of prisons and mass internment camps secretly built by China for detaining hundreds of thousands of Muslims in its restive Xinjiang region. Rajagopalan from BuzzFeed News is among two Indian-origin journalists who won the US’ top journalism award on Friday. ‘Tampa Bay Times’ Neil Bedi won for local reporting. Bedi along with ..

THE G7 group of leading economies have reached “a historic agreement” to reform the global tax system to make it fit for the global digital age. Speaking outside Winfield House in London’s Regents Park on Saturday, the US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the minimum rate of at least 15 per cent would end “the race to the bottom in corporate taxation”. In a tweet later, she added that global minimum tax would end the race-to-the-bottom in corporate taxation, and help the global economy thrive, ..

SIR Anerood Jugnauth, the former President and Prime Minister of Mauritius, has passed away. He was 91. Jugnauth, who served as Mauritius’ President twice and Prime Minister six times, was accorded with India’s second highest civilian honour Padma Vibhushan in 2020..

A 7-YEAR-OLD boy is being credited for helping to save his father and 4-year-old sister by swimming to shore and calling for help after they got caught in a strong current during a holiday weekend boating trip on Florida’s St. Johns River. The father, Steven Poust, told Jax4 television station that he anchored his boat in the river while he fished and his children played on Friday. Chase Puost said the current was too strong for her sister Abigail to hold onto the boat, and he also let go to stay ..

AMID calls for a fresh probe into the origins of COVID-19, an explosive new study has found that Chinese scientists created the virus in a lab in Wuhan, then tried to cover their tracks by reverse-engineering versions of the virus to make it look like it evolved naturally from bats. The novel coronavirus SARSCoV-2 virus has no “credible natural ancestor” and was created by Chinese scientists who were working on a ‘Gain of Function’ project in aWuhan lab, the ‘Daily Mail’ reported on Sunday, citing ..

BEIJING is amassing new weapons systems in its border with India complicating efforts towards a peaceful solution to the border stand-off. ..

EXTERNAL Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan during which they held wide-ranging discussions and agreed that people-to-people ties and shared values are the foundation of the US-India strategic partnership that is helping to end the pandemic, supporting a free and open Indo-Pacific and providing global leadership on climate change. Jaishankar, the first Indian Cabinet Minister to visit the United States under the Biden administration, met Sullivan on Thursday. ..

SCIENTISTS from QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Australia’s Queensland have developed two new drugs to both prevent SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind COVID-19 infection, and also treat people who have been exposed to the virus so they do not develop severe disease. The two early intervention drugs target how human cells respond to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, instead of the virus itself, according to the findings published in the journal Nature Cell Discovery. The first peptide-based drug would be ..

WORLD Health Organisation (WHO) is expected to restudy the “dominant theory” that the SARS-CoV-2 probably originated and spread across the world from China’s Wuhan lab, according to reports. According to CNN, previously overlooked Chinese data on extensive screening of animals for coronavirus around the time the pandemic erupted is among several areas identified for further study by WHO scientists investigating the origins of the virus, as per a source...

A VAST iceberg that broke off Antarctica earlier this month could drift through the ocean for several years before it breaks up and melts away, a scientist from the European Space Agency said on Friday. The iceberg, dubbed A-76, is more than 40 times the size of Paris, or about 73 times as big as Manhattan, making it the largest currently afloat. It was first spotted by scientists at the British Antarctic Survey and confirmed by the US National Ice Center using images taken by the European Space ..

ISRAEL unleashed another wave of airstrikes across the Gaza Strip early on Thursday, killing at least one Palestinian and wounding several, and Hamas fired more rockets, even as expectations rose that a ceasefire could be coming. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pushed back against calls from the US to wind down the Gaza offensive, appearing determined to inflict maximum damage on Hamas in a war that could help save his political career. Still, officials close to the negotiations say they expect ..

CHINA, which has stepped up its diplomacy between Pakistan and Afghanistan in the wake of the US troops withdrawal from the war-torn country, has offered to host peace talks between the Afghan Government and the Taliban. Significantly, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who in the last two-days held telephone talks with his Pakistani and Afghan counterparts, said that China will back the Afghan Government headed by Ashraf Ghani in playing a leading role...

THE Israeli military unleashed a wave of heavy airstrikes on the Gaza Strip early on Monday, saying it destroyed 15 kilometres (nine miles) of militant tunnels and the homes of nine Hamas commanders. Residents of Gaza awakened by the overnight barrage described it as the heaviest since the war began a week ago, and even more powerful than a wave of airstrikes in Gaza City the day before that left 42 dead and flattened three buildings...

