KEY COVID NOS. WORLDWIDE

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

               World    3,18,543              /             49,19,101            /             4,473     /             1,78,10,075        /             631.1

1             USA        36,546   /             7,45,656              /             519        /             96,32,824            /             2,236

2             UK          49,156   /             1,38,629              /             45           /             14,04,586            /             2,028

3             Russia    34,325   /             2,24,310              /             998        /             7,85,647              /             1,536

4             Turkey   29,240   /             67,837   /             214        /             4,99,375              /             793

5             Mexico  1,993     /             2,84,381              /             60           /             3,55,421              /             2,176

6             Iran        11,844   /             1,24,256              /             181        /             3,39,099              /             1,455

7             Ukraine 9,524     /             60,810   /             177        /             2,54,466              /             1,401

8             Honduras                            /             10,097   /                            /             2,48,406              /             999

9             Brazil     7,446     /             6,03,465              /             141        /             2,35,037              /             2,813

10           India      12,242   /             4,52,485              /             164        /             1,90,075              /             324

11           Poland   1,537     /             76,115   /             3             /             1,87,474              /             2,014

12           Romania              10,141   /             42,042   /             261        /             1,79,937              /             2,204

13           Germany              6,568     /             95,511   /             57           /             1,49,278              /             1,135

14           Serbia    6,461     /             9,157     /             52           /             1,20,804              /             1,054

15           Thailand               10,111   /             18,336   /             63           /             1,07,226              /             262

16           Norway 545        /             884        /                            /             1,07,060              /             161

17           Finland  1,310     /             1,120     /             4             /             1,04,087              /             202

18           Malaysia              5,434     /             27,993   /             72           /             89,173   /             851

19           France   1,057     /             1,17,306              /             41           /             87,675   /             1,792

20           Italy       1,597     /             1,31,585              /             44           /             76,363   /             2,180

53           Pakistan               663        /             28,280   /             11           /             25,870   /             125

95           Bangladesh         339        /             27,778   /             10           /             9,678     /             167

US ‘VERY CONCERNED’ DESPITE CHINA DENIALS OVER HYPERSONIC MISSILE

The United States is “very concerned” about China’s development of hypersonic technology, the US disarmament ambassador, Robert Wood, has said, after reports that Beijing had recently launched a hypersonic missile with a nuclear capacity.

“We are very concerned by what China has been doing on the hypersonic front,” Robert Wood told reporters in Geneva.

The Financial Times reported on Saturday that Beijing had launched a nuclear-capable missile in August that circled the Earth at low orbit before narrowly missing its target. Citing multiple sources, the FT claimed the hypersonic missile was carried by a Long March rocket and that the test had been kept under wraps.

“We just don’t know how we can defend against that type of technology. Neither does China or Russia,” Wood told reporters.

But Beijing said the report was inaccurate, and the exercise was a test of reusable technology that could reduce the cost of launching spacecraft.

“According to my understanding, this test is a routine spacecraft test, used to test a reusable spacecraft technology,” the Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters in a regular press briefing. “This could provide a convenient and cheap way for humans to use space for peaceful purposes.”

The reported launch of a hypersonic missile puzzled some observers in Washington. One US official told the FT: “We have no idea how they did this.” The FT report said Beijing’s progress in the field had “caught US intelligence by surprise”.

Drew Thompson, a former director for China, Taiwan and Mongolia in the Office of the Secretary of Defense in the US, said that the Department of Defense and the intelligence community have been monitoring and tracking China’s various missile programmes “for years”.

COLIN POWELL: FORMER US SECRETARY OF STATE DIES OF COVID COMPLICATIONS

Colin Powell, a US war hero and the first Black secretary of state who saw his trailblazing legacy tarnished when he made the case for war in Iraq in 2003, died Monday from complications from Covid-19.

The 84-year-old retired four-star general was fully vaccinated, his family said in a statement, making him one of the most high-profile US public figures to die of a breakthrough infection.

"We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, grandfather and a great American," the family said.

After engineering military victory in the 1991 Gulf War, Powell was so widely popular and respected that he was considered a strong candidate to become the first ever Black US president.

He ultimately decided against running for the White House, although he later broke with his Republican Party to endorse Barack Obama.

