Independent observers have rejected claims of voter fraud in Myanmar’s 2020 election, three months after the military took power in a coup. The Asian Network for Free Elections said the outcome of the vote was “by and large, representative of the will of the people of Myanmar”. The military has justified its February coup by […]
Coronavirus pandemic India’s western state of Gujarat is braced for the landfall of cyclone Tauktae, which is likely to be the strongest to hit the region since 1998. The storm has roared up India’s western coast over the past two days, with six people killed and thousands evacuated. Efforts are under way to rescue more […]
India Covid-19: The ‘tuk-tuk ambulance’ helping patients Raj Kumar, a tuk-tuk driver, in India’s capital, Delhi, wants to do his bit to help his fellow citizens weather the pandemic. So, he has turned his humble vehicle into an ambulance, ferrying people to and from hospitals for free. This is a huge help given the shortage […]
By Jonathan Amos BBC Science Correspondent China has successfully landed a spacecraft on Mars, state media announced early on Saturday. The six-wheeled Zhurong robot was targeting Utopia Planitia, a vast terrain in the planet’s northern hemisphere. The vehicle used a combination of a protective capsule, a parachute and a rocket platform to make the descent. […]
Coronavirus pandemic Australia has carried out its first repatriation flight from India after ending its controversial travel ban from the Covid-hit country. The government said 80 people arrived in Darwin on Saturday, and would be quarantined for a fortnight. Their Qantas flight was originally scheduled to carry 150 people onboard. But 70 passengers were later […]
Kolkata, one of the most densely-populated cities in India, hasn’t escaped the country’s second Covid-19 wave. Stories of the surge have dominated global news – people gasping to stay alive as they wait for critical care beds and treatment; desperate families scrambling for everything, from oxygen cylinders to a doctor’s appointment; mass funeral pyres and […]
By Jonathan Amos BBC Science Correspondent China has successfully landed a spacecraft on Mars, state media announced early on Saturday. The six-wheeled Zhurong robot was targeting Utopia Planitia, a vast terrain in the planet’s northern hemisphere. The vehicle used a combination of a protective capsule, a parachute and a rocket platform to make the descent. […]
By Nikhil Inamdar and Aparna Alluri BBC News Coronavirus pandemic It took 31-year-old Sneha Marathe half a day to book an appointment online for a Covid vaccine. “It was a game of ‘fastest finger first’,” she says. “The slots filled up in three seconds.” But the hospital cancelled her slot at the last minute: they […]
By Sima Kotecha BBC Newsnight Coronavirus pandemic Legislation brought in by the Indian government is preventing non-profit organisations from supplying oxygen concentrators to those who desperately need them, BBC Newsnight understands. The Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) was amended at the height of the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic last year. The changes mean […]
Dozens of passengers booked on Australia’s first repatriation flight from India will reportedly not be able to take it after testing positive for Covid or being close contacts of cases. The flight was supposed to bring 150 Australian citizens home following a backlash over a three-week ban on anyone entering from Covid-hit India. But local […]