AN ISRAELI air raid in Gaza City killed at least 10 Palestinians, mostly children, early Saturday in the deadliest single strike since the battle with Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers erupted. Both sides pressed for an advantage as truce efforts gathered strength. Israel also bombed the home of Khalil al-Hayeh, a top leader of Gaza’s ruling militant Hamas group. The latest outburst of violence began in Jerusalem and has spread across the region, with Jewish-Arab clashes and rioting in mixed cities ..

FORMER speaker of Tibetan Parliament-in-exile and experienced administrator Penpa Tsering will be the next President of Tibetan Government-in-exile, it was announced on Friday. Tsering, 53, who won the post of Central Tibetan Administration’s Sikyong (President) with 5,417 votes, succeeded Lobsang Sangay, who completes two terms as president this month. CTA chief election commissioner Wangdu Tsering declared the result here for the second and final round, polling for which was held on April 11. ..

HAMAS sent a heavy barrage of rockets deep into Israel in a matter of minutes on Thursday and Israel pounded Gaza with more airstrikes. The relentless escalation of hostilities came even as Egyptian negotiators held in-person talks with the two sides, intensifying efforts at mediation. Previous fighting between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers, including a devastating 2014 war, was largely confined to the impoverished and blockaded Palestinian territory and Israeli communities on the frontier...

ROCKETS streamed out of Gaza and Israel pounded the territory with airstrikes early on Wednesday as the most severe outbreak of violence since the 2014 war took on many hallmarks of that devastating 50-day conflict, with no endgame in sight. Gaza’s Hamas rulers and other militant groups have fired barrages of hundreds of rockets that at times have overwhelmed Israel’s missile defences, causing air raid sirens and explosions to echo across Tel Aviv, Israel’s biggest metropolitan area, and other cities...

CHINA will draw a “separation line” atop Mount Everest to prevent the coronavirus from being spread by climbers ascending Nepal’s side of the mountain, Chinese state media reported on Monday. A team of Tibetan mountaineering guides will set up the separation line at the peak before climbers attempt to reach the summit from the Chinese side, state-owned Xinhua News Agency said. It is not clear what the separation line will be made of. The climbers ascending the north side of the mountain from China ..

A DOCUMENT written by Chinese scientists and health officials before the pandemic in 2015 states that SARS coronaviruses were a “new era of genetic weapons” that could be “artificially manipulated into an emerging human disease virus, then weaponised and unleashed, reported ‘Weekend Australian’. The paper titled The Unnatural Origin of SARS and New Species of Man-Made Viruses as Genetic Bioweapons suggested that World War Three would be fought with biological weapons. The document revealed that Chinese ..

THE Railways’ Oxygen Express trains have delivered around 2,067 tonnes of medical oxygen across the country over the last 16 days with Delhi getting the highest 707 tonnes, followed by Uttar Pradesh with 641 tonnes. Currently, trains carrying 344 tonnes of liquid medical oxygen are on the run. “The Railways have delivered liquid medical oxygen to various States across the country. So far, Indian Railways has delivered around 2,067 Tonnes of liquid medical oxygen in 137 tankers to various States across ..

BILLIONAIRE philanthropists Bill and Melinda French Gates have announced they are divorcing after 27 years of marriage, saying they no longer believe “we can grow together as a couple”, but will continue to work together at their foundation that has an endowment of USD 50 billion. In a joint statement posted on Twitter by both, they said: “After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage.” They said, that over the last 27 years they ..

THE Indian Air Force (IAF) airlifted nine cryogenic oxygen containers from Dubai and Singapore and has brought them to the Panagarh air base in West Bengal, according to an official statement issued on Wednesday. These containers were brought on Tuesday, it said. In addition, the IAF’s C-17 aircraft on Tuesday also airlifted two cryogenic oxygen containers from Indore to Jamnagar, two from Jodhpur and Udaipur to Jamnagar and two from Hindon to Ranchi, it said. “IAF’s C-17s have airlifted six cryogenic ..

THE shipment of vital medical supplies from the United Kingdom, including 100 ventilators and 95 oxygen concentrators as part of COVID-19 assistance, arrived in India earlier on Tuesday, said the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA)...

