World News in Brief: June 20

More than 1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines had been administered in China as of Saturday, the National Health Commission said on Sunday.

A woman holds a poster as supporters celebrate after Ebrahim Raisi won the presidential election in Tehran, Iran, on June 19, 2021. Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raisi won Iran's presidential race by securing over 60 percent of votes, the Iranian Interior Ministry announced on Saturday. (Photo: Xinhua)
A woman holds a poster as supporters celebrate after Ebrahim Raisi won the presidential election in Tehran, Iran, on June 19, 2021. Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raisi won Iran's presidential race by securing over 60 percent of votes, the Iranian Interior Ministry announced on Saturday. (Photo: Xinhua)

* Brazil surpassed half a million COVID-19 deaths after registering 2,301 more deaths from the fatal disease in the past 24 hours, the health ministry said Saturday. With the national death toll reaching 500,800, Brazil has become the second country in the world to record more than half a million pandemic deaths, after the United States.

* India reported 58,419 new COVID-19 infections over the past 24 hours on Sunday, the lowest daily number in nearly three months, data from the health ministry showed.

* Russia reported 17,611 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, including 8,305 in Moscow, taking the official national tally since the pandemic began to 5,316,826. The government coronavirus task force said 450 people had died of coronavirus-linked causes in the past 24 hours, pushing the national death toll to 129,361.

* Russia's ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, was in an optimistic mood ahead of his return to Washington on Sunday, expecting meetings scheduled with US colleagues next week to be constructive, the RIA news agency reported.

* Supporters of socialist Pedro Castillo and conservative Keiko Fujimori took to the streets by the thousands in Peru on Saturday, as tensions rose over the result of the June 6 presidential election.

* US President Joe Biden will host Israeli President Reuven Rivlin at the White House on June 28, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Saturday.

* A group of fifteen West African countries have adopted a new road map to launch a single currency in 2027 after its previous plans were derailed by the coronavirus pandemic.

* Cambodia Sunday reported 659 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the national caseload to 42,711 so far, the Ministry of Health (MoH) said in a statement. Since the mass vaccination was launched on Feb. 10, the country has administered COVID-19 vaccines to a total of 3.31 million people with 2.7 million fully vaccinated.

* Argentina on Saturday reported 15,631 new COVID-19 infections and 495 more deaths from the disease, raising the total caseload to 4,258,394 and the national death toll to 88,742. According to the Ministry of Health, 7,386 patients are currently hospitalized, with intensive care unit bed occupancy reaching 74.6 percent nationwide.

* Italian Health Minister Roberto Speranza on Saturday signed a new ordinance, extending the white or lowest-risk pandemic zone to most of Italy. The only remaining anti-virus regulations in the white zone are social distancing and the obligation to wear a mask both indoors and outdoors.

* The Republic of Korea will relax social distancing rules and allow private gatherings of up to six people in the greater Seoul area from the current four starting July 1, the government said on Sunday. The announcement comes as the ROK has inoculated 29.2% of its population as of Saturday, putting it on track to meet a target of 70% by September.

* The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 842 to 3,721,981, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Sunday. The reported death toll rose by 16 to 90,385, the tally showed.

* Mexico's health ministry on Saturday reported 3,964 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country and 192 more fatalities, bringing the total figures to 2,475,705 infections and 231,151 deaths.

* Turkey has received 5 million more doses of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by China's Sinovac , the state-run Anadolu news agency said on Saturday, as President Tayyip Erdogan voiced hope of a rebound in the tourism sector. Turkey's vaccination programme has accelerated this week, with more than 1 million injections a day being administered since Monday.

* The Taliban said on Sunday they were committed to peace talks, adding they wanted a "genuine Islamic system" in Afghanistan that would make provisions for women's rights in line with cultural traditions and religious rules.

* The United Arab Emirates (UAE) will suspend travellers from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Namibia from entering the country on national and foreign flights, effective 23:59 p.m. on Monday, June 21, state news agency WAM reported on Saturday, citing a statement by the General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA).

* Saudi Arabian air defences late on Saturday destroyed six armed drones launched by Yemen's Houthi movement towards the kingdom, bringing the total it intercepted during the day to 17, state TV cited the Saudi-led coalition as saying.

* Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry held talks on Saturday with his Libyan counterpart Najla al-Mangoush in Cairo on the latest developments of the Libyan roadmap for a political settlement.

* An Ebola outbreak which started in southeast Guinea in February, infecting 16 people and killing 12, has been declared over, the health ministry and the World Health Organization said on Saturday.

* The authorities of Russia's Kemerovo region denied information about nine people killed after the emergency landing of a plane in the region on Saturday, saying that four people died as a result. An investigative group is currently working at the scene, it added.

* The center of tropical storm Dolores made landfall on Saturday near the town of San Juan de Aldama in the western Mexican state of Michoacan, the National Meteorological Service (SMN) reported. According to the SMN, 39 cyclones are forecast for this year, of which 20 will occur in the Pacific Ocean and 19 in the Atlantic Ocean.

Xinhua,Reuters