World news in brief

* The failure of this week’s US-China meeting to build strategic trust has heightened the need for Beijing and Washington to improve crisis management regime, a senior Chinese military scholar and adviser told a Beijing forum on Saturday.

* An earthquake struck northeastern Japan on Saturday, hitting areas devastated by the 2011 disaster, generating a tsunami of 1 metre and shaking buildings. The quake, with a magnitude of 7.2, hit the coast of Miyagi Prefecture at 6:26 p.m. (0926 GMT) at a depth of 60 km (40 miles), the Japan Meteorological Agency said. All tsunami alerts were lifted about an hour later, broadcaster NHK said after warning the public not to go near the shore.

* India’s financial capital Mumbai is facing a second wave of COVID-19 that could overwhelm its health facilities after a record daily increase in cases in its home state Maharashtra.

* The Philippines recorded a record daily increase in COVID-19 infections, as authorities tightened curbs in the capital and approved Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine for emergency use.

* Coronavirus-related deaths in the European region surpassed 1 million as vaccination efforts attempt to keep up with new variants causing a third wave of infections that could once again overwhelm hospitals.

* The world’s seven largest advanced economies moved to boost the International Monetary Fund reserves for the first time since 2009, a step aimed at helping developing countries cope with the pandemic, Britain said.

* Europe’s airlines and travel sector are bracing for a second lost summer, with rebound hopes increasingly challenged by a hobbled COVID-19 vaccine rollout, resurgent infections and new lockdowns.

* Russia on Saturday reported 9,632 new COVID-19 cases, including 1,728 in Moscow, pushing the national tally of cases to 4,447,570 since the pandemic began. The government coronavirus taskforce said that 392 people had died in the last 24 hours, taking the overall death toll to 94,569.

* The US government updated its COVID-19 mitigation guidance to narrow the acceptable distance between students who are wearing masks to at least three feet from at least six feet, potentially easing the path for schools that have struggled to reopen under previous recommendations.

* Germany will supply general practitioners with vaccines and deliver additional doses to regions on the Czech and French borders as it seeks to get its campaign back on track.

* British Prime Minister Boris Johnson received his first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine and urged the public to do the same, saying “he did not feel a thing.”

* Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said he would personally take the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.

* Belgium tightened measures to control the spread of the coronavirus to preserve plans to open up the economy in May.

* Greece will lift some COVID-19 restrictions next week as part of a plan to gradually reopen the economy and relieve national fatigue even as its hospitals remain under severe pressure from stubbornly high infections.

* Palestinians took another step in preparations for their first parliamentary election in 15 years on Saturday, opening registration offices to admit the political parties and independent candidates that will take part. The May 22 election in the West Bank and Gaza is part of a broader push for reconciliation between President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah faction and rival Islamist group Hamas. This is seen as vital to building broader support for any future statehood talks with Israel, frozen since 2014.

* Russia has postponed the launch of its Soyuz-2.1a rocket to Sunday, state news agency RIA quoted Roscosmos space agency Director General Dmitry Rogozin as saying on Saturday. Rogozin said the decision to postpone from Saturday was made after a voltage spike ahead of the planned launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, RIA reported.

* Australia’s east coast was smashed by heavy rains on Saturday, sparking dangerous flash flooding that forced the evacuation of multiple regions as the fast-moving waters unmoored houses, engulfed roads, stranded towns and cut power lines.

* Papua New Guinea reported rising coronavirus infections on Saturday, continuing a surge that highlights the need for tougher social distancing restrictions taking effect on Monday.

* Cameroon approved Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine for use, and suspended use of AstraZeneca’s shot which it was scheduled to receive on March 20 under the COVAX vaccine-sharing scheme.

* The Philippines will expand tighter COVID-19 rules to include four provinces surrounding the capital Manila, and restrict travel to and from these areas for two weeks beginning on Monday, as the country battles a renewed surge in infections.

* Russia’s ambassador to the United States arrived in Moscow on Sunday for discussions on how to address sliding US-Russia relations after US President Joe Biden said he thought Vladimir Putin was a killer, the TASS news agency reported.

* Russia’s ambassador to Britain has accused the UK government of breaking its international treaty commitments with a plan to increase the country’s nuclear arsenal and said the political relationship between Moscow and London is “nearly dead”.

