INDIA

The coronavirus pandemic has forced the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting of world leaders, business executives and other heavyweights to go virtual for the second year in a row.

The Supreme Court blocked vaccine mandates for large businesses. But companies still have some discretion. Here's what they can and can't require.

Tens of thousands of devout Hindus, led by heads of monasteries and ash-smeared ascetics, took a holy dip into the frigid waters of the Ganges River in northern India on Friday despite rising COVID-19 infections in the country. Hindu pilgrims congregated at the Sangam, the confluence of three rivers — the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati — in Prayagraj city, 200 km (124 miles) northeast of Lucknow, the state capital of Uttar Pradesh, to participate in the Magh Mela festival, one of the most sacred pilgrimages in Hinduism. A similar gathering at a Hindu festival last year in the Himalayan town of Haridwar, in neighboring Uttarakhand state, helped spread the delta variant that ravaged the country and made India one of the world’s worst-hit countries.

The Supreme Court delivered a blow to the Biden administration's vaccine rule for employers. The ruling comes as new COVID-19 infections continue to rise across the country. CBS News correspondent Meg Oliver has more on how the recent spike in cases and hospitalizations is driving many hospitals to their breaking points. Then, Dr. Christopher Colbert, an assistant program director of emergency medicine residency at University of Illinois, joins Jamie Yuccas on CBSN to discuss the latest.

But the overall economic impact of the third wave of infections is expected to be less severe and less disruptive compared to the previous two waves.

Technology is being used against the people, and those in the world’s largest democracy are the latest victims.

Anthony Munigety, 48, is one of two men facing federal money laundering and wire fraud...

A 48-year-old Conroe man has been charged with taking over $600,000 from elderly victims throughout the United States and sending it to India, U.S. Attorney Jennifer Lowery announced Tuesday.

Healthcare and front-line workers along with people above age 60 with health problems are lining up at vaccination centers across India to receive booster shots as infections linked to the omicron variant surge

“My name is Kovid and I’m not a virus," Kovid Kapoor has been saying since the coronavirus crisis began.

As daily covid-19 cases rise at an unprecedented pace, Indian officials announced they will proceed with holding elections in five states beginning on Feb. 10, but will enforce a temporary ban on campaign rallies that health experts have warned could spread the coronavirus.

India’s government has allowed Mother Teresa’s charity to receive foreign funds, weeks after blocking it saying the Catholic organization did not meet conditions under local laws, a lawmaker said Saturday. Derek O’Brien, a lawmaker from the opposition Trinamool Congress party, tweeted that Missionaries of Charity was back on the list of approved associations after its license to receive funds from foreign contributions was restored. The move was widely condemned by opposition politicians and rights groups and came in the wake of a string of attacks on Christians in some parts of India by Hindu nationalist groups, which often accuse pastors and churches of forced conversions.

January 6 was a warning: When public authority and private muscle join forces, democracy is in danger.

Experts say the sharing of Covid vaccinations with poorer countries is not just an altruistic act, but a pragmatic one.

Less than one year after India was devastated by the delta variant, coronavirus cases are again showing an alarming spike.

A weekend curfew is imposed and doctors' leave cancelled as the chief minister tests positive.

The lessons of the last election season and its attendant wave of Covid infections seem to have been forgotten.

China is taking a zero-tolerance strategy on the pandemic's potential impact on the Winter Olympics

There were 37,379 new cases reported over a 24-hour period, government data showed Tuesday.

The fast-moving omicron variant is complicating a key question: How does the COVID-19 pandemic end and the world coexist with this virus.

Pandemics do eventually end, even if omicron is complicating the question of when this one will. The ultra-contagious omicron mutant is pushing cases to all-time highs and causing chaos as an exhausted world struggles, again, to stem the spread. Vaccines offer strong protection from serious illness, even if they don't always prevent a mild infection.

South Asian archrivals India and Pakistan have exchanged lists of each other’s citizens held in prison through their respective diplomats in Islamabad and New Delhi

The International Federation of Journalists says that 45 reporters and media workers were killed doing their jobs over the last year

Much of Asia has managed to keep omicron in check even as the variant rages elsewhere, but the region that is home to most of the globe's population is bracing for what may be an inevitable surge.

Omicron caseloads have remained relatively low in many countries in Asia.

Developers, Dr. Peter Hotez and Dr. Maria Elena Bottazzi said the low-cost vaccine would help make vaccinations more accessible to poorer countries.

Asian democracies will be forced to forge new partnerships as U.S.-China tensions simmer. Plus a selection of the columnist’s best work from 2021.

The goal is to make the vaccine available in other underserved nations across the globe to help prevent future variants of concern from forming.

India’s Hindu right wing has accused the Missionaries of Charity, founded by Mother Teresa in an Indian slum, of using aid for the poor to convert desperate Hindus into Christians.

Two children were killed and another three children were hospitalized with injuries when a car plowed into them and fled the scene in South Florida on Monday, authorities said. (Dec. 27)

Hindu hardliners have long accused the Catholic charity of trying to convert people to Christianity.

