World News in Brief: July 19

South African government, political parties and civil societies on Sunday commemorated the Nelson Mandela International Day by doing good to the community.

Bronze statues of Nelson Mandela and his wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela are displayed at a tourist spot in Cape Town, South Africa, July 18, 2021. In November 2009, the UN General Assembly declared July 18, Mandela's birthday, as "Nelson Mandela International Day" in recognition of the former South African president's contributions to peace and freedom. (Photo: Xinhua)
Bronze statues of Nelson Mandela and his wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela are displayed at a tourist spot in Cape Town, South Africa, July 18, 2021. In November 2009, the UN General Assembly declared July 18, Mandela's birthday, as "Nelson Mandela International Day" in recognition of the former South African president's contributions to peace and freedom. (Photo: Xinhua)

* China has financed the setup of a fund under APEC to fight COVID-19 and fuel economic recovery, President Xi Jinping said during a virtual meeting of the Asia-Pacific trade group on Friday, according to Xinhua news agency.

* India reported on Monday 38,164 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, data from health ministry showed, with deaths rising by 499, lowest in over three months.

* Asian shares slipped to a one-week low on Monday and perceived safe haven assets, including the yen and gold, edged higher amid fears of rising inflation and a surge in coronavirus cases, while oil prices fell on oversupply worries.

* Fitch Ratings on Monday affirmed Malaysia's long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating (IDR) at 'BBB+' with a stable outlook.

* Venezuelan Oil Minister Tareck El Aissami said Sunday that his country had officially consented to the oil market stabilization agreement drawn up during the 19th ministerial meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+).

* The Chinese mainland on Sunday reported five new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases in Yunnan, the National Health Commission said in its daily report on Monday. Also reported were 26 new imported cases. No new suspected cases or new deaths related to COVID-19 were reported Sunday.

* The Cuban Ministry of Public Health reported on Sunday 6,279 cases and 62 deaths of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours. The ministry's national director of hygiene and epidemiology, Francisco Duran, said that the island has registered a total of 281,887 cases and 1,905 deaths from the disease.

* Russia reported 24,633 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, including 4,007 in Moscow, taking the official national tally since the pandemic began to 5,982,766. The government coronavirus task force said 719 people had died of coronavirus-linked causes in the past 24 hours, pushing the national death toll to 149,138.

* Indonesia reported a record 1,338 new coronavirus deaths on Monday, data from its COVID-19 task force showed, taking the total number of fatalities to 74,920. The number of new infections on Monday was 34,257, the data showed, the lowest daily number since July 6. It has recorded over 2.9 million cases.

* Prime Minister Boris Johnson ends more than a year of COVID-19 lockdown restrictions in England on Monday, urging the public to remain cautious but putting his faith in vaccines to protect the country even as infections are surging.

* Australian authorities on Monday said Victoria state will extend a COVID-19 lockdown beyond Tuesday despite a slight drop in new infections as the country's two biggest cities fight to stop the spread of the highly infectious Delta variant.

* Republic of Korea will expand tougher COVID-19 restrictions on private gatherings to outside the Seoul metropolitan area, as the country struggles to contain its worst outbreak, its prime minister said on Sunday.

* Nearly 50 African countries will receive 25 million COVID-19 vaccine doses donated by the United States, US officials and the Gavi vaccine alliance said.

* The US health regulator will review Pfizer and German partner BioNTech SE's application for full approval of their COVID-19 vaccine in people 16 years and older by January, the companies said.

* Saudi citizens will need two COVID-19 vaccine doses before they can travel outside the kingdom from Aug. 9, state news agency SPA reported on Monday, citing the ministry of interior.

* China and Egypt on Sunday decided to jointly donate 500,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to address the immediate needs of the local people.

* Turkey has so far administered over 63.4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines in its ongoing vaccination campaign, the Health Ministry revealed on Monday.

* South Sudan has stopped vaccination against COVID-19 after it exhausted all its AstraZeneca vaccines it received from the COVAX facility in March. The country is expecting to receive additional 60,000 AstraZeneca vaccines in August from the COVAX facility.

* Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou said on Sunday that the country is aiming to reopen its borders to foreigners who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of the year.

* Iran will continue to attend the Vienna talks to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement after President-elect Ebrahim Raisi and his cabinet take office in August, official news agency IRNA quoting Iran's Foreign Ministry as saying on Monday.

* The strike of employees of Groundforce, a ground-handling company, caused the cancellation of 327 flights on Sunday in Portugal, according to the official source from ANA, a company which manages the Portugal Airports.

* Militants affiliated with the Afghan Taliban have overrun Dihrawud district in the southern Uruzgan province, a local official said Monday. The official on condition of anonymity confirmed that the Dihrawud district has fallen to the armed insurgents on Monday.

* One person died and three others were injured in a shooting early Sunday morning in Walnut Creek, Northern California of the United States, police said.

Xinhua,Reuters