* United States Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in an unnanounced visit to Kabul on Sunday, as Washington reviews the peace process there and its planned troop withdrawal.

* Britain administered 873,784 COVID-19 vaccines on Saturday, a second daily record in as many days, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Sunday.

* Russia on Sunday reported 9,299 new COVID-19 cases, including 1,511 in Moscow, pushing the national tally of cases to 4,456,869 since the pandemic began. The government coronavirus taskforce said that 371 people had died in the last 24 hours, taking the overall death toll to 95,030.

* Germany is considering making all people returning from abroad face quarantine and compulsory COVID-19 tests after infection rates jumped above the level at which authorities say hospitals will be overstretched.

* A group of Swiss business leaders and lawmakers have demanded the government speed up vaccinations and develop a plan for its nationwide testing drive to tackle the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the country.

* Northern Ireland is in a difficult situation as it deals with the consequences of Brexit, and Britain and the European Union need to reduce tensions and find solutions as equal partners, EU Commissioner Mairead McGuinness said on Sunday.

* The United Arab Emirates urged all citizens and residents aged 16 and above to register for COVID-19 vaccinations from Sunday as the Gulf state widens its immunisation drive after inoculating about 56% of the eligible population.

* The number of coronavirus patients in Bulgarian hospitals has risen to 8,545, the highest level since the start of the pandemic last March, official health data showed on Sunday.

* South Africa has concluded the sale of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines it had acquired but did not use to other African Union member states, the health ministry said on Sunday.

* Philippine troops have killed a leader of the Abu Sayyaf kidnap-for-ransom group and rescued four Indonesian hostages held since last year, the military said on Sunday.

* Seven civilians were killed and at least 14 medics were injured when artillery shelling from a Syrian army outpost hit a hospital in a rebel-held town in northwestern Syria on Sunday, medics and rescuers said.

* The federal cabinet of the United Arab Emirates approved a new system allowing professionals to reside in the Gulf state while working remotely for employers abroad, a scheme that the emirate of Dubai launched by itself in October.

* Prospects for a recovery from the COVID-induced economic slowdown are uncertain and uneven, with some emerging economies and almost all low-income countries at risk of lower growth, the IMF’s managing director said.

* China on Tuesday announced an extension of the tax-relief policies launched last year in response to the COVID-19 epidemic.

* The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)’s daily basket price stood at US$63.22 a barrel on Monday, compared with that of US$62.47 per barrel on Friday, according to OPEC Secretariat calculations released Tuesday.

* Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Tuesday held talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and the two sides reached strategic consensus.

* Russian developers of the Sputnik V vaccine said they have applied for domestic approval of a single-dose “light” version, and that trials of it in Russia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE)and Ghana have already begun.

* India’s federal government on Tuesday issued a new set of guidelines to contain the rising cases of COVID-19 in the country. According to the latest figures, 40,715 new cases and 199 more deaths were recorded on Tuesday. The number of daily cases had come down to around 9,000 by the end of January, but the past week has witnessed a sharp spike in new infections.

* Cambodia on Tuesday reported 35 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total number of infections to 1,788, said a Ministry of Health (MoH) statement.

* Thailand decided on Tuesday to extend the program of “We Travel Together” and approved a parallel tourism campaign in its latest efforts to support the pandemic-hit tourism sector.

* AstraZeneca will release the most up-to-date results from its latest COVID-19 vaccine trial within 48 hours after US health officials publicly criticised the drugmaker for using outdated information in a press release earlier this week.

* The European Union health commissioner urged other countries manufacturing vaccines to contribute to global supply and facilitate the good functioning of supply chains.

* Germany is extending its lockdown until April 18 and calling on citizens to stay at home over the Easter holidays to try to break a third wave of the pandemic, Chancellor Angela Merkel said, as the country races to vaccinate its population.

* The French hospital system could face an “unprecedented violent shock” in about three weeks if the country fails to curb its vertiginous rise in cases, the president of the French hospital federation said.

* The Chilean government announced on Monday that more than 13 million people will go into quarantine starting on Thursday amid surging COVID-19 cases nationwide.

* A COVID-19 vaccine candidate being developed by a unit of China’s Livzon Pharmaceutical Group Inc has gained clinical trial approval from the Chinese regulator, Joincare Pharmaceutical Group Industry said.

