Times of India

The death toll from the rain-triggered unprecedented floods in central China has risen to 56 with five people reported missing and the official estimated losses totalled about $10 billion, the state media reported on Friday. The torrential rains, the heaviest in 1,000 years, have affected about three million people in Henan province and a total of 376,000 local residents have been relocated to safe places, the provincial emergency management department said.

A new study suggests that a Sinopharm vaccine offers poor protection from Covid-19 among the elderly. That raises questions for dozens of countries that have given the Chinese company’s shots to their most vulnerable populations.

The Taliban say they don't want to monopolise power, but they insist there won't be peace in Afghanistan until there is a new negotiated government in Kabul and President Ashraf Ghani is removed.

Morocco has filed defamation claims against Amnesty International and a French NGO who claim its intelligence services used the Pegasus mobile phone spyware against dozens of French journalists, lawyers for the government said Thursday.

Hungary, Israel and Algeria on Thursday probed allegations that Israeli-made spyware was used on journalists, rights activists and 14 heads of state, as French leader Emmanuel Macron ordered tighter security and changed his phone over espionage concerns.

Pardis was one of the thousands of Afghan interpreters who worked for the US military and now face persecution by the Taliban, as the group gains control of parts of the country, reported CNN. He was driving from his home in Afghanistan's capital Kabul to nearby Khost province on May 12 for Eid when his vehicle was blocked at a checkpoint by the Taliban.

With the Olympics officially opening in Tokyo on Friday, Google launched an interactive series of Olympics-themed minigames, based on events there over the next two weeks.

Xi arrived in the regional capital Lhasa on Thursday, the official Xinhua News Agency said on social media. Xi inspected the operation of the Sichuan-Tibet railway during his visit. The region has been at the center of ongoing border tensions with India.

New Zealand will pause its quarantine-free travel arrangement with Australia for at least eight weeks from Friday night, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said, as Australia fights an outbreak of the highly infectious Delta virus variant.

US airpower has long provided Afghan forces with a tactical advantage against the Taliban -- one that many fear will be eroded by the withdrawal of international troops, though Afghanistan's own fledgling air force is flying into the breach.