India allowed the reopening of local stores from Saturday, more than a month after the country went into lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
It said retail shops could operate with 50% of staff and implement social distancing guidelines for customers.
However, large market places and malls will remain shut until May 3.
So far, the country has reported 24,506 cases of the coronavirus and 775 deaths.
Meanwhile, Pakistan has extended the nationwide lockdown till May 9, but switched to a so-called "smart lockdown" from Saturday that'll allow some industrial and commercial activities to begin under safety guidelines.
It'll mainly target tracking and tracing of positive cases, officials explained.
Pakistan has reported 11,940 cases of infections, including 253 deaths.
Israel struck multiple targets linked to the Houthi movement in Yemen on Thursday, including Sanaa International Airport, while the chief of the World Health Organisation (WHO) was boarding a plane.
Described as a "reluctant king" in his first stint as prime minister, the soft-spoken Manmohan Singh, who died on Thursday at the age of 92, was arguably one of India's most successful leaders.
The Azerbaijan Airlines flight that crashed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday was downed by a Russian air defence system, four sources in Azerbaijan with knowledge of the investigation told Reuters.
Survivors and families of victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami 20 years ago visited mass graves, lit candles and comforted one another across Southeast and South Asia in ceremonies on Thursday to mark the disaster that killed some 230,000 people.
Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Thursday that it had foiled several plots by Ukrainian intelligence services to kill high-ranking Russian officers and their families in Moscow using bombs disguised as power banks or document folders.
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