VETERAN Hollywood star Anthony Hopkins says he did not expect to win best actor Oscar at the 93rd Academy Awards but felt “very privileged and honoured” to get recognised at 83 years of age. The actor was nominated for his role in “The Father” but many had believed that the honour would go to Boseman, who was posthumously nominated for his role in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”...

IRAQ’S Interior Ministry said on Sunday that 82 people died and 110 were injured in a catastrophic fire that broke out in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of a Baghdad hospital tending to severe coronavirus patients. Negligence on the part of hospital authorities has been blamed for the Saturday night fire, which initial reports suggest was caused when an oxygen cylinder exploded in the ward of Ibn al- Khatib hospital. Iraq’s Prime Minister fired key hospital officials hours after the catastrophic ..

NASA’S experimental Mars helicopter rose from the dusty red surface into the thin air Monday, achieving the first powered, controlled flight on another planet. The triumph was hailed as a Wright Brothers moment. The mini 4-pound (1.8-kg) copter named Ingenuity, in fact, carried a bit of wing fabric from the 1903 Wright Flyer, which made similar history at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. “We can now say that human beings have flown a rotorcraft on another planet,” project manager MiMi Aung announced to ..

CRUSHED into the pilot’s seat by heavy G-forces, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin saw flames outside his spacecraft and prepared to die. His voice broke the tense silence at ground control: “I’m burning. Goodbye, comrades.” Gagarin didn’t know that the blazing inferno he observed through a porthole was a cloud of plasma engulfing Vostok 1 during its re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere, and he was still on track to return safely. It was his quiet composure under pressure that helped make him the first ..

NORTH Korean leader Kim Jong Un has acknowledged his country was facing the “worst- ever situation” as he addressed thousands of grassroots members of his ruling party during a major political conference in Pyongyang. Experts say Kim is facing perhaps his toughest moment as he approaches a decade in rule, with North Korea’s coronavirus lockdown unleashing further shock on an economy devastated by decades of mismanagement and crippling US-led sanctions over his nuclear weapons programme...

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter has survived the first cold Martian night ahead of its maiden flight on the Red Planet scheduled for April 11, the US space agency has said. Surviving that first night after being deployed from where it was attached to the belly of NASA’s Perseverance rover on April 3 is a major milestone for the 1.8 kg rotorcraft. This is because evening temperatures at Jezero Crater can plunge as low as minus minus 90 degrees Celsius, which can freeze and crack unprotected electrical ..

A NEW mobile game launched by a British Indian CEO behind the British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) nominated studio Electric Noir has been creating waves with its unique concept of turning gamers into crime-solving police detectives. Nihal Tharoor and co-founder Benedict Tatham released the murder mystery game ‘Dead Man’s Phone’ worldwide, across iOS and Android platforms, this week after registering over 2,00,000 downloads even in a pre-launch beta version since last year. In the game, designed as ..

OVER 25 leaders from “the G20, G7 and from every region” have unanimously called for an international treaty for pandemic preparedness and response, the World Health Organisation (WHO) chief said. ..

UNITED States President Joe Biden has nominated an Indian American to be a judge in the local court system of the nation’s capital after having withdrawn another’s nomination made by his predecessor Donald Trump. The White House announced on Tuesday that Biden was nominating Rupa Ranga Puttagunta to be a judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, which is a local court for Washington. Last month, he withdrew the nomination of Vijay Shankar to a higher local court, the District of Columbia ..

US SECRETARY of State Tony Blinken has bluntly told China’s top diplomats that Beijing’s actions have threatened the rules-based order that maintains global stability, as the two sides exchanged sharp rebukes in public during their first in-person high-level meeting since President Joe Biden took office. ..

NASA has completed a crucial hot fire test of the core stage of Space Launch System (SLS) rocket which is designed to power future Moon missions under the agency’s Artemis programme. ..

WOMEN artists were the big winners in the usually male-dominated top categories at the 63rd Grammy Awards as Beyonce, Taylor Swift and Billie Ellish made history with their trophy haul. The pandemic may have dimmed some of the lustre of the ceremony, held in a hybrid manner at the Los Angeles Convention Center with COVID-19 protocols in place, winners and performers ensured entertaining evening...

A TOURIST bus plunged into a ravine on Indonesia’s main island of Java after its brakes apparently malfunctioned, killing at least 27 people and injuring 39 others, police and rescuers said on Thursday. The bus was carrying a group of Islamic junior high school students, teachers and parents from the West Java province town of Subang when the accident happened late Wednesday on a winding road, said local police chief Eko Prasetyo Robbyanto. He said the bus was on its way back to Subang from a pilgrimage ..

