12-01-2022 Bureau Report NEW DELHI: When Brahmadev Mandal, an 84-year-old resident of India’s eastern Bihar state, got his first coronavirus vaccine dose in February last year, he said he felt, what was a “great improvement” in a knee pain that had bothered him for years. After the second dose, the …

12-01-2022 Bureau Report MELBOURNE: There were more than 102,000 new COVID-19 cases recorded across Australia (40,127 in Victoria, 34,759 in NSW, 22,069 in Queensland, 3715 in SA, 1078 in the ACT, 352 in the NT, and six in WA). NSW and Victoria also recorded a combined 24 deaths. The case …

12-01-2022 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report KABUL/ ISLAMABAD: The Taliban have released a prominent university professor and outspoken critic of successive Afghan governments who was arrested during the weekend, a family member said. Hasina Jalal, Faizullah Jalal’s daughter, said on Tuesday that her father had been freed from Taliban …

12-01-2022 TEHRAN/ SANA’A/ RIYADH: The air defenses of the Yemeni Army and Popular Committees shot down a Chinese-made combat drone controlled by the Emirati Forces, while it was carrying out hostile operations over Shabwa province. “Our Air Defenses shot down an armed Chinese-made spy drone, Wing Loong-2, operated by the …

12-01-2022 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report SYDNEY/ MELBOURNE: A Sydney mother who unexpectedly gave birth to a premature baby boy was unable to get an ambulance in another alarming example of emergency services system under extreme pressure across the country. Melanie Moir, a midwife, had a “rapid labour” and …

12-01-2022 GENEVA: The World Health Organization has warned that half of Europe will have been infected with the Omicron variant of COVID-19 within six to eight weeks. Dr Hans Kluge said a “west-to-east tidal wave” of Omicron was sweeping across the region, on top of the surge of the Delta …

11-01-2022 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report MELBOURNE: Tennis superstar Novak Djokovic trained at the Australian Open venue on Tuesday (Jan 11) in search of a record 21st Grand Slam but his dream hung in the balance as the government pondered cancelling his visa, again. The world number one had …

11-01-2022 MARYLAND: A US man has become the first person in the world to get a heart transplant from a genetically-modified pig. David Bennett, 57, is doing well three days after the experimental seven-hour procedure in Baltimore, doctors say. The transplant was considered the last hope of saving Bennett’s life, …

11-01-2022 ALMATY After a week of deadly unrest in Kazakhstan, Russia-led forces who were sent to quell riots are preparing to withdraw as President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev eyes a new prime minister. Tokayev said on Tuesday that the contingent of troops he requested from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a …

11-01-2022 RUMAH/ RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi women, in a first for the conservative kingdom, have paraded their camels in a beauty pageant for the prized “ships of the desert”. “I hope today to reach a certain social standing, inshallah (God willing),” said Lamia al-Rashidi, 27, who participated at the weekend …