World

South Korea reported 657 new coronavirus cases for Saturday, the lowest daily infection total in nearly four weeks, as tougher restrictions during the New Year holiday season helped fight the spread.

A total of 345,000 have died of COVID-19, or one out of every 950 U.S. residents, since the virus first emerged in China late in 2019.

Britain reactivated emergency hospitals built at the start of the pandemic and shut primary schools in London on Friday to counter the rapid spread of a much more infectious variant of the coronavirus.

In April, Trump signed an immigration proclamation targeting people outside of the US seeking to legally migrate to the US, with some exceptions.

Blue and gold fireworks soared into the sky above the Sydney Opera House as they do every New Year's Eve, but the harbour below was a deserted ghost town, a fittingly creepy sendoff for a year that will not be missed.

Only about 2.6 million Americans had received a COVID19 vaccine going into the last day of December, putting the United States far short of the government's target to vaccinate 20 million people this month.

Israel is juggling supplies and pace in its COVID19 vaccination drive in the hope of meeting a lateJanuary goal of full protection for its most vulnerable people, officials said on Thursday.

A province of islands in the southern Philippines will seal itself off for an initial two weeks from Monday to keep out a new COVID19 variant found in nearby Malaysia, its governor said.

Colombia has reached an agreement with Johnson & Johnson's pharmaceutical division Janssen to acquire 9 million doses of coronavirus vaccines, President Ivan Duque said in a televised address on Wednesday.

The United States called on Wednesday for the release of a Uighur Muslim medical doctor who relatives say was sentenced to 20 years jail in China because of family members' human rights activism in the United States.

Ten people were injured, one of them critically, and 21 people remained unaccounted for after a landslide in southern Norway swept away more than a dozen buildings in the early hours of Wednesday, police said.

Ten people were hurt, one of them critically, and 26 people remained unaccounted for after a landslide in southern Norway swept away more than a dozen buildings in the early hours of Wednesday, police said.

The widespread fraud allegedly committed, in this case, was brought to the attention of the Transnational Elder Fraud Strike Force by Microsoft, which often is impersonated by those engaged in technical-support fraud schemes.

China has started the vaccination campaign despite Chinese companies not yet disclosing data from late-stage clinical trials that would show whether their vaccines are effective.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has approved placing more parts of the country into tier 4 restrictions, as the country battles a new variant of COVID19 which scientists say can spread more rapidly, The Times reported.