THE High Commission of India in London has condemned false assertions in a “distinctly one-sided discussion” among a group of British parliamentarians on Monday on the issue of peaceful protests and press freedoms in India, amidst the ongoing farmers’ stir against three new laws on agricultural reforms. The Indian mission pointed out that foreign media, including British media, had been present and witnessed the events surrounding the farmers’ protests in India first-hand and therefore any “question ..

PAKISTAN Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday comfortably won a trust vote in the National Assembly amid Opposition boycott, bolstering his Government’s position after an embarrassing defeat in this week’s hotly-contested Senate elections. Prime Minister Khan secured 178 votes in the 342-member Lower House of Parliament during a special session convened on the directives of President Arif Alvi. He required 172 votes for a simple majority. The floor test took place without Opposition as the Pakistan ..

INDIAN-AMERICANS are “taking over the country”, US President Joe Biden said on Thursday, referring to the large number of “incredible” professionals from the community holding key positions in his administration. In less than 50 days of his presidency, Biden has appointed at least 55 Indian-Americans to key leadership positions in his administration ranging from his speech writer to the NASA, to almost every wing of the Government. ..

A DELIVERY driver in Vietnam has been hailed a hero for springing into action to save a toddler who fell from the 12th storey balcony of her building. Nguyen Ngoc Manh, 31, was sitting in his truck waiting to deliver a package in Hanoi when he heard a girl crying, reports Daily Mail. The incident occurred on Sunday at around 4.30 PM. Manh initially thought it was a child having a tantrum, until he heard other people screaming. He rolled down the window and saw that the two-year-old girl was dangling ..

ANJALI Bharadwaj, an Indian social activist working on issues of transparency and accountability, is one of the 12 “courageous” individuals named by the Biden administration for the newly-instituted International Anti-Corruption Champions Award. According to the State Department, Bhardwaj, 48, has served as an active member of the Right to Information Movement in India for over two decades. “The Biden administration recognises that we will only be successful in combating these issues by working in ..

NASA on Monday released first high-quality video of a spacecraft landing on Mars, a three-minute trailer showing the enormous orange and white parachute hurtling open and the red dust kicking up as rocket engines lowered the rover to the surface. The footage was so good — and the images so breathtaking — that members of the rover team said that they felt like they were riding along. “It gives me goose bumps every time I see it, just amazing,” said Dave Gruel, head of the entry and descent camera team...

AMAZON Founder Jeff Bezos is back as the world’s richest person after Tesla shares fell, resulting in a slight erosion in Elon Musk’ wealth. Tesla shares were down 2.4 per cent on Tuesday and Musk lost $4.6 billion, slipping to the second position on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a ranking of the world’s 500 wealthiest people. Bezos returned as the world’s richest man with a net worth of $191.2 billion. Last month, Musk became the world’s richest person, as his net worth crossed $185 billion after ..

INDIA on Wednesday slammed the remarks made by American singer Rihanna and other celebrities and activists on farmer protests, saying the facts on the issue must be ascertained before rushing to comment on it, and asserted that the “temptation” of sensationalist social media hashtags and views is “neither accurate nor responsible”. The strong reaction by the Ministry of External Affairs came after Rihanna, Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, American actress Amanda Cerni, US Vice President ..

MYANMAR’S military staged a coup on Monday and detained senior politicians including Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi — a sharp reversal of the significant, if uneven, progress toward democracy the Southeast Asian nation has made following five decades of military rule. An announcement read on military-owned Myawaddy TV said Commander-in-Chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing would be in charge of the country for one year. It said the seizure was necessary because the Government had..

CALLING for India to play a major role in global vaccination campaign, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday termed the vaccine production capacity of India as the “best asset” that the world has today. Addressing reporters here, the UN chief said, “I know that in India there is a very high level of production of Indian developed vaccines. We are in contact with Indian institutions for that. We strongly hope that India will have all the instruments that are necessary to play ..

BRAZILIAN President Jair Bolsonaro has thanked India for supplying COVID-19 vaccines to his country and shared on social media an illustration of Lord Hanuman bringing ‘Sanjivani booti’ from India to Brazil. Responding to Bolsonaro on Twitter, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “The honour is ours, President @jairbolsonaro to be a trusted partner of Brazil in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic together...