World

LONDON,  (Reuters) – Britain yesterday said it was concerned by a newly identified coronavirus variant spreading in South Africa that might make vaccines less effective and imperil efforts to fight the pandemic.

SAN SALVADOR,  (Reuters) – El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele took the stage last weekend at the end of “Bitcoin Week” to the cheers of fans delighted his Central American country has become the first to adopt crypto currency as legal tender, alongside the U.S.

BANJUL,  (Reuters) – A Gambian commission wrapped up a sweeping three-year public inquiry into former president Yahya Jammeh’s 22 years in power yesterday by recommending prosecutions for killings, torture and other abuses committed during his tenure.

PARIS, (Reuters) – Authorities on the Caribbean island of Martinique ordered a curfew yesterday after protesters looted shops and set up burning barricades as demonstrations against COVID-19 protocols spread across France’s overseas’ territories.

BERLIN,  (Reuters) – Social Democrat Olaf Scholz announced a deal to form a new governing coalition in Germany yesterday that aims to modernise Europe’s largest economy, accelerate the green transition and bring the curtain down on the Angela Merkel era.

AUTAZES, Brazil,  (Reuters) – Hundreds of dredging rafts operated by illegal miners have gathered in a gold rush on the Madeira River, a major tributary of the Amazon, floating hundreds of miles as state and federal authorities dispute who is responsible for stopping them.

PARIS, (Reuters) – British and French officials traded blame yesterday after 27 migrants died when their dinghy deflated as they made a perilous crossing of the English Channel.

BRUNSWICK, Ga.,  (Reuters) – Three white men were convicted of murder yesterday for chasing and shooting Ahmaud Arbery as the Black man ran through their neighbourhood, with a Georgia jury rejecting a self-defence claim in a trial that once again probed America’s divisive issues of race and guns.

MOSCOW/KYIV,  (Reuters) – Russia staged military drills in the Black Sea, south of Ukraine, today and said it needed to sharpen the combat-readiness of its conventional and nuclear forces because of heightened NATO activity near its borders.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden announced yesterday it will release millions of barrels of oil from strategic reserves in coordination with China, India, South Korea, Japan and Britain, to try to cool prices after OPEC+ producers repeatedly ignored calls for more crude.

RIO DE JANEIRO,  (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Two giant U.S. commodity traders bought soybeans in Brazil from farmers trying to evict a traditional community from South America’s largest savanna, where deforestation is hastening global warming, watchdog group Global Witness found yesterday.

ISTANBUL,  (Reuters) – Turkey’s lira nosedived more than 15% yesterday after President Tayyip Erdogan defended recent rate cuts and vowed to win his “economic war of independence”, despite widespread criticism and pleas to reverse course.

(Reuters) – A federal jury in Charlottesville, Virginia, yesterday found the organizers of the 2017 “Unite the Right” white nationalist rally liable for injuries sustained by counter-protesters, a lawyer for the plaintiffs said, and media reports said it awarded more than $25 million in damages.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The United States said today it would release millions of barrels of oil from strategic reserves in coordination with China, India, South Korea, Japan and Britain to cool prices after OPEC+ producers repeatedly ignored calls for more crude.

POINTE-A-PITRE, Guadeloupe, (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron said violence in Guadeloupe over COVID-19 restrictions had created a “very explosive” situation, as a general strike entered a second week yesterday and many stores remained shuttered after nighttime looting.

WAUKESHA, Wis., (Reuters) – The man accused of deliberately driving his car into a Christmas parade near Milwaukee, killing five people and injuring dozens, was out on bail from a domestic abuse case and was suspected in another violent altercation earlier that day, officials said on Monday.

GENEVA, (Reuters) – A United Nations human rights expert said yesterday that electoral laws in some parts of the United States including Texas may undermine democracy by depriving millions of citizens who belong to minority groups of the equal right to vote.

CARACAS,  (Reuters) – Venezuela’s opposition needs to rebuild and reflect on its strategy after suffering a heavy defeat in regional elections at the weekend, its leader Juan Guaido said yesterday, calling for unity among the fragmented movement’s leadership.

MEXICO CITY,  (Reuters) – Former Nicaraguan ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), Edgard Parrales, was detained in Managua yesterday after the diplomat said President Daniel Ortega’s moves to withdraw from the OAS would not take effect immediately.

WAUKESHA, Wis., (Reuters) – Five people were killed and more than 40 injured when an SUV sped through a Christmas parade in the small town of Waukesha, Wisconsin, yesterday, plowing into dozens of people including young children.