Willingness to get a COVID-19 vaccine is on the rise compared to 2020, a survey of six industrialized countries published on Monday showed.

Female directors at Britain's biggest financial services firms earn 66 percent less than their male counterparts on average, research showed on Monday, despite a rise in the number of women on company boards in recent years.

Iran on Sunday dismissed Europe's offer for an informal meeting involving the US on the troubled 2015 nuclear deal, saying the time is not “suitable” as Washington has failed to lift sanctions.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was inoculated with the first dose of a home-grown coronavirus vaccine on Monday, kicking off an expansion of the country's immunization campaign that began in mid-January with healthcare workers.

Tepco, the operator of Japan's wrecked Fukushima atomic plant, said it had successfully removed spent uranium fuel from a damaged reactor building in a key step in its cleanup of the site after a nuclear disaster a decade ago.

Thousands of Haitians protested Sunday in Port-au-Prince and several provincial towns against a spike in kidnappings by gangs, as well as accusing the president of establishing absolute rule.

About 970 indigenous Brazilians have died since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020, according to a tally by the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB), the country's largest indigenous association, which represents many of the country's 900,000 native people.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi took his first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, Covaxin, on Monday.

The Philippines launched its coronavirus vaccination campaign on Monday, less than a day after the arrival of the Sinovac vaccine CoronaVac donated by China.

The Argentine government on Sunday ordered that the Social, Preventive and Mandatory Distancing measures, in place to control the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, will be extended until March 12.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Sunday recommended the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine for Americans 18 years of age and older, a final clearance for the vaccine after it was authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Saturday.

Iran on Sunday said that time is "not appropriate" for Iran to hold an informal meeting with Europe and the United States.

A fresh Israeli missile attack targeted positions in the vicinity of the Syrian capital Damascus on Sunday night, state TV reported.

COVID-19 hospitalizations in New York state dropped to 5,259 on Saturday, compared with 5,445 one day earlier, or the lowest since Dec. 9, said Governor Andrew Cuomo in an official release issued on Sunday.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Sunday urged all countries to repatriate and safely reintegrate their young nationals being held at Syria's largest camp for refugees and internally-displaced, following a deadly weekend fire at the al-Hol camp which saw at least three children die, and another 15 injured.

Those who are living with school-aged children in England will be eligible for two rapid coronavirus tests a week when pupils return to the classroom, British health authorities said Sunday.

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases on the African continent reached 3,888,006 as of Sunday afternoon, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said.

Hundreds of people from various races rallied Saturday at Foley Square in New York City's Lower Manhattan in protest against violence and crimes targeting Asian Americans.

A second ex-employee of powerful New York state Governor Andrew Cuomo has accused him of sexual harassment, charges the governor denied on Saturday.

Iran on Saturday asked Baghdad to “identify the perpetrators” of rocket attacks on the US embassy and other Western targets in Iraq, saying they were launched to damage Iran-Iraq relations.

The COVID-19-battered US authorized Johnson & Johnson's vaccine for emergency use Saturday, offering a glimmer of hope as Britain said farewell to fundraising war veteran Captain Tom Moore who died of the virus earlier in February.

The US city of Miami is to invest billions of dollars to tackle its vulnerability to rising sea levels, a reality that already affects the daily lives of residents used to constant flooding.

Gunmen in Nigeria on Saturday released 27 teenage boys who were kidnapped from their school on February 17 in the north-central state of Niger, while security forces continued to search for more than 300 schoolgirls abducted in a nearby state.

Pinup photos and smutty jokes have long been commonplace on trading floors, but the finance world is gradually opening up to women - underlined by the arrival on Monday of Jane Fraser at the head of Wall Street banking flagship Citigroup.

The deaths of 16 elderly people in Switzerland after being inoculated with Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines underscore the potential danger of mRNA vaccines to the age group, Chinese vaccine experts said, further calling for caution.

When the River Seine that runs through Paris overflowed in February, officials at the Louvre Museum were relieved that some of their most valuable items were safely stored in the north of France.

Thailand kicked off its COVID-19 inoculation campaign on Sunday, with cabinet ministers, health officials and medical professionals among the first in the queue to receive vaccinations.

US President Joe Biden on Saturday said his administration would make an announcement on Saudi Arabia on Monday, following a US intelligence report that found Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had approved the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

As the snowstorm-induced power outage affected up to 4.3 million residents in Texas, the US, a Chinese official said on Saturday that China's national electricity grid has the capacity to withstand extreme weather patterns, and ensure a reliable and stable electricity supply to Chinese residents.

More than 62,000 nurses have contracted COVID-19 in Iran and about 100 of them have lost their lives due to the disease, an Iranian official was quoted by official news agency IRNA as saying on Saturday.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell on Saturday blasted Democrats over the House passage of the 1.9-trillion-U.S.-dollar COVID-19 relief package, calling it a "deliberately partisan process."

Mental health issues have grown drastically amid the coronavirus lockdown in Britain, local media reported Saturday.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat in the chamber, said Saturday that the House will continue to fight for the 15-dollar federal minimum wage, which is expected to face tough tests in the 50-50 split Senate.