* More producers of COVID-19 vaccines should follow AstraZeneca’s lead and license technology to other manufacturers, the World Health Organization’s head said, as he described continuing vaccine inequity as “grotesque”.

* New late-stage trial data show Regeneron and Roche’s antibody cocktail against COVID-19 cut hospitalisation or death by 70% versus a placebo in non-hospitalised patients, the Swiss drugmaker said.

* Sweden, which has shunned lockdowns throughout the pandemic, has registered 14,063 new coronavirus cases since Friday, health agency statistics showed on Tuesday. The figure compared with 12,762 cases during the corresponding period last week.

* The UAE said unvaccinated private sector workers in five industries must get a PCR test every two weeks, in a bid to encourage vaccine uptake.

* A volcano erupted near Iceland’s capital Reykjavik on Friday, shooting lava high into the night sky after thousands of small earthquakes in recent weeks. The eruption occurred near Fagradalsfjall, a mountain on the Reykjanes Peninsula, around 30 km (19 miles) southwest of the capital.

* Ten people, including one police officer, were killed in a mass shooting at a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado, the United States, police said on Monday.

* Three crew members of Russia’s Tu-22M3 long-range bomber died at an airfield in central Russia on Tuesday due to the malfunction of the plane’s ejection seats, the Russian defense ministry said.

* Uruguay confirmed that it had detected the presence of two coronavirus variants that originated in neighbouring Brazil as the tiny South American nation faces a spike in cases and deaths.

* India has detected a new “double mutant variant” of the novel coronavirus, the health ministry said, adding to concern as the government struggles with the highest single-day tally of new infections and deaths this year.

* With homegrown COVID-19 vaccines, Cuba expects to immunize over 50 percent of its population by August, a senior official said Tuesday.

* Cambodia on Wednesday required people in capital Phnom Penh and four other provinces to wear face masks in public to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The country has launched an anti-COVID-19 vaccination drive with China’s Sinopharm vaccine since Feb. 10 and with Indian-made AstraZeneca vaccine since March 4.

* The Bank of Thailand (BOT), the country’s central bank, on Wednesday held its policy rate unchanged at a record low level and slightly lowered its growth forecast for 2021 as new COVID-19 outbreak weighs on the economy.

* Russian-US consultations on space security issues were held via video link on Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. The participants exchanged views on a wide range of problems related to ensuring the safety of outer space activities, the ministry said in a brief statement.

* Chinese and US provincial and state officials and entrepreneurs gathered online on Tuesday to explore agricultural trade and cooperation opportunities between the two sides.

* Senior US administration officials said on Tuesday that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) tested a short-range system over the weekend while downplaying the test as normal military activity.

* European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders is in touch with six European Union (EU) member states that have implemented travel bans to find an alternative as soon as possible, said a spokesperson on Tuesday.

* French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday stressed the importance of vaccination as the country’s COVID-19 cases kept rising. The president said vaccination would be rolled out during public holidays and weekends.

* German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called an unexpected meeting with leaders of the federal states to discuss the coronavirus pandemic after they agreed early on Tuesday to extend a lockdown.

* The European Union (EU) member states’ fisheries ministers agreed Tuesday on a four-month extension to the fishing quotas shared with the United Kingdom (UK) while negotiations continue with a view to reaching a definitive agreement with London.

* Poland will likely have to toughen restrictions again after reporting what early figures suggest will be a record number of new infections.

* Children in Britain will start receiving a COVID-19 vaccine as early as August under provisional government plans to push for maximum national immunity from the coronavirus.

* Spain’s coronavirus infection rate edged up, highlighting concern that a long decline is in danger of reversing.

* The Brazilian pharmaceutical company that plans to produce Russia’s coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V said it expected to overcome regulatory obstacles in “two or three” days to obtain authorisation to make and sell the shot in Brazil.

* Colombia will impose new restrictions on movement and enact nightly curfews in municipalities with high occupancy levels in intensive care units as it tries to avoid a severe third wave of COVID-19.

* Euro zone economic activity made a surprise return to growth this month as factories ramped up production to its fastest pace in over 23 years, offsetting a continuing slowdown in the bloc’s dominant services industry.

* Uzbekistan will start the first stage of mass vaccination of its citizens against coronavirus beginning on April 1, a senior health official said Wednesday.

