KEY COVID NOS. WORLDWIDE

Pos   /   Country   /   New Daily cases   /   Total Deaths   /        Daily Deaths /           Active Cases   /           Deaths/1M Pop.

               World    3,75,059              /             54,16,254            /             2,966     /             2,45,55,274               /             694.9

1             USA        94,698   /             8,37,846              /             44           /             1,13,54,117        /               2,509

2             UK                         /             1,47,857              /                            /             17,82,066            /               2,161

3             France   27,697   /             1,22,642              /             96           /             11,87,400            /               1,873

4             Russia    23,721   /             3,04,218              /             968        /             8,28,031              /               2,083

5             Germany              10,158   /             1,11,081              /             56           /             7,85,053               /             1,320

6             Spain                    /             89,019   /                            /             6,26,678              /               1,903

7             Italy       24,883   /             1,36,611              /             81           /             5,16,839              /               2,264

8             Netherlands        11,886   /             20,716   /             11           /             5,09,584              /               1,205

9             Belgium                              /             28,149   /                            /             4,14,469              /               2,413

10           Poland   6,252     /             94,327   /             16           /             3,92,077              /               2,496

11           Vietnam               15,218   /             31,214   /             207        /             3,72,219              /               316

12           Mexico  2,916     /             2,98,759              /             89           /             3,52,451              /               2,282

13           Norway                /             1,257     /                            /             2,81,914              /             229

14           Turkey   20,138   /             81,576   /             173        /             2,81,824              /             952

15           Honduras                            /             10,430   /                            /             2,44,860              /               1,029

16           Switzerland                        /             12,128   /                            /             2,41,799              /               1,386

17           South Africa       5,603     /             90,814   /             41           /             2,10,769              /               1,503

18           Brazil     4,810     /             6,18,484              /             27           /             2,06,634              /               2,879

19           Finland                 /             1,507     /                            /             1,82,885              /             271

20           Ireland  10,404   /             5,890     /                            /             1,64,198              /               1,173

32           India      6,987     /             4,79,682              /             58           /             76,766   /             343

83           Pakistan               359        /             28,907   /             2             /             9,674     /             127

84           Philippines           433        /             51,200   /             13           /             9,522     /             458

86           Sri Lanka              398        /             14,884   /             13           /             9,329     /             691

91           Bangladesh         268        /             28,060   /             4             /             7,766     /           

TUTU, WHO FOUGHT FOR A ‘RAINBOW NATION’, DIES AT 90

South African anti-apartheid icon Archbishop Desmond Tutu, described as the country’s moral compass, died on Sunday aged 90, sparking an outpouring of tributes for the outspoken Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

Tutu, who had largely faded from public life in recent years, was remembered for his easy humour and characteristic smile — and above all his tireless fight against injustices of all colours.

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa called him a man of “extraordinary intellect, integrity and invincibility against the forces of apartheid”.

Mr. Ramaphosa said Tutu’s death was “another chapter of bereavement in our nation’s farewell to a generation of outstanding South Africans who have bequeathed us a liberated South Africa”, after the country’s last apartheid-era President F.W. de Klerk died in November.

A tireless activist, Tutu won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for combating white-minority rule in his country.

He coined the term “Rainbow Nation” to describe South Africa when Nelson Mandela became the country’s first black President in 1994.

And he retired in 1996 to lead a harrowing journey into South Africa’s brutal past as head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which revealed the horrors of apartheid.

AFGHAN WOMEN CAN'T TRAVEL LONG DISTANCES WITHOUT MALE RELATIVE: TALIBAN

In yet another measure against women's rights, Afghanistan's Taliban government said on Sunday that trasport should not be offered to women seeking to travel anything other than short distances unless they are accompanied by a close male relative. The 'guidance' was issued by Taliban's Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.

The ministry also called on all vehicle owners to offer rides to women only if they were dressed in Islamic hijabs.

"Women travelling for more than 45 miles (72 kilometres) should not be offered a ride if they are not accompanied by a close family member," ministry spokesman Sadeq Akif Muhajir told AFP on Sunday, specifying that it must be a close male relative.

The guidance, circulated on social media networks, comes weeks after the ministry asked Afghanistan's television channels to stop showing dramas and soap operas featuring women actors.

