WORLD

A fresh diplomatic spat has brewed between Nepal and India after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modis recent announcement to expand the road across the Lipulekh area which Nepal claims as its own.

Addressing an election rally organised by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at Haldwani in Uttarakhand on December 30, Modi had announced that his government is further widening the road built in the Nepali territory of Lipulekh.

Nepal has already protested the Indian government's ongoing construction of roads in Lipulekh and Kalapani areas. Nepal had protested on May 8, 2020, when Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had virtually inaugurated the newly-constructed road in Lipulekh.

Ahead of the India-China military talks, the United States on Monday (January 10, 2022) said that it is 'concerned' by Beijing's attempt to intimidate its neighbours.

While responding to a question on the India-China border dispute during a press briefing, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that President Joe Biden's administration is closely monitoring the situation.

"We continue to closely monitor the situation, and we continue to support dialogue and peaceful resolution of these border disputes," she said.  

A top US doctor predicts the number of COVID-19 cases will spike in the next few weeks in a "really bad surge" before dipping in February.

Dr. Ashish Jha, the dean of Brown University's School of Public Health, said on ABC's "This Week" that hospitals are overrun with people who are unvaccinated or have not gotten their booster shots. Meanwhile, he said those who are vaccinated are "largely avoiding getting particularly sick."

"We're obviously in the middle of a really bad surge right now," Jha said. "Our hospital systems are under a lot of stress. I expect this surge to peak in the next couple of weeks. It'll peak in different places in America at different times. But once we get into February, I really do expect much, much lower case numbers."

Police have just clarified that the Bruce Highway is now open. It was closed earlier.

Police have had requests to rescue 23 people and 11 vehicles so far. The safety of eight of those people has been verified, police say. The remaining 15 appear to be unaccounted for. Annastacia Palaszczuk:

They’re working to access these people. We will update you during the day.

Police have been unable to retrieve the body of the man who died at Kanigan, after being swept away by floodwaters.

The head of Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday said that severe lockdowns are no longer a tool to contain the coronavirus disease (Covid-19). Africa CDC director John Nkengasong told a news conference that he was encouraged by the way South Africa, the first to detect Omicron strain, handled the latest Covid-19 wave driven by the new variant of concern.

"We are very encouraged with what we saw in South Africa in this period," Africa's top public health official said.

"The period where we are using severe lockdowns as a tool is over, we should actually be looking at how we use public health and social measures more carefully and in a balanced way as the vaccination increases," he added.