* Republic of Korea’s childbirth kept falling in January, fueling worry about the demographic cliff, statistical office data showed Wednesday. The number of newborn babies was 25,003 in January, down 6.3 percent from a year earlier, according to Statistics Korea. It was the lowest January figure since data began to be compiled in 1981.

* The first 165,000 of up to 7 million COVID-19 vaccine doses that MTN Group is donating to African countries have arrived in Ghana.

* A large plant being used to manufacture Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine was cleared by US regulators, setting the stage for the weekly US supply to surge more then 20%.

* Uzbekistan will launch its vaccination campaign with the AstraZeneca vaccine from April 1.

* China’s CanSino Biologics Inc has proposed providing “tens of million of doses” of its single-dose COVID-19 vaccine to global vaccine sharing scheme COVAX, Reuters quoted a senior executive of the company as saying.

* The Pakistani and Indian military officers held a meeting Friday along the Line of Control (LoC) in the disputed Kashmir region weeks after both countries announced ceasefire along the LoC, the Pakistani army said.

* Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) won last week’s parliamentary elections in the Netherlands, according to official results published by the Dutch Electoral Council on Friday.

* As part of efforts to highlight “National Day of Action and Healing” on Friday, 26 US governors released a joint statement condemning violence against Asian Americans which has been on the rise since the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic a year ago.

* Three nuclear-powered missile submarines broke thick ice and surfaced in the Arctic Ocean simultaneously for the first time in the history of the Russian Navy, Navy Commander-in-Chief Nikolai Yevmenov said Friday.

* Spain’s gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 10.8 percent in 2020, the worst since 1970, according to data published by the Spanish Statistical Office (INE) on Friday.

* The European Union (EU) launched a EUR5.1-billion (US$6.01-billion) program on Friday to improve the health situation in the bloc. The EU4Health program aimed at helping EU member states to “strengthen the resilience of their health systems and promote innovation in the health sector” with a vision of a “European Health Union,” the European Commission said in a press release.

* The Chinese and Iranian foreign ministers on Saturday signed a 25-year cooperation agreement between the two allies in a ceremony carried live on state television.

* Britain is close to striking a vaccine deal with the European Union as soon as this weekend that will remove the threat of the bloc cutting off supplies, The Times reported on Saturday. Under the agreement the EU will remove its threat to ban the export of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines to Britain, it added.

* Brazil on Friday again broke its record of single-day COVID-19 deaths, after 3,650 people died of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health said. It was the second time Brazil exceeded 3,000 COVID-19 deaths in one day, after registering 3,251 deaths on Tuesday.

* India’s COVID-19 tally reached 11,908,910 on Saturday as 62,258 new cases were reported from across the country, according to the latest figures released by the federal health ministry. Besides, 291 deaths since Friday morning took the death toll to 161,240. Both the number of new cases and deaths recorded in past 24 hours is the highest this year so far.

* Russia has registered 8,885 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, bringing the national tally to 4,510,744, the country’s COVID-19 response center said Saturday. Meanwhile, as Russia reported 387 more deaths and 10,337 new recoveries, the respective total stood at 97,404 and 4,130,498, the center said.

* The Philippines’ Department of Health (DOH) reported on Saturday 9,595 new COVID-19 infections, raising the nationwide count in the Southeast Asian country to 712,442. The active cases in the country increased to 118,122 and the death toll to 13,159 after 10 more patients died from the viral disease, the DOH said.

* Thailand on Saturday confirmed 80 new cases of coronavirus infection, mostly in Bangkok, and one more death, according to a report of the Center for the COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA). Thailand has so far confirmed a total of 28,657 cases of infection, of which 27,136 patients have fully recovered and been released from hospitals while 1,428 others are currently hospitalized.

* The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has condemned US President Joe Biden for “provocation” after he criticized its recent missile launches, saying the military tests were an exercise of its self-defense right, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Saturday.

* Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Ishtaye on Friday welcomed the resumption of US financial aid to the Palestinian Authority, describing the move as “an important step in the right direction.”

* Australia’s Treasurer has declared that the government will continue to support jobs when the coronavirus wage subsidy scheme ends. The JobKeeper scheme, which was introduced in March 2020 to stimulate the economy amid widespread coronavirus restrictions, will end on Sunday.

