World

ACCRA, (Reuters) – A brawl broke out on the floor of Ghana’s parliament late yesterday as lawmakers debated a proposed tax on electronic transactions that has divided the house for weeks.

NEW YORK,  (Reuters) – COVID-19 cases surged in New York City and across the United States over the weekend, dashing hopes for a more normal holiday season, resurrecting restrictions and stretching the country’s testing infrastructure ahead of holiday travel and gatherings.

LONDON, (Reuters) – Britain’s Supreme Court yesterday ruled to allow in part an appeal by Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido in a case over whether he or President Nicolas Maduro controls over $1 billion worth of Venezuelan gold stored at the Bank of England.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – The United States yesterday named Under Secretary of State Uzra Zeya as special coordinator for Tibet, drawing a warning from China to stay out of its internal affairs.

GENEVA, (Reuters) – The Russian maker of the COVID-19 Sputnik V vaccine is due to submit its latest clinical data by the end of December, with manufacturing site inspections expected to follow in February, a World Health Organization (WHO) official said on Monday.

(Reuters) – The International Monetary Fund said on Monday its executive board has extended Fund debt service relief for 25 eligible low-income countries for another three months until April 13, 2022.

SANTIAGO,  (Reuters) – Chilean leftist Gabriel Boric won the country’s presidential runoff election yesterday, capping a major revival for the country’s progressive left that has been on the rise since widespread protests roiled the Andean country two years ago.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – U.S. health officials urged Americans yesterday to get booster shots, wear masks and be careful if they travel over the winter holidays, as the Omicron variant raged across the world and was set to take over as the dominant strain in the United States.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, a moderate Democrat who is key to President Joe Biden’s hopes of passing a $1.75 trillion domestic investment bill, said yesterday he would not support the package, drawing a sharp rebuke from the White House.

MOSCOW,  (Reuters) – The Kremlin is convinced that the World Health Organization (WHO) will recognise Russia’s flagship Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine within a few months, the Interfax news agency cited Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov as saying today.

MADRID, (Reuters) – Spain’s Catholic Church is to open an investigation into alleged sex abuse of hundreds of children by members of the clergy dating back 80 years that the newspaper El Pais has uncovered, the daily said today.

LONDON, (Reuters) – British Brexit minister David Frost resigned yesterday over disillusionment with the direction of Boris Johnson’s government, dealing a major blow to the embattled prime minister as the Omicron variant sweeps the country.

NAIROBI, (Reuters) – Deep in Kenya’s Great Rift Valley, members of the National Youth Service tirelessly swing machetes to clear dense shrubs obscuring railway tracks more than a century old.

TEGUCIGALPA, (Reuters) – The leftist party of Honduras’ president-elect Xiomara Castro is in negotiations with the opposition, party leaders told Reuters, after it failed to win a congressional majority needed to pass Castro’s sweeping agenda.

LONDON, (Reuters) – Britain reported a surge in cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant yesterday which government advisors said could be just the tip of the iceberg, and London’s mayor declared a “major incident” to help the city’s hospitals cope.

SANTIAGO, (Reuters) – Chilean leftist Gabriel Boric has widened his lead in the final polls ahead of the Andean country’s presidential election today, though the polarized race remains tight against ultra-conservative rival Jose Antonio Kast.

(Reuters) – Two years into the coronavirus pandemic, the United States is confronting another dark winter, with the red-hot Omicron variant threatening to worsen an already dangerous surge of cases.

MOSCOW,  (Reuters) – Russia said yesterday it wanted a legally binding guarantee that NATO would give up any military activity in Eastern Europe and Ukraine, part of a wish list of security guarantees it wants to negotiate with the West. 

LONDON,  (Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc was marketing a collection of President Xi Jinping’s speeches and writings on its Chinese website about two years ago, when Beijing delivered an edict, according to two people familiar with the incident.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – A federal judge sentenced a U.S. Capitol rioter to more than five years in prison yesterday on charges that he threw a wooden plank and a fire extinguisher at police during the Jan.