A son of Jamaican immigrants, Powell frequently shattered glass ceilings in a pioneering career that took him from combat in Vietnam to becoming America's first Black national security advisor under then-president Ronald Reagan.

He was also the first African American and youngest chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Reagan's successor, George H.W. Bush.

Serving four presidents, Powell made his reputation as a man of honor distant from the political fray -- an asset in the corridors of power.

George W. Bush described Powell as "an American hero, an American example, and a great American story" when he nominated the professional soldier to be secretary of state in 2000, making him fourth in the presidential line and, up to then, the highest-ranking Black US public official ever.

BANGLADESH VIOLENCE NEEDS TO STOP: UN

A mob has damaged 66 houses and set on fire over 20 homes of Hindus in Bangladesh over an alleged blasphemous social media post amid protests by the minority community against temple vandalism incidents during the Durga Puja celebrations last week, authorities said on Monday. The arson attack by over a hundred people happened late on Sunday in a village in Rangpur district’s Pirganj upazila, about 255 kms from Dhaka, the bdnews24.com reported.

The police rushed to the village as tension mounted over a rumour that a Hindu resident had made a “blasphemous” post on Facebook, assistant police Superintendent Mohammad Kamruzzaman told reporters. “The incident took place after 10pm (local time) on Sunday but firefighters doused the blaze within a short period (and) the situation is now under full control,” he said. No casualties were reported but 66 houses were damaged and 20 burnt during the attack, the officer said.

As many as 52 suspects have been arrested while a manhunt was launched for more suspects under a “combing operation” in collaboration with other security forces, he added. As the police stood guard around the man’s home, the attackers set fire to other homes nearby, the report said. According to a report by the fire service control room, the attack scene indicated that at least 29 residential houses, two kitchens, two barns and 20 haystacks belonging to 15 different owners were torched in Pirganj’s Majhipara. It said an “unruly crowd” has been identified as the cause of fire.

The attacks on minority Hindus in Bangladesh are against the values enshrined in its Constitution and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government needs to ensure an impartial inquiry into the incidents, the UN said on Monday. Communal tension continued to remain high in Bangladesh as violence spread to northern district of Rangpur during the weekend.

“Recent attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh, fuelled by hate speech on social media, are against the values of the Constitution and need to stop. We call upon the Government to ensure protection of minorities and an impartial probe. We call upon all to join hands to strengthen inclusive tolerant Bangladesh,” said Mia Seppo, UN Resident Coordinator in Bangladesh.

US AFGHAN REPRESENTATIVE ZALMAY KHALILZAD QUITS; PAYS FOR PRO-TALIBAN TILT

Thomas West has been appointed as the new US special representative to Afghanistan, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced in a statement on Monday. This comes after Zalmay Khalilzad resigned from the post following chaotic withdrawal of the American forces from Afghanistan.

"West, who served on then-Vice President Biden's national security team and on the National Security Council staff, will lead diplomatic efforts, advise the Secretary and Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, and coordinate closely with the US Embassy Kabul presence in Doha on America's interests in Afghanistan," Blinken said in a statement.

Blinken also thanked Khalilzad for his "decades of service".

"As Special Representative for Afghan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad steps down from his role, I extend my gratitude for his decades of service to the American people," Blinken said in the statement.

Khalilzad was the person who led talks with the Taliban in Qatar that resulted in the Doha agreement between the Islamic group and former US President Donald Trump to fully withdraw US troops by May 2021.

But he has been criticised for not pressing the Taliban hard enough during peace talks.

STANIKZAI HAS FLED TO DUBAI, CLAIMS REPORT

Senior Taliban leader and Afghan deputy minister of foreign affairs, Sher Muhammad Abbas Stanikzai, has reportedly fled Kabul to join his family in Dubai. Multiple sources said Stanikzai is afraid that he could be assassinated by the Pakistani spy agency ISI, if he returned. The sources said Stanikzai has been accused by the pro-Pakistan Haqqani members in the Taliban regime of having “close” ties with Russia and India. Stanikzai passed out of the Indian Military Academy. India’s first formal contact in August with the Taliban was with Stanikzai, who was then the head of the Taliban’s political office in Doha.