Covid Latest News LIVE: Active Covid 19 cases increase to 16,279; 32 deaths

- Intent to incite, over her party's letter sent to international organisations while she was in detention, asking them not to recognise the military government (Penal Code, Article 505). Sentenced to two years in prison, Dec. 6, 2021.- Breaches of COVID-19 rules during election campaigning (Natural Disaster Management Law, Article 25). Sentenced to two years in prison, Dec. 6, 2021 and on Jan. 10, 2022.- Possession of unlicensed walkie-talkies and signal jammers (Export and Import Law, Article 8). Two cases, maximum 3 years in prison. (Telecommunications Law, Article 67). Sentenced Jan. 10 to two years and one year in jail, respectively, on the charges. Sentences are to be served concurrently.- Obtaining, collecting, recording, or publishing or communicating secret information that could be useful to an enemy (Official Secrets Act). One case, maximum 14 years in prison.- Influencing the Election Commission (Penal Code article 130-A). One case, maximum three years in prison.- Violations of the anti-corruption law (Sections 55, 63). 11 cases, maximum 15 years in prison for each.Allegations include:* Misusing funds from the Daw Khin Kyi Foundation that Suu Kyi chaired, to build a home.* Leasing government-owned land at a discounted rate.* Accepting bribes totalling $600,000 and 11.4 kg of gold bars. Sentenced to five years in prison on April 27.* Misuse of state funds for lease of a helicopter.

Efforts are on to douse a fire at the Bhalswa landfill site in north Delhi which has been raging for over 15 hours, officials said on Wednesday. According to them, five fire tenders are working at the site. The fire broke out at the landfill site on Tuesday. The fire department received information about the blaze around 5.47 pm following which 10 fire tenders were rushed to the spot.

The rupee depreciated 16 paise to 76.72 against the US dollar in opening trade on Wednesday, weighed down by the strength of the greenback and unabated foreign fund outflows. At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 76.69 against the American dollar, then lost ground to quote at 76.72, registering a fall of 16 paise from the last close. On Tuesday, the rupee settled at 76.56 against the dollar.

The Chinese mainland reported 1,818 new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases and 48 deaths in the past 24 hours, said the National Health Commission on Wednesday. Of the new local cases, 1,606 were reported in Shanghai, while the rest of the cases were reported in 16 other provincial-level regions on the mainland, including 56 in Jiangxi, 51 in Jilin, and 31 in Beijing, Xinhua reported citing the commission. The country also reported 12,404 locally transmitted asymptomatic infections of the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours, of which 11,956 local asymptomatic carriers were identified in Shanghai.

India recorded 2,927 fresh infections in a day which pushed the case tally to 4,30,65,496 while the active caseload increased to 16,279, according to Union Health Ministry data on Wednesday. The death toll has climbed to 5,23,654 with 32 more fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated. While active cases increased by 643 in a day and comprised 0.04 per cent of the total infections, the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.75 per cent, the ministry said. The daily positivity rate was recorded at 0.58 per cent and the weekly positivity rate was 0.59 per cent, the government said.

President Joe Biden will address the funeral of former secretary of state Madeleine Albright on Wednesday at a cathedral service featuring hundreds from the Washington political and diplomatic elite. Albright, the first woman to head the State Department, and one of the major figures of late 20th century US diplomacy, died last month, aged 84.

A group of eminent Indian-Americans expressed disappointment over the latest annual report of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom and alleged that it is biased against India. The report recommended to the Biden Administration to designate India, China, Pakistan, Afghanistan and 11 other nations as "country of particular concern" in the context of status of religious freedom. The recommendations are not binding on the US government.

The surge in oil prices due to the Ukrainian war has pushed up inflation in India, which needs monetary tightening and measures to address structural weaknesses to improve growth potential, said a senior IMF official. According to estimates, the country's economy is likely to grow at 8.2 per cent in 2022-23, down 0.8 per percentage points, said Anne-Marie Gulde-Wolf, Acting Director of the IMF's Asia and Pacific Department.

The Mexican government said Tuesday that COVID-19 has passed from a pandemic to an endemic stage in Mexico, meaning authorities will treat it as a seasonally recurring disease. Mexico never enforced face mask requirements, and the few partial shutdowns of businesses and activities were lifted weeks ago. “It is now retreating almost completely,” said President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Officials in Poland and Bulgaria said Tuesday that Russia is suspending their countries' natural gas deliveries after they refused to pay for their supplies in Russian rubles. The governments of the two European Union and NATO members said Russian energy giant Gazprom informed them it was halting the gas supplies starting Wednesday.

Thirty-six years after the world's worst nuclear disaster, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said Tuesday that Russian troops risked causing an accident with their “very, very dangerous” seizure of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine. Standing under an umbrella during a rain shower outside the damaged plant, agency Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi said that while radiation levels are normal, the situation is still “not stable.” Nuclear authorities have to “keep on alert." Russian troops moved into the radiation-contaminated Chernobyl exclusion zone in February on their way toward the Ukrainian capital. They withdrew late last month as Russia pulled its forces from areas near Kyiv and switched its focus to fighting in eastern Ukraine. The site has been back in Ukrainian hands since then and disrupted communications have been restored.

Syrian air defenses were active early Wednesday as Israel carried out attacks near the capital, Damascus, state media reported. There was no immediate word on casualties. State media said the attacks occurred shortly after midnight without saying whether they were Israeli air raids or surface-to-surface missiles. The attacks came hours after the Israeli military said an Israeli drone crashed on the Syrian side of the border Tuesday, adding that an investigation was opened into the case.