Australia's Health Minister Mark Butler has warned that "millions" of people could get infected with coronavirus in the coming weeks amid a winter surge. Butler recently asked the Australians to wear masks and work from home when needed to mitigate the impact of a wave of BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariant infections. There were 316,574 active COVID-19 cases in Australia by Wednesday -- a figure Butler said could increase within weeks. "I think this is a very concerning wave. This is the third wave just this year that Omicron has thrown at Australia," he said on the TV program Sunrise on Wednesd

Patiala district court on Thursday sentenced Singer Daler Mehndi to two years of imprisonment in a 2003 human trafficking case. Following the court's order, the singer was taken into custody by Punjab Police. According to Advocate Gurmeet Singh, Mehndi's application for release on probation was also dismissed by the court. Bakshish Singh, the complainant alleged that Mehndi and his brother took Rs 13 lakh from him on the pretext of sending him to Canada. "Daler Mehndi and his brother Shamsher Mehndi took Rs 13 lakh from me to send me to Canada. Neither did they send me abroad, nor did they re

Mounties say two people died after a small plane crashed in central Alberta. RCMP say officers from the Didsbury detachment and emergency crews were called to the crash site Wednesday in Mountain View County. RCMP say a pilot and a passenger were inside the downed aircraft. They say a 69-year-old man and a 65-year-old man were killed. Mounties say the Transportation Safety Board has taken over the investigation. Didsbury is roughly 80 kilometres north of Calgary.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Thursday said that the government will procure black moong at Minimum Support Price (MSP). In a conversation with ANI, he also said that the process of registrations will start on July 18. "Farmers in Madhya Pradesh have produced black moong in the summers but their prices in the market are very low. Since we are a government of the farmers, we have decided to purchase the Moong at the MSP of Rs 7,275 per quintal," CM Chouhan said. MSP stands for the Minimum Support Price which the government offers to pay to the crop producers, to ensure

Amid pressure from the public uprising in Sri Lanka, the country's embattled President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Thursday tendered his resignation to the Speaker of the Parliament. Sri Lankan Speaker's office said that the Speaker of Parliament has received the resignation letter of Rajapaksa. Meanwhile, Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that Rajapaksa has been allowed entry into Singapore on a private visit and he has not asked for asylum nor has he been granted asylum. Rajapaksa, 73, had gone into hiding after crowds of protesters stormed his residence on July 9 and he had announ

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Thursday blamed inadequate police security for the death of former leader Shinzo Abe, who was shot while giving an outdoor campaign speech. Abe, one of Japan's most influential politicians, was assassinated last Friday in western Japan, shocking a nation known for its low crime rate. Photos and videos of the shooting show the gunman was able to come close to Abe. A suspect was arrested at the spot and is being detained for questioning. Police and media reports say he told investigators that a rumored link between Abe and a religious group the suspect ha

An Iranian citizen was Thursday sentenced to life imprisonment by a Swedish court after being convicted of committing grave war crimes and murder during the final phase of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. The Stockholm District Court that said Hamid Noury took part in severe atrocities in July-August 1988 while working as an assistant to the deputy prosecutor at the Gohardasht prison outside the Iranian city of Karaj. A life sentence in Sweden generally means a minimum of 20 to 25 years in prison, but it could be extended. If he is eventually released, Noury will be expelled from Sweden. Noury

A suspected case of monkeypox, the first in India, has been reported from Kerala, the state health minister said on Thursday. A traveller who arrived in Kerala three days ago from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was hospitalised after he displayed symptoms of monkeypox. Samples from the traveller have been sent for testing to the National Institute of Virology in Pune, health minister Veena George said today adding that the case can be confirmed only after the results of the test are obtained. Human monkeypox was first identified in humans in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in a 9

The federal government says it will provide more than $35 million during the papal visit to Canada to support Indigenous communities, organizations and residential schools survivors. Pope Francis visit is set to start in Edmonton July 24th and will go to Quebec and Nunavut before it ends on the 29th. Indigenous Services Canada and Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada are putting up 30.5-million dollars for community-led activities and travel for survivors. Another three-million dollars will support Indigenous groups in the three regions where Pope Francis will spend time, a