* Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden on Thursday exchanged greetings on the occasion of the Chinese Lunar New Year. * Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he has assured his Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau that India would do its best to supply Canada with vaccines to fight the pandemic. * A fleet of the People's Liberation Army Navy on Thursday set off for Pakistan to attend a multilateral joint naval exercise at the invitation of the Pakistani navy, China's Ministry of National Defense said. The drill, code-named "Peace-21," is set to be conducted in waters near the city of Karachi, the ministry said in a statement. * Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit welcomed the reconciliation reached among rival Palestinian factions following their two-day dialogue in Egypt's capital Cairo, the pan-Arab body said in a statement on Wednesday. * Mexico has authorized emergency use of the Chinese Sinovac and CanSino COVID-19 vaccines. * Argentina topped two million COVID-19 infections on Wednesday, health officials said, as the country scrambles to ramp up a vaccination program in a race against time to tame the virus ahead of the fast-approaching southern hemisphere autumn. * China reported the fewest number of new COVID-19 cases in over five months, official data showed on Thursday, after a combination of robust countermeasures helped stamp out a new wave of the disease in the northeast that emerged last month. * India's COVID-19 tally rose to 10,871,294 on Thursday as 12,923 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours, said the latest data from the federal health ministry. According to the official data, the death toll mounted to 155,360 as 108 COVID-19 patients died since Wednesday morning. * The confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Indonesia increased by 8,435 in the past 24 hours to 1,191,990, with the death toll adding by 214 to 32,381, the Indonesian Health Ministry said on Thursday. * The Department of Health …
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World News in Brief: February 12
* The first batch of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Japan on Friday, local media reported, with official approval for the shots expected within days as the country races to control a third wave of infections ahead of the Olympic Games. * Top diplomats of the Republic of Korea and the United States held phone talks over issues on the Korean Peninsula and other issues of mutual concern, Seoul's foreign ministry said on Friday. * Brazil registered 54,742 COVID-19 infections and 1,351 deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the totals to 9,713,909 cases and 236,201 deaths, the health ministry said on Thursday. * Russia registered 15,089 more COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, roughly the same as a day earlier, the country's COVID-19 response center said Friday. The national tally has thus increased to 4,042,837 with 79,194 deaths and 3,559,142 recoveries, the center said. * The Department of Health (DOH) of the Philippines reported on Friday 2,022 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 545,300. The death toll climbed to 11,495 after 26 more patients died from the viral disease, the DOH said. * Thailand on Friday confirmed 175 new cases of coronavirus infection, mostly domestic, official reports showed. Thailand has so far confirmed 24,279 cases, 21,681 of which were domestic ones while 2,598 others were imported cases. * Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Germans to have a little more patience after agreeing with regional leaders to extend a coronavirus lockdown until March 7 and said restrictions would not last a day longer than necessary. * Portugal's parliament on Thursday approved the renewal of the state of emergency in the country through March 1, allowing the government to keep all lockdown and anti-COVID-19 measures in place until March 1. * Australia's second-most populous state of Victoria will be placed under a five-day lockdown until Wednesday, state Premier Daniel Andrews said …
World News in Brief: February 17
* China reported seven new COVID-19 cases on Feb. 16, down from 16 cases a day earlier, the country's national health authority said on Wednesday. Total confirmed COVID-19 cases in mainland China now stand at 89,795. The death toll remains unchanged at 4,636. * The United States last week reported a 23% drop in new cases of COVID-19 and a 16% fall in the number of people hospitalized with the virus, with both figures declining for a fifth week in a row. * Japan on Wednesday began administering its first COVID-19 vaccinations to medical workers, with the first inoculations using the vaccine developed by US pharmaceutical firm Pfizer and German partner BioNTech taking place at the National Hospital Organization Tokyo Medical Center. * India's COVID-19 tally rose to 10,937,320 on Wednesday as 11,610 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours, said the latest data from the federal health ministry. According to the official data, the death toll mounted to 155,913 with 100 new deaths. * Russia on Wednesday reported 12,828 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, including 1,282 in Moscow, taking the national tally to 4,112,151. Authorities also reported another 467 deaths, raising the official toll to 81,446. * The Department of Health (DOH) of the Philippines reported on Wednesday 1,184 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 553,424. * Mexico surpassed 2 million coronavirus cases while new infections in the United States fell for a fifth week in a row, with the White House increasing its supply of vaccines to states and pharmacies this week. * The United Kingdom could give two doses of vaccine to all adults by August or September, the interim head of the country's vaccine taskforce told Sky News. * US Treasury yields hit one-year highs on Wednesday, lending support to the dollar but pressuring lofty valuations for stocks, as investors reckoned …
