World News in Brief: July 4

At least 17 people were killed when a Philippines Air Force plane carrying troops crashed on landing in the south of the country and broke up in flames on Sunday, the country's worst military air disaster in nearly 30 years. Seventeen bodies had been recovered and 40 injured had been rescued so far, Defence Minister Delfin Lorenzana said in a statement.

People wearing face masks wait for swab tests at an area subject to more restrictive movement control measures to curb COVID-19 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, July 3, 2021. Malaysia reported another 6,658 new COVID-19 infections, bringing the national total to 772,607, the Health Ministry said on Saturday. (Photo: Xinhua)
People wearing face masks wait for swab tests at an area subject to more restrictive movement control measures to curb COVID-19 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, July 3, 2021. Malaysia reported another 6,658 new COVID-19 infections, bringing the national total to 772,607, the Health Ministry said on Saturday. (Photo: Xinhua)

* Rain hampered Japanese rescuers seeking 20 missing people on Sunday after landslides triggered by torrential rains hit the central city of Atami, killing at least two, Kyodo news agency said.

* Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko ordered the country's border guard to completely close the border with Ukraine, the Belarusian state news agency Belta reported Friday.

* The Chinese mainland on Saturday reported 14 imported COVID-19 cases but no new locally transmitted cases, the National Health Commission said in its daily report on Sunday. The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases on the mainland had reached 91,847 and 4,636 had died as a result of the virus.

* The Lao government has decided to extend the ongoing COVID-19 lockdown for another 15 days, effective from July 5-19 with certain relaxations. Laos recorded 32 new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of infections to 2,244. A total of 2,031 patients have recovered and been discharged from hospitals.

* Cuba once again set a record for the number of daily cases of COVID-19, with 3,475 infections and 15 deaths in the last 24 hours, the Ministry of Public Health reported on Saturday.

* Indonesia has ordered oxygen makers to prioritise medical needs amid growing demand from COVID-19 patients, the government said on Sunday, following more than 60 deaths in a hospital where supply of the life-saving gas was almost exhausted.

* One million donated doses of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc's and BioNTech will arrive in Malaysia on Monday, White House officials said, with plans for more shipments to Southeast Asia soon.

* The United States is set to fall short of President Joe Biden's goal for 70 percent of the adult population to receive at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by July 4, media reported.

* Brazil registered 54,556 new cases of coronavirus and 1,635 new COVID-19 deaths in the last 24 hours, the Health Ministry said on Saturday. This brings the total number of cases in Brazil to 18,742,025 and total fatalities to 523,587.

* Russia reported 25,142 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, including 7,624 in Moscow, taking the official national tally since the pandemic began to 5,610,941.

* The data that will decide if final lockdown restrictions in England can be lifted on July 19 is looking "very positive", thanks to the success of the vaccination programme, Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said on Sunday.

* The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 559 to 3,730,912, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Sunday. The reported death toll rose by 7 to 91,030, the tally showed.

* Portugal will accelerate the immunization campaign against COVID-19 to curb the rapid spread of the Delta variant, vice-admiral Henrique Gouveia e Melo, Portuguese vaccination coordinator, said Saturday.

* Iran may face a fifth wave of COVID-19 infections as the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus spreads through the Middle East's worst-hit country, President Hassan Rouhani warned on Saturday.

* Palestine on Saturday extended its state of emergency to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 Delta variant in the Palestinian territories. The extension came after the Palestinian health ministry recorded last week 22 new cases of the Delta variant.

* Egypt's tourism revenues were between US$3.5 billion to US$4 billion during the first half of 2021 and the country received about 3.5 million tourists from January to June, Ghada Shalaby, deputy minister of tourism, told Reuters.

* South Africa hit a record of 26,000 fresh COVID-19 cases on Saturday, its second record-breaking tally in as many days, as a rampant third wave of infections coursed through a largely unvaccinated population.

* Three major wildfires have burned across over 40,000 acres in Northern California, the United States.

Xinhua,Reuters