After a long hiatus of more than 20 months, the government had on November 26 announced the resumption of scheduled international commercial flights from December 15.

The Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) in a statement urged world leaders not to implement 'knee-jerk' policy decisions in response to the detection of the Omicron variant.

America's top infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci has said that the new COVID-19 Omicron variant is in 'fluid motion' in South Africa and the US scientists are in 'very active' communication with their colleagues in that country to test the strain, get facts and find out whether or not it evades the antibodies.

The UK on Saturday detected two cases of the new COVID-19 variant, Omicron, according to health secretary Sajid Javid as he added four more African countries to Britain's travel red list.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on Saturday briefed about the new 'Omicron' variant of the coronavirus, and he asked officials to review the plans to ease international travel restrictions in light of the 'emerging new evidence.'

Amid fears of the spread of new Covid strain 'Omicron' looming large, two South African nationals have tested positive for the coronavirus, and their samples have been sent for further tests to ascertain about the variant, a top official said on Saturday.

Sri Lanka will ban entry to most travellers from six southern African countries from Sunday, after a potentially more contagious new coronavirus variant called Omicron was identified in South Africa earlier this week, healthcare authorities said in Colombo on Saturday.

The move came soon after Belgium confirmed a case of the B.1.1.529 variant in someone who had travelled back from Egypt earlier this month, with the European Union (EU) member states agreeing to a snap travel ban on seven African nations.

Analysts suggest investors remain in a wait-and-watch mode and not jump in to buy stocks across-the-board.

The Centre had on Thursday asked all states and union territories to conduct rigorous screening and testing of all international travellers coming from or transiting through South Africa, Hong Kong and Botswana, where the B.1.1.529 variant has been detected.

The WHO has countries to enhance surveillance and sequencing efforts to better understand circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants, submit complete genome sequences and associated metadata to a publicly available database.

Ministry of health and family welfare adds Hong Kong and Israel to the list of countries from where travellers would need to follow additional measures on arrival in India, including post-arrival testing considering the detection of new COVID variant 'Omicron' in South Africa.

The UK's health authorities have confirmed that a new and "most significant" variant of COVID-19 is officially under investigation in the country as the government on Friday added six countries to its travel ban red list from southern Africa, where B.1.1.529 strain was first identified.

The Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium is closely tracking the new variant of COVID-19 called B.1.1.529 and its presence has not been detected in the country yet, officials said on Friday.

The Delhi government has called a meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority to discuss steps that need to be taken in view of threat of a new Covid-19 variant from African countries, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Friday.

The latest variant is the most heavily mutated version discovered so far.

Travellers from these 99 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Australia, the Netherlands and Russia, which have been listed under 'Category A', have to submit a self-declaration form on the Air Suvidha portal (newdelhiairport.in) before the scheduled travel, apart from uploading a negative COVID-19 RT-PCR report, according to the revised Guidelines for International Arrivals released by the Union health ministry on November 11.

These seven countries are South Africa, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand and Zimbabwe.

Olympic champions Elaine Thompson-Herah, Selemon Barega, Armand Duplantis, Steven Gardiner, Emmanuel Korir, Hansle Parchment and Karsten Warholm were all beaten.

The medal tally at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

A summary of Saturday's Track and Field action at the Tokyo Olympics.

Mary Kom (51kg) will open her campaign against Dominica's Miguelina Hernandez on July 25; Panghal gets bye into pre-quarters.

While the Indian government has been procuring Covid-19 vaccines at low prices so far, manufacturers have to declare the prices of vaccines they would supply to the open market (industries, private hospitals, etc) and state governments before May 1. Sohini Das reports.

The Hyderabad-based manufacturer uses a proprietary adjuvant Algel-IMDG, which has now proven to be a safe and effective adjuvant, especially to stimulate memory T cell responses.

The qualification for the 2022 edition of the age-group tournament had been delayed by a year due to COVID-19 pandemic. The remaining five spots will be determined by regional qualification.

The world feels like complete panda-monium right now. But thanks to the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards, we can all take a brief break from the news cycle and focus on otter things -- like pictures of animals being complete goofballs. The animals were pictured by photographers competing in the sixth annual Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards, which saw thousands of pictures entered, taken around the world. As well as providing a smile, the competition works alongside the Born Free Foundation to highlight a more serious matter -- the importance of conserving our planet's beautiful wildlife. We share a selection of the best finalists' photos...

The ICC has postponed September's Men's Cricket World Cup League 2 series to be hosted in Namibia and the U19 Cricket World Cup Regional Qualifier Division 2 due to take place in August in Tanzania.

News of all that transpired on and off the football field.

Behold the breathtaking winning and shortlisted images from one of the world's most prestigious photography contests. The amazing shots are from the open competition of the Sony World Photography Awards 2020, which received 193,000 entries from photographers in over 200 territories. Scroll down and feast your eyes on our pick of the shortlisted and category-winning entries.

Harry, 35, was said to be desperate to be reunited with Archie, whom he had not seen for two weeks, and his 38-year-old American actress wife in Canada that the young family plans to make their home.

His remarks come a day after Buckingham Palace announced Harry and Meghan, who had announced their decision to step back from their royal duties, will not use the "royal highness" titles as well as would no longer receive public funds for royal duties.

Aayushi Dholakia from India was crowned Miss Teen International 2019.

Lionel Messi returned from international suspension to score the winner in Argentina's 1-0 victory over Brazil in Saudi Arabia on Friday.

News of all that transpired on and off the football field.

Australia's skipper Meg Lanning bagged the 'Leadership Legend' award. She led her side successfully in all formats of the game.

American Noah Lyles shot to 200 meters world championships gold on Tuesday, providing a bright finish to a day darkened by yet another doping scandal.

From Hurricane Dorian to Hong Kong protests to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's mega event in Houston, Texas, United States -- these are the big moments that shaped the month of September.

French photographer Laurent Baheux has come out with a new book, titled 'Lions', dedicated to the "King of the Animals". He has journeyed across Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana to capture the wild lion living freely in its natural habitat for the last 20 years. With kind permission from his publisher teNeues, here are some of the breathtaking images from the book.

There's only one thing better than photos of animals, and that's funny photos of animals. The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards is back and they have announced its finalists. In addition to providing some light-hearted relief, the competition also aims to highlight the important message of wildlife conservation. From shopping responsibly by avoiding plastics and palm oil to restricting water use at home, this year's contest is aimed at making people think about the animals on the planet - as well as laughing at them. The winners will be announced on November 13.

News of all that's transpired on and off the football field