Indian Economy

"We are here first to reaffirm the European Union's full support of Ukraine's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity," Borrell told reporters during a media briefing. The EU has been providing political, financial and economic support for Kiev, Borrell said, noting that the bloc's Association Agreement with Ukraine is "the most comprehensive agreement it has with any other third country in the world", reports Xinhua news agency.

"I will only say this about the issue, that it is all baseless speculation," he said. "If someone speaks about such a matter, I would request you to ask them who is striking a deal. What are the specifics? What is the evidence that someone is out to make a deal," Iftikhar asked. He said there is no such thing going on and reiterated that if someone does talk of it, they must be asked for details.

According to new CDC estimates released late on Tuesday, the swing from Delta to Omicron happened in nearly a month. At the end of November, more than 99.5 per cent of coronavirus infections were Delta in the country. On Monday, the US shattered a single-day record with over 1 million Covid-19 cases amid the rapid spread of the Omicron variant and government decisions to ease prevention and control measures in the country.

However, states must make decisions about the duration of quarantine based on their individual situations, Xinhua news agency reported citing Abdi Mahamud from WHO's Covid Incident Management Support Team. In countries with low infections, a longer quarantine time could help keep case numbers as low as possible, he explained. In places with runaway cases, however, shorter quarantines may be justified in order to keep the countries running, he added.

In a tweet, Reham Khan revealed that on the way back home from her nephew's wedding, her car was shot at and two men on a motorcycle held the vehicle at gunpoint. "I had just changed vehicles. My personal secretary and driver were in the car," the former television presenter said and demanded that the "so-called government should be held accountable for it (the attack)".

Evergrande has more than $300 billion of debt and is scrambling to raise cash by selling assets and shares to repay suppliers and creditors.

According to provisional tracking by Unicef, about 910 million doses were delivered through the UN-backed initiative as of December 30, The Washington Post reported. However, the tally is still far short of the 2 billion-plus doses that Covax had initially aimed for.

Ghebreyesus warned against "narrow nationalism and vaccine hoarding" in a new year statement, reports the BBC. His comments come two years since the WHO was first notified of cases of an unknown pneumonia strain in China. He warned that continuing inequity in vaccine distribution was increasing the risk of the virus evolving.

Nicaragua was one of the few states left internationally which had recognised the sovereignty of the democratic and self-governing island nation. Officials from Nicaragua, led by the authoritarian President Daniel Ortega, had signed a joint communique on December 10 on the resumption of diplomatic relations with China thereby ending its diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

The move came as at least 80 clinical centre staff called in sick on Wednesday alone because of Covid-19 infections or exposures, Xinhua news agency quoted a Reuters report on Thursday citing the memo as saying.