Washington: The phones of 11 US State Department employees were hacked using technology from Israel's NSO Group, the world's most infamous hacker-for-hire company, a person familiar with the matter said Friday.

Colombo: China has suspended a project to install hybrid energy plants in three islands of Sri Lanka, citing "security concern" from a "third party", amid reports of India raising concern over its location.

Islamabad: Pakistan on Friday said the social media accounts of its embassy in Serbia have been "hacked", hours after the official Twitter handle of the mission criticised the Imran Khan government over record-breaking inflation and alleged non-payment of salaries for the past three months.

Washington: Indian-American Gita Gopinath, the chief economist of International Monetary Fund, is being promoted as IMF's First Deputy Managing Director, the fund announced Thursday.

London: The UK's medicines regulator on Thursday approved a new antibody treatment against COVID-19, which it believes will also be effective against new variants such as Omicron.

Berlin: German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday that people who aren't vaccinated will be excluded from nonessential stores, cultural and recreational venues, and parliament will consider a general vaccine mandate, as part of an effort to curb coronavirus infections that again topped 70,000 newly confirmed cases in a 24-hour period.

Washington: A person in California became the first in the U.S. to have an identified case of the COVID-19 omicron variant, U.S. officials said Wednesday as scientists continue to study the risks posed by the new strain of the virus.

Oxford Township (US): A 15-year-old sophomore opened fire at his Michigan high school, killing three students and wounding six other people, including a teacher, authorities said.