The World Trade Organization faces calls led by India and South Africa to waive intellectual property rights for Covid-19 vaccines -- a notion fiercely rejected by pharmaceutical giants and their host countries.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was inoculated with the first dose of a home-grown coronavirus vaccine on Monday, kicking off an expansion of the country's immunisation campaign as infections rise in some big states.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease official, said on Sunday he was encouraging Americans to accept any of the three available Covid-19 vaccines, including the newly approved Johnson & Johnson shot.

A Myanmar court filed two more charges against ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Monday, a lawyer acting for her said, as protesters marched in defiance of a crackdown by security forces that killed at least 18 people the previous day.

Netflix's take on the British royal family, "The Crown," reigned over the television categories at the Golden Globes on Sunday, winning four prizes including best drama, while "Schitt's Creek" earned another victory lap after its final season.

Thai police shot rubber bullets and used water cannon and tear gas against pro-democracy protesters in Bangkok yesterday at a rally outside a military barracks housing the prime minister’s residence.

Thailand kicked off its Covid-19 inoculation campaign yesterday, with cabinet ministers, health officials and medical professionals among the first in the queue to receive vaccinations.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Saturday called on the African Union and other international partners to help address a deepening crisis in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region as he condemned alleged atrocities in fighting there.

Almost 100 migrants were rescued off Libya’s west coast yesterday as they made failed attempts to reach Europe, while around 20 were missing, AFP reporters and the coastguard said.

Russia launched its space satellite Arktika-M yesterday on a mission to monitor the climate and environment in the Arctic amid a push by the Kremlin to expand the country’s activities in the region.

A team of cold-weather enthusiasts in Finland have spent the last week trying to carve a huge, perfect circle into a frozen lake to build the world’s largest “ice carousel”.

The day before he was killed, internet network engineer Nyi Nyi Aung Htet Naing had posted on Facebook about the increasingly violent military crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Myanmar.