U.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday urged the Senate to quickly pass the 1.9-trillion-U.S. dollar COVID-19 relief package, which was approved by the House early Saturday morning amid unanimous Republican opposition.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Saturday authorized Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use in the United States.

The Ministry of Commerce of China and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy of South Korea Friday held a meeting of chief negotiators for the second phase of free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations, with an expert on Saturday saying that this shows the increasing mutual political trust between the two countries despite current discord, and will have an optimistic effect on trade liberalization and multilateralism.

As the global infection toll of COVID-19 passed 113 million and inoculation processing worldwide, some experts from World Health Organization (WHO) alerted the health risk over “post COVID” symptoms on Thursday, not common in China but deserve more observation.

Russian officials on Friday blamed US airstrikes against infrastructure utilized by Iranian-backed militant groups in eastern Syria on Thursday.

Western countries persist in sanctions pressure despite the pandemic, making use of coronavirus woes to punish "unwelcome" governments, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday.

2020 general election results invalid: military-backed Myanmar electoral commission

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Thursday urged finance ministers of the Group of 20 (G20) to strengthen cooperation to contain the COVID-19 pandemic and boost global recovery.

US strikes Iranian-backed militia targets in Syria: Pentagon

The first real-world study of vaccine efficacy, conducted in Israel, has shown that those who were inoculated with BioNTech/Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine were 94 percent less likely to become ill.

Athletes are being encouraged to get vaccinated against COVID-19 ahead of the Tokyo Olympic Games but it will not be compulsory, IOC Vice President John Coates said on Thursday.

Alaska may need to brace for more thunderstorms - along with the landslides, floods and wildfires they can bring - if current climate trends continue, a team of scientists warns.

EU leaders meet on Thursday under pressure to speed up Europe's coronavirus vaccine rollout, and divided over border closures and what introducing vaccine travel certificates could mean.

In the past, shareholder votes on the environment were rare and easily dismissed. Things could look different in the annual meeting season starting March, when companies are set to face the most investor resolutions concerning climate change in recent years.

A man in a navy suit grinned as he left an airbase in Guinea's capital Conakry on Wednesday after being vaccinated for Ebola, one of the first to receive the jab since the deadly disease reemerged in the West African country.

The crisis caused by the pandemic is leaving many economies lagging behind, increasing the plight of the poor, a problem made worse by “uneven” access to vaccines, IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva said Wednesday.

India and Pakistan's militaries said on Thursday that they had agreed to stop firing along their disputed border in Kashmir, where such gunfire has been frequent in recent months, often killing or maiming people living in the area.

US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday he would seek $37 billion in funding for legislation to supercharge chip manufacturing in the US as a shortfall of semiconductors has forced US automakers and other manufacturers to cut production.

The Australian parliament on Thursday passed a new law designed to force Alphabet Inc's Google and Facebook Inc to pay media companies for content used on their platforms in reforms that could be replicated in other countries.

An Istanbul court on Wednesday sentenced three Turks to four years and two months in prison for helping smuggle former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn in a musical instrument case to Lebanon from Japan.

Chile expects to have 80 percent of its population vaccinated against the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) by midyear, achieving so-called "herd immunity," Health Minister Enrique Paris said Wednesday.

The U.S. state of Texas was dangerously close to a long-term outage during last week's severe winter storm, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) said Wednesday.

Canada detected 868 COVID-19 variant cases as of Tuesday, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada on Wednesday.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday urged the United States to "immediately" end economic pressures against Iran paving the way for negotiations.

In his first congressional hearing since the November election, U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told a House panel Wednesday his agency's operation was "profoundly threatened" amid the pandemic and apologized for mail delivery delays during the peak holiday season.

The coronavirus pandemic and its consequences resulted in a general financial deficit for the German state of 139.6 billion euros (169.3 billion U.S. dollars) last year, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) said on Wednesday based on preliminary calculations.

The coronavirus vaccine supply fluctuations in Britain are likely to continue for "a few months", a senior British health official said Wednesday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that law enforcement forces have prevented 72 terrorist crimes in the country in 2020, up from 57 a year earlier.

The Dominican Republic received a shipment of vaccines developed by Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac on Tuesday night, authorities said.

When Indian sex worker Baji lagged on her repayments to a loan shark during lockdown, her house was ransacked and her only belongings of any value taken - a new low in a terrible year.

Scientists said Wednesday they had discovered the oldest remains of a domestic dog in the Americas dating back more than 10,000 years, suggesting the animals accompanied the first waves of human settlers.

Countries are making progress towards greater gender equality, but women around the world continue to face regulations that limit their economic opportunities - and the pandemic has created new challenges, the World Bank said Tuesday.

The United Nations called Tuesday for urgent international regulations ensuring fair conditions for gig workers paid via digital platforms such as food delivery apps - a form of employment that has rocketed during the pandemic.

French film giant Gerard Depardieu has been charged with rape and sexual assault, a judicial source told AFP on Tuesday, the latest in a string of such allegations against prominent figures in France.

