World

China approved its first COVID19 vaccine for general public use on Thursday, a shot developed by an affiliate of statebacked pharmaceutical giant Sinopharm, as it braces for greater transmission risks over the winter.

Global crude oil markets have lost about a fifth of their value in 2020 as strict coronavirus lockdowns paralysed much of the global economy, but prices have rebounded strongly from their lows as governments rolled out stimulus.

Uganda opposition presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi, popularly known as Bobi Wine, and his campaign team were arrested on Wednesday and he said on Twitter that authorities returned him to his Kampala home in a military helicopter.

Two Wisconsin siblings returning from a Christmas lights display were killed Tuesday night when a suspected carjacker fleeing from police drove the wrong way on Interstate 95 in central Florida and collided head-on with their vehicle, authorities said.

A Louisiana State Police trooper died Wednesday in an apparent suicide as his colleagues were searching his home as part of a criminal investigation, law enforcement officials told The Associated Press.

A Moroccan judge has ordered a prominent writer and rights activist to be held in custody pending an investigation into moneylaundering allegations, in a case that media freedom activists describe as harassment.

A powerful tropical storm made landfall near the central Mozambique city of Beira early on Wednesday, bringing heavy rain and wind to an area devastated by Cyclone Idai nearly two years ago.

Oil gained more ground on Wednesday as a U.S. coronavirus fiscal aid package and a decline in crude oil inventories lifted prices.

Hundreds of migrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East waited in the cold on Tuesday to be bussed out of a burned camp about to be dismantled in Western Bosnia, but there was no agreement where they should go.

Russian state investigators said on Tuesday they had opened a new criminal case against Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, accusing him of fraudulently spending public donations to organisations he controls on his personal needs.

Police raided a convent near Russia's Ural Mountains in the early hours of Tuesday and arrested a renegade priest who had seized control of it and allegedly encouraged nuns to commit suicide.

The parents of an 8yearold student who killed himself after being persistently bullied can move forward with a lawsuit against the Cincinnati school district that alleges wrongful death and other charges, a federal appeals panel ruled Tuesday.

An earthquake of magnitude 6.4 struck central Croatia on Tuesday, killing seven people, injuring more than 20 and rattling several neighbouring countries, officials and residents said.

An earthquake of magnitude 6.4 struck a town in central Croatia on Tuesday, killing a child, injuring many people and wrecking houses, officials said.

Belarus has begun administering the Russianmade Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, both countries said on Tuesday, after the first consignment arrived in Minsk.

Australia's most populous state of New South Wales (NSW) maintained its downward trend of new COVID19 infections on Tuesday but authorities asked people to be on "high alert" after cases were detected outside the current virus cluster.