Two Myanmar air force bases came under rocket attack on Thursday, the military said, as the country grapples with violence in the wake of the 1 February coup.Myanmar has been in turmoil since the generals seized power, ousting civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and unleashing a wave of near-daily street protests calling for a return to democracy.Security forces have sought to quell the unrest with a brutal crackdown on protests, with more than 750 civilians killed, according to a local monitori

Vietnam has detected four cases of a COVID-19 variant believed to be behind a devastating surge of the virus in India, state media said Thursday.Separately, the country also reported its first community outbreak in weeks on Thursday.Vietnam has so far kept case numbers low – reporting 2,910 of them and 35 deaths – thanks to mass quarantines and extensive contact tracing.All four of those infected with the B.1.617 variant of COVID-19, which was first found in India, had recently travelled from

Fast-spreading coronavirus variants have ignited global concern over whether existing vaccines will be able to protect the world from a virus that is constantly mutating.Variants that have emerged in Britain, South Africa, Brazil and now India have all been the focus of fears of implications for the COVID-19 pandemic. Here's what we know.How Many Variants?Viruses continually mutate as tiny errors are introduced each time they replicate and cause new variants to appear.

The launch of the first module of China's new space station - "Heavenly Palace" - on Thursday underlined how far the country has come in achieving its space dream.The Tianhe core module houses life support equipment and a living space for astronauts, and is another key step in Beijing's grand plans to establish a permanent human presence in space.Beijing has poured billions into its military-run space programme, with hopes of having a crewed space station by 2022 and event

Thailand's cabinet has granted Premier Prayut Chan-o-cha sweeping new powers aimed at curbing COVID-19 that critics fear could be used as a political tool to suppress dissent.The country is struggling to contain a third wave that has seen a jump of more than 32,000 cases since an outbreak was detected in the capital's nightlife district.Mandatory mask-wearing and restrictions on daily life have done little to slow the rising death toll, with Prayut's leadership coming in for cr

Myanmar's military launched air assaults for the second day in a row into rebel-held territory after gunfire was heard from neighbouring Thailand, a Thai official said Wednesday, as fighting escalates along the border.Myanmar has been in turmoil since the junta ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a 1 February coup, its power grab angering much of its population.The anti-junta movement has also garnered some support from some ethnic rebel groups, which control territory along Myanm

Dr Anthony Fauci, the White House’s chief medical adviser, has said countries have failed to unite to provide an adequate global response to prevent the “tragic” coronavirus outbreak from overwhelming India, and singled out wealthier nations for failing to provide equitable access to healthcare around the world.Fauci said the situation in India had highlighted global inequality.“The only way that you’re going to adequately respond to a global pandemic is by having a global response, and a glo

The transition from Trump to Joe Biden has been like going from a daily crack pipe, to a small bottle of low-alcohol beer once a week.The daily White House briefings now are a snooze fest. There are no fights, no name-calling.No middle of the night Twitter storms, no payments to porn stars, no rollicking MAGA rallies.So, does all this mean it's been a boring presidency? Absolutely not. This is a far more interesting presidency - so far - than I think any of us had imagined.

Myanmar's junta said Tuesday it would heed regional pleas to stop violence only when the country "returns to stability", as fresh fighting erupted with a major ethnic rebel group along its eastern border.The nation has been in turmoil since the military ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a 1 February coup, triggering a protest movement that security forces have met with deadly crackdowns.The violence – in which more than 750 people have been killed by security forces, a

Is there one pandemic, or two? That was a question being asked a year ago, when wealthy countries accounting for only 15 percent of the global population had 80 percent of the COVID deaths. Could it be that the rich world was more vulnerable, somehow, because its populations were older, or more individualistic, or had forgotten to be scared of infectious disease?Even then, some were warning that the worst was yet to come, once the disease took hold in poorer countries.