India’s government has blocked Mother Teresa’s charity from receiving foreign funds, saying the Catholic organization did not meet conditions under local laws, dealing a blow to one of the most prominent groups running shelters for the poor

India's government has blocked Mother Teresa's charity from receiving foreign funds, saying the Catholic organization did not meet conditions under local laws, dealing a blow to one of the most prominent groups running shelters for the poor. The Home Ministry said a statement Monday that the Missionaries of Charity's application for renewing a license that allows it to get funds from abroad was rejected on Christmas. The ministry said it came across “adverse inputs” while considering the charity's renewal application.

The annual tribute to India's oppressed castes remains marred by the violence that broke out four years ago.

Ajaz Patel’s historic feat of taking 10 wickets in a test innings was not enough to secure his place in New Zealand’s squad for a home series against Bangladesh. Offspinner Patel became only the third player in test history — after England’s Jim Laker and India’s Anil Kumble — to take all 10 wickets in an innings when he claimed 10-119 in the second test against India earlier this month. The squad includes fast bowlers Trent Boult, Tim Southee, Kyle Jamieson, Neil Wagner and Matt Henry along with medium pace allrounder Daryl Mitchell and only one spin option, allrounder Rachin Ravindra.

Pakistan’s military has tested a home-grown Babur cruise missile that has a range of more than 900 kilometers (560 miles), twice the distance of an earlier missile of the same model

Rapid ice melt from the Himalayan glaciers threatens agriculture and water supply for millions of people in South Asia.

From India to Israel to white-tailed deer in Iowa harboring the coronavirus, our top COVID stories of the year reveal the ever-changing nature of the world's health crisis.

“There is a saying that when rape is inevitable, lie down and enjoy it,” lawmaker K.R. Ramesh Kumar said.

In Germany, a train passes a railroad crossing surrounded by floodwaters.

In the hands of law enforcement and intelligence agencies, spyware can track criminals and terrorists. In the hands of repressive governments, it can be a tool of intimidation and retribution against activists, journalists and business executives. A particularly sophisticated version produced by Israeli software maker NSO Group Ltd., which can surreptitiously bug a target phone without any misstep by its owner, has sharpened concerns over who’s spying on whom, and for what purpose. It’s one fron

Bangladesh has marked 50 years of victory over Pakistan in a bloody war for independence by hosting a military parade with the Indian president as a guest of honor

A United Nations report says the prolonged pandemic and surging prices are undermining food security for millions of people in Asia.

Russia has vetoed a first-of-its-kind U.N. Security Council resolution casting climate change as a threat to international peace and security.

A billion-dollar effort to turn these unassuming shops into mini-tech hubs is only just beginning.

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday took a dip in the sacred Ganges River before a crowd of thousands, as he opened part of a large-scale development project in the holy city of Varanasi, where his ruling party is looking to garner support ahead of key state elections. The highlight of the opening ceremony was a $45 million corridor meant to facilitate pilgrims' visits to some of India's holiest sites. Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been keen to consolidate its support ahead of next year's polls in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, where Varanasi is located. Modi's far-right party currently holds power in the state — India’s largest with 230 million people — but is under immense pressure over its response to the pandemic and the struggling economy.

Harnaaz Sandhu of India was crowned the 70th Miss Universe, topping a field of some 80 contestants in a pageant that was touched by politics and the pandemic.

Many Miss Universe fans were left bewildered when Miss India Harnaaz Sandhu had to meow onstage in front of millions of viewers.

Traditional financial organizations are falling down on the job while fintech is efficient but hemmed in by old rules.

Liberty County, Ga., is one of those places where startling numbers of people have quit their jobs this year. The result is a place where people are thinking about work in new, sometimes revelatory, ways — but also feeling the pain of reduced services, pinched bottom lines and a diminished sense of community.

The ritualistic smoking of marijuana brings Rastafari closer to the divine.

The farmers, while exultant, said they would wait until this weekend to hold a celebration and then head home.

Shah Rukh Khan represents an ideal of personal freedom that hasn’t advanced for women despite economic growth, and is even worse since the pandemic.

Shah Rukh Khan represents an ideal of personal freedom that hasn’t advanced for women despite economic growth, and is even worse since the pandemic.

The vaccine would only be used in India at first before researchers look to get approval for other countries with low vaccination rates. They hope that means fewer variants in the future.

Germany’s incoming chancellor Olaf Scholz acknowledges the challenge of handling the coronavirus pandemic, with the new Omicron variant taking hold over the world, as he signs the coalition deal that paved the way for him to form a government.

Like any major economic event, getting to net-zero emissions will bring investment opportunities. But as is often the case, initial enthusiasm may soon give way to disappointment.

With high unemployment and a record contraction in the economy during the pandemic, many families in India can scarcely afford three meals a day.

Russia and India ties are facing challenges from fast-changing geopolitics in Asia and beyond.

They both carved out sterling reputations as military and political leaders over years of public service.

Arbaz Mullah was a Muslim man in love with a Hindu woman.

The Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine maker, has resumed exports of coronavirus vaccines to the U.N.-backed COVAX distribution program after halting most overseas sales in March.

