One of the teams racing to develop a coronavirus vaccine announced Monday its drug had shown 90 percent effectiveness, sending markets soaring and raising hopes of an end to the worst pandemic in a century.United States (US) pharmaceutical giant Pfizer said tests involving more than 40,000 people had provided results that were a "critical milestone" in the search for a vaccine, as global infections soared past 50 million - including an alarming 10 million now in the United States al

Aung San Suu Kyi's ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) said Monday it was confident of winning a landslide victory in Myanmar as official results trickled in following the weekend's coronavirus-disrupted election.Millions lined up for hours to cast their ballots on Sunday - only the second national election since the country emerged from outright military rule in 2011.Nobel laureate Suu Kyi remains a heroine for many in the Bamar majority heartlands, in spite of a global repu

Vote counting continued late into the night in Myanmar after an election Sunday that is expected to return to power the government of Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains a hero at home in spite of a reputation abroad shattered by the Rohingya crisis.Several hundred ardent supporters ignored coronavirus warnings and gathered in a premature celebration, dancing, singing and waving flags outside the Yangon headquarters of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD).Overall results, however, wil

Thai police on Sunday fired water cannon on pro-democracy protesters who were trying to march to the royal palace to deliver letters demanding reform to the unassailable monarchy.Student-led rallies have rocked the kingdom since July, with protesters calling for the removal of Premier Prayut Chan-o-cha - a former army chief who came into power through a 2014 coup - and a rewrite to the military-scripted constitution. The boldest in the leaderless movement have also demanded reforms t

Denmark and the United States (US) are among six countries that have reported new coronavirus cases linked to mink farms, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden are the other nations to have discovered SARS-CoV-2 in minks, the WHO said in a statement.Denmark has imposed strict measures on the north of the country after warning that a mutation of the virus had jumped from minks to humans and infected 12 people.Copenhagen has warned the mutation could

Democrat Joe Biden has won the White House, United States (US) media said Saturday, defeating Donald Trump and ending a presidency that convulsed American politics, shocked the world and left the United States more divided than at any time in decades.CBS, NBC and CNN news networks announced the result just before 11:30 am (1630 GMT) as an insurmountable lead in Pennsylvania took Biden, 77, over the top in the state-by-state count that decides the presidency."America, I'm honoured th

Five million young voters will be able to cast their ballots for the first time in Myanmar's election on Sunday – about 14 percent of the electorate.In a country that emerged less than a decade ago from near total isolation under military rule, the nation's youth defies easy classification. AFP spoke to a number of Myanmar's Generation Z about the challenges they face and what they hope the next government will bring.Rakhine AngerHistory student Wai Wai Tun, 19, can vo

President Donald Trump erupted Thursday in a tirade of unsubstantiated claims that he has been cheated out of winning the United States (US) election as vote counting across battleground states showed Democrat Joe Biden steadily closing in on victory."They are trying to steal the election," Trump said in an extraordinary statement at the White House two days after polls closed.Providing no evidence and taking no questions afterward from reporters in the room, Trump used the remarks

As Aung San Suu Kyi is vilified internationally for denying genocide against the Rohingya, her opponents in Sunday's Myanmar election are ramping up the rhetoric against the Muslim minority.There was global revulsion at military-backed operations in 2017 that saw hundreds of thousands of people flee burning villages into the squalor of refugee camps in neighbouring Bangladesh.The horrifying violence - including widespread reports of murder and rape - has left Suu Kyi's international

Democrats and Republicans girded Wednesday for a legal showdown to decide the winner of the tight presidential race between Republican Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden.After Trump declared overnight, he was ready to go to the United States (US) Supreme Court to dispute the counting of votes, his campaign announced a demand for a recount in Wisconsin and lawsuits in Michigan and Pennsylvania, three states which each side needs to win the presidency.Trump's behaviour raised