* A giant container ship grounded in the Suez Canal could be freed by the start of next week if heavier tugboats, dredging and a high tide succeed in dislodging it, a Dutch firm working to free the vessel said.

* Australia’s state of Queensland urged the federal government to halve international arrivals to the state as locally acquired coronavirus cases in its capital city of Brisbane continued to grow.

* Republic of Korea reported 505 more cases of COVID-19 as of midnight Friday compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 101,275. The daily caseload was up from 494 in the previous day, rising above 500 in 36 days since Feb. 19. Five more deaths were confirmed, leaving the death toll at 1,721. The total fatality rate stood at 1.70 percent.

* Canada is expected to see a cumulative total of almost one million COVID-19 cases next week as the country’s coronavirus variants continue spreading, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) said Friday.

* Spain is to require people arriving by land from France to present a negative COVID-19 test, the Health Ministry said on Saturday, amid rising numbers of French arrivals and an uptick in Spain’s coronavirus rate.

* The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 20,472 to 2,755,225, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Saturday. The reported death toll rose by 157 to 75,780, the tally showed.

* The Czech Republic’s Chamber of Deputies on Friday approved the extension of the country’s state of emergency till April 11. The government had submitted a request to the lower house to extend it till April 27, but a compromise was struck. Without the prolongation, the current state of national emergency would have expired on March 28.

* Thailand has granted emergency authorisation to Janssen, the single-dose coronavirus vaccine of Johnson & Johnson, the third vaccine to be cleared for local use.

* China’s central bank on Thursday said it would deepen exchange rate reform and increase yuan exchange rate flexibility, as well as improve the green financial system in order to achieve carbon neutrality.

* The transport minister of Singapore, the world’s top transhipment hub, said on Thursday the blockage in the Suez Canal could temporarily disrupt supplies to the region.

* Oil prices fell 4% per barrel, extending a string of market weakness on renewed lockdowns in Europe and Asia to head off a rising coronavirus infection rate.

* European Union leaders met to navigate a common path out of the pandemic as infections surge in many of their countries, while President Joe Biden set a new goal of administering 200 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine in the United States in his first 100 days in office.

* As the “best guardians” of Latin America’s forests, indigenous tribes need greater access to climate finance and secure land tenure to stem deforestation and climate change, the United Nations said on Thursday.

* Germany plans to enforce strict quarantine restrictions on travellers from France where new cases of the coronavirus are exploding, two government sources said.

* Three additional French regions including the Rhone department around the city of Lyon will be put under tightened restrictions for four weeks.

* Portugal extended a state of emergency for 15 days as it gradually eases strict lockdown measures imposed in mid-January.

* Poland will shut kindergartens, hair salons and limit church service attendance as of Saturday after setting another consecutive daily record of new coronavirus cases.

* Mexico’s coronavirus death toll topped 200,000, making it only the third country in the world to hit the grim milestone.

* Chilean health officials extended a lockdown across the capital Santiago to tame a second wave of infections even as the South American nation continues to plow ahead with the world’s fastest per capita vaccination campaign.

* Peru said it had confirmed a record high of 11,260 new cases of coronavirus in a single day amid a new more contagious variant first identified in Brazil.

* The first 723,000 of up to 7 million vaccine doses that MTN Group is donating to African countries have arrived in nine nations, the African Union’s disease control body said.

* Iraq received 336,000 doses of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday, the first sent there under the global COVAX vaccine-sharing scheme.

* Israel has administered two doses of COVID-19 vaccine to more than half its population, a world-beating roll-out that has helped the country emerge from pandemic closures.

* AstraZeneca said its vaccine was 76% effective in a new analysis of its US trial – only a tad lower than the level in an earlier report this week criticised for using outdated data.

* Europe’s drugs regulator said its safety panel will call a meeting of experts on March 29 to further study the reported cases of blood clots linked to AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine.

* African elephants living in forests and savannas are increasingly threatened with extinction, the Red List of species in trouble showed on Thursday, as conservationists called for an urgent end to poaching.

* Poland could extend sanctions against Belarus, a deputy foreign minister said on Thursday, as a diplomatic spat between the two countries escalates after Belarusian authorities detained two Poles this week.

* Oman will impose a curfew from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. from Sunday and extending until April 8, as the Gulf Arab states tightens restrictions to curb a rise in coronavirus cases, state media reported on Thursday.