President Joe Biden is ordering a record 50 million barrels of oil released from America's strategic reserve to help bring down energy costs.

After slow starts, vaccination campaigns in several countries in the Asia-Pacific region now boast inoculation rates that rank among the world’s best.

India has began allowing fully vaccinated foreign tourists to enter the country on regular flights, in the latest easing of coronavirus restrictions as infections fall and vaccinations rise.

In the run-up to the U.N. climate talks in Glasgow, host Britain announced one of its goals of the conference was to consign coal to history.

Officials say a fire in a newborn care unit in a hospital in central India has killed four infants.

The global death toll from COVID-19 has topped 5 million, nearly two years into a crisis that has not only devastated poor countries but also humbled wealthy ones with first-rate health care systems.

India and the U.K. will launch a project that aims to create a solar grid connecting countries in different parts of the world at the upcoming U.N. climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland.

Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan’s son has walked out of jail and was greeted with dancing and firecrackers, over three weeks after his arrest during a drug raid on a cruise ship party in Mumbai.

Nepalese authorities are searching for dozens of people missing in this week's heavy rains, floods and landslides, as survivors complain they are yet to receive any government help.

Floods and landslides triggered by days of torrential rains have killed at least 99 people in Nepal since Monday.

Celebrities have joined Prince William in London for the inaugural awards ceremony of his Earthshot Prize.

At least eight people have died and a dozen are feared missing following a day of torrential rains in the southern Indian state of Kerala.

India is reopening its borders to fully vaccinated foreign tourists traveling on chartered flights starting Friday.

The number of people killed by tuberculosis has risen for the first time in more than a decade, largely because fewer people have got tested and treated as resources have been diverted to fight the coronavirus pandemic, the World Health Organization said Thursday.

An energy crisis is looming over India as coal stockpiles grow perilously low, adding to challenges for a recovery in Asia's third largest economy from the pandemic.

India, the world’s largest vaccine producer, will resume exports and donations of surplus coronavirus vaccines in October after halting them during a devastating surge in domestic infections in April.

Officials say infections following monsoon rains have led to a fever outbreak in India’s northern Uttar Pradesh state, killing at least 114 people in the past three weeks.

Ford is ending auto production in India after logging accumulated operating losses of more than $2 billion over the past 10 years.

More students in India will be able to step inside a classroom for the first time in nearly 18 months, as authorities have given the green light to partially reopen more schools despite apprehension from some parents and signs that infections are picking up again.

India’s economy grew by 20.1% in the April-June quarter from the same period a year earlier, when it suffered a record contraction, raising hopes of an economic recovery.

A lockdown in Australia’s largest city was extended through September and tougher measures to curb the coronavirus’s delta variant were imposed Friday, including a curfew and a mask mandate outdoors.

Every two years, when an Olympics convenes, its organizers harness billions of dollars to make sure the entire affair is tightly, carefully scripted.

Grace Balsdon's vicious long distance, ankle-height shot put Team GB on top for good early in the fourth quarter.

Vaccine maker Novavax is asking regulators in India, Indonesia and the Philippines to allow emergency use of its COVID-19 shot.

It’s been a while since India, the missing tiger that captured Houstonians’ attention in May, made new headlines.

A 41-year wait is over for India, who claimed its 12th Olympic medal in men's field hockey with a 5-4 win over Germany in Japan on Wednesday.

Australia’s most populous state is reporting the worst day of its outbreak of the coronavirus delta variant, with a record 262 new local infections and five deaths from COVID-19.

Neeraj Chopra is attempting to become India's first Olympic track and field medalist since the 1900 Paris Games.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is condemning an incident in which a swastika was carved into an elevator wall at the State Department.

The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan has fully vaccinated 90% of its eligible adult population in one week, exceeding the rates in countries with far greater resources.

Blake Govers scored twice as Australia scored at least five goals for the third-straight match, sending their South American opponents to a first Group B loss.

India’s government has dismissed a recent study which estimated that the country’s excess deaths during the pandemic could be 10 times the official COVID-19 toll, calling it “misleading” and “fallacious.”.

At least 20 people have been killed in landslides triggered by heavy monsoon rains in the Indian city of Mumbai.

U.S. President Joe Biden, China's Xi Jinping, Japan's Yoshihide Suga and Vladimir Putin of Russia are among Pacific Rim leaders gathering virtually to discuss strategies to help economies rebound from a resurgent COVID-19 pandemic.

The coronavirus has taken a heavy toll among Roman Catholic priests and nuns around the world, killing hundreds of them in a handful of the hardest-hit countries alone.

COVID-19 deaths and cases are on the rise again globally in a dispiriting setback that is triggering another round of restrictions and dampening hopes for a return to normal life.

New COVID-19 cases per day in the U.S. have doubled over the past three weeks, driven by the fast-spreading delta variant, lagging vaccination rates and Fourth of July gatherings.

The White House says President Joe Biden is nominating Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti to serve as ambassador to India, selecting a high-profile ally to serve in one of the most difficult diplomatic posts.