The ministry had also called on women TV journalists to wear hijabs while presenting.

Muhajir said Sunday that the hijab would also be required for women seeking transport. The ministry's directive also asked people to stop playing music in their vehicles.

WORLD ECONOMY TO TOP $100TN IN 2022 FOR FIRST TIME: REPORT

The world’s economic output will exceed $100 trillion for the first time next year and it will take China a little longer than previously thought to overtake the US as the No.1 economy, a report showed on Sunday. British consultancy Cebr predicted China will become the world’s top economy in dollar terms in 2030, two years later than forecast in last year’s World Economic League Table report.

India looks set to overtake France next year and then Britain in 2023 to regain its place as the world’s sixth biggest economy, Cebr said.

“The important issue for the 2020s is how the world economies cope with inflation, which has now reached 6.8% in the US,” said Cebr deputy chairman Douglas McWilliams.

“We hope that a relatively modest adjustment to the tiller will bring the non-transitory elements under control. If not, then the world will need to brace itself for a recession in 2023 or 2024.” The report showed Germany was on track to overtake Japan in terms of economic output in 2033. Russia could become a Top 10 economy by 2036 and Indonesia looks on track for ninth place in 2034.

COVID-19: NEW RULES IN FORCE FOR THREE UK NATIONS

New Covid restrictions have come into force in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as the nations try to halt the surge in infections.

All three nations have introduced curbs on the hospitality and leisure industry, resumed social distancing rules and put limits on the size of gatherings.

Boris Johnson has not announced any further restrictions in England.

But the prime minister said he would not hesitate to act if necessary.

Daily coronavirus figures are not being reported over Christmas Day and Boxing Day, but Friday saw a new high of 122,186 UK cases.

The Office for National Statistics estimated - using its weekly random testing programme - that 1.74 million people, or one in 35, had coronavirus seven days ago. But that was before last week's big increase in the daily counts, which are based on positive results in tests.

Each of the three nations that has reimposed restrictions has chosen different rules, but they all feature limits on the size of gatherings, requirements for social distancing and tighter rules for pubs, restaurants and leisure venues.

Meanwhile in England, Covid cases have hit the popular Boxing Day football line-up, forcing the postponement of Premiership games between Burnley and Everton, Liverpool and Leeds United and Wolverhampton Wanderers against Watford.

OMICRON IN US: NEW YORK SEES 'FOUR-FOLD INCREASE' IN HOSPITALISED CHILDREN

With Omicron cases on the rise, New York health officials have reported an increase in hospitalized children, as the White House promised Sunday to quickly resolve the United States' Covid-19 test shortage.

The New York State Department of Health warned "of an upward trend in pediatric hospitalizations associated with Covid-19," in a statement Friday.

In New York City, it "identified four-fold increases in Covid-19 hospital admissions for children 18 and under beginning the week of December 5 through the current week," it said.

Approximately half of the admissions are younger than five, an age group that is vaccine ineligible, the department added.

The number of Covid-19 cases in the United States is on the rise, with an average of nearly 190,000 new infections daily over the past seven days, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.

The arrival of the new Omicron variant, compounded by holiday celebrations that typically include travel and family reunions, have caused a rush on tests in the United States, where it is difficult to get one in many locations.

ISRAEL APPROVES PLAN TO DOUBLE SETTLERS IN OCCUPIED GOLAN HEIGHTS

Israel’s government on Sunday approved a $317 million plan to double the Jewish settler population in the Golan Heights, 40 years after it annexed the territory captured from Syria.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s cabinet voted in favour of the plan that aims to build 7,300 settler homes in the region over a five-year period, during a meeting held at the Mevo Hama community in the Golan.

It calls for 1 billion Israeli shekels to be spent on housing, infrastructure and other projects with the goal of attracting roughly 23,000 new Jewish settlers to the area, seized during the 1967 Six Day War.

“Our goal today is to double the population of the Golan Heights,” the right-wing Bennett said ahead of the meeting.

Bennett said the recognition by the Trump administration of Israeli sovereignty over the swath of land, and the Biden administration’s indication that it will not at this point walk that decision back, prompted the new investment in the region.