At least 75 inmates died Tuesday and several were injured in riots blamed on gang rivalry at three jails in Ecuador's overcrowded prison system, authorities said.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said on Tuesday it was ordering immediate inspections of Boeing 777 planes with Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engines before further flights after an engine failed on a United flight on Saturday.

Myanmar was set for more street protests on Wednesday against military rule while Indonesia's efforts steer a path out of the crisis with the help of other Southeast Asian countries appeared to falter with a proposed diplomatic visit scrapped.

The Russian company previously tried making a passenger aircraft based on the Tupolev Tu-160, but later rejected the idea, opting to design a new plane from scratch.

Regional Japanese governments have requested emergency pandemic measures be lifted ahead of the March 7 scheduled end as new COVID-19 cases trend lower, the country's economy minister said, adding the government will seek expert views before agreeing.

Four board members of Texas' power grid operator announced their resignation Tuesday after millions of state residents were left without power during days of unprecedentedly frigid temperatures.

The deadly US Capitol riot on January 6 exposed devastating security and intelligence weaknesses, with military authorities reacting too slowly to calls for National Guard backup against an overwhelming mob, security officials told Congress Tuesday.

An inauguration ceremony of COVID-19 vaccination was held in Kabul on Tuesday.

A 2-meter-long painting of a kangaroo in Western Australia's Kimberley region has been recognized as Australia's oldest intact rock painting, dating back 17,300 years.

Portugal on Tuesday welcomed the second team of German military health professionals who assist the country in the treatment of COVID-19 patients.

In what he called a "calculated risk," demissionary Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced relaxations for some coronavirus measures on Tuesday, but extended the country's COVID-19 curfew until March 15.

A U.S. federally-supported, state-managed COVID-19 mass vaccination facility was launched in Houston, Texas on Tuesday.

In an ongoing panel survey conducted by Northwestern University (NU) and the Ohio State University, researchers find Americans significantly less concerned they could die of COVID-19, while their overall perceived likelihood of contracting the virus remained relatively consistent from December through February.

Senegal on Tuesday officially began the first phase of COVID-19 vaccination, taking a new step in the crusade against the pandemic.

Russian President Vladimir Putin honored the heroism of soldiers and praised the courageous work of the military forces in commemoration of the Defender of the Fatherland Day, the Kremlin said in a statement Tuesday.

US professional golfer Tiger Woods was injured in a roll-over car accident in Los Angeles County, California on Tuesday, authorities said.

Gab instead of Twitter, MeWe over Facebook, Telegram for messaging, and Discord for insiders; banned from mainstream platforms, US conspiracy theorist and white supremacist movements, many of whom support Donald Trump, have shifted to more confidential networks, which are much harder to moderate.

Singapore has been testing out a "bubble" business hotel that will allow quarantined executives arriving in the country to do face-to-face meetings and even exchange documents without fear of spreading the coronavirus.

Children born to mothers who eat a lot of processed foods packed with sugar and salt face an increased risk of obesity late in childhood, researchers said Monday.

US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chairman Robert Sumwalt said Monday that damage to a fan blade in a Pratt & Whitney engine that failed in a United Airlines Boeing 777-200 is consistent with metal fatigue, according to a preliminary assessment.

Italy's ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) was among three people killed on Monday when a UN convoy was ambushed in the country's troubled east, violence the DRC's president called a “terrorist attack” and that was blamed on a Rwandan Hutu rebel group.

Facebook will restore Australian news pages after Canberra offered amendments to legislation that would force the tech giant to pay for media content, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said on Tuesday.

US President Joe Biden ordered flags lowered to half mast Monday after the US crossed the “heartbreaking” milestone of 500,000 COVID-19 deaths, while Britain eyed lifting lockdowns in the latest sign of global gains against the pandemic.

A volley of rockets on Monday targeted the high-security zone in the Iraqi capital that is home to the US embassy, the military and security sources said.

Japanese Emperor Naruhito said he was anticipating a “bright future” as Japan began its COVID-19 inoculation program, during an address to mark his 61st birthday on Tuesday.

Myanmar's military leaders came under renewed pressure at home and abroad Tuesday, with tightened sanctions from Washington and Brussels, and some of the biggest demonstrations against their rule since they seized power three weeks ago.

Mexican health authorities on Monday began to vaccinate older adults with a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac, after a shipment of doses arrived on Saturday.

COVID-19 vaccines have arrived in Australia as the country begins its long-awaited rollout.

The U.S. Department of State on Monday reaffirmed the willingness to engage with Tehran over the nuclear issue, downplaying new threats by the Iranian leadership to boost uranium enrichment.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said Monday it is disappointing that the European Union (EU) foreign ministers had decided to prepare new sanctions against Russian citizens "under a far-fetched pretext."

U.S. President Joe Biden will order flags at federal properties to fly at half-staff as COVID-19 deaths in the United States close in on the grim milestone of 500,000, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Monday.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday urged the international community to put the health of the planet at the center of plans and policies.

The United State's energy delivery system, not just in Texas but everywhere, needs a radical overhaul if it is to withstand future shocks and play the role that President Joe Biden has assigned it in the battle against climate change, said The New York Times on Monday in an Opinion article titled "The Lessons of the Texas Power Disaster."