USA

LOS ANGELES (AP) — California surpassed 25,000 coronavirus deaths since the start of the pandemic and officials disclosed Thursday that three more cases involving a mutant variant of the virus have been confirmed in San Diego County.

The grim developments came as an ongoing surge swamps hospitals and pushes nurses and doctors to the breaking point as they brace for another likely increase after the holidays.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Authorities arrested a suburban Milwaukee pharmacist Thursday suspected of deliberately ruining hundreds of doses of coronavirus vaccine by removing them from refrigeration for two nights.

The arrest marks another setback in what has been a slower, messier start to vaccinate Americans than public health officials had expected. Leaders in Wisconsin and other states have been begging the Trump administration for more doses as health care workers and senior citizens line up for the lifesaving vaccine.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress is ending a chaotic session, a two-year political firestorm that started with the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history, was riven by impeachment and a pandemic, and now closes with a rare rebuff by Republicans of President Donald Trump.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 31 (APP): Pakistan’s key objective at the U.N. in 2020 remained highlighting the continued military siege and massive human rights violations in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), Ambassador Munir Akram has said, calling his mission’s intensive, year-long efforts “successful.”

“In line with the direction and guidance of our leadership, we played a leading role in different multilateral process in New York,” he said in summing up the role played by Pakistan at the UN in 2020.

(Reuters) - Oil prices are unlikely to mount much of a recovery in 2021 as a new coronavirus variant and related travel restrictions threaten already weakened fuel demand, a Reuters poll showed on Thursday.

The poll of 39 economists and analysts conducted in the second half of December forecast Brent crude prices would average $50.67 per barrel next year.

That is up from a poll last month that forecast a 2021 average price of $49.35 per barrel but little changed from Brent trading at around $51 on Thursday. [O/R]

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- More than 10 million children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), northeast Nigeria, the Central Sahel, South Sudan and Yemen will suffer from acute malnutrition in 2021, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Wednesday.

All of these countries and regions are experiencing "dire humanitarian crises" while also grappling with intensifying food insecurity, the coronavirus pandemic and, with the exception of the Central Sahel, "a looming famine," the UNICEF said.

NEW YORK, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- U.S. COVID-19 deaths surpassed 340,000 on Wednesday afternoon, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

With the national case count topping 19.6 million, the death toll across the United States rose to 340,586 as of 2:22 p.m. local time (1922 GMT), according to the CSSE data.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- As lots of Americans are heading home or traveling for holidays, public health experts are warning of another possible catastrophic COVID-19 surge that could hit the United States hard.

Holidays have proven to be a catalyst of COVID-19 infections across the country. The United States have witnessed significant upticks in infections during or after holidays earlier this year, with the largest surge in infections, deaths and hospitalizations appearing after Thanksgiving.

31 Dec 2020; MEMO: U.S. President Donald Trump's pardon of four American men convicted of killing Iraqi civilians while working as contractors in 2007 violated U.S. obligations under international law, U.N. human rights experts said on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States flew strategic bombers over the Persian Gulf on Wednesday for the second time this month, a show of force meant to deter Iran from attacking American or allied targets in the Middle East.