KEY COVID NOS. WORLDWIDE

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

               World    34,10,102                           56,67,432                           10,329                  7,21,89,411                       727.1

1             USA        5,22,300                             9,05,661                             2,732                    2,85,59,353                       2,711

2             France   3,53,503                             1,30,278                             263                       66,60,843                           1,989

3             Spain     1,18,922                             92,966                  199                       38,46,305                           1,987

4             UK          89,176                  1,55,317                             277                       30,68,969                           2,269

5             Italy       1,43,898                             1,45,537                             378                       26,68,828                           2,413

6             Brazil     2,57,239                             6,25,948                             779                       22,51,299                           2,912

7             India      2,35,532                             4,93,198                             613                       20,04,333                           352

8             Germany              1,89,464                             1,18,244                             179                       19,11,657                           1,404

9             Netherlands        74,019                  21,262                  9                            11,04,379                           1,237

10           Russia    98,040                  3,29,443                             673                       10,14,017                           2,256

11           Belgium               68,285                  28,938                  36                          9,54,817                             2,480

12           Switzerland         18,701                  12,785                  7                            8,25,989                             1,460

13           Argentina            63,884                  1,20,657                             305                       7,63,420                             2,632

14           Sweden                               15,820                                                7,55,618                             1,551

15           Poland   57,262                  1,04,907                             271                       7,42,017                             2,777

16           Norway 21,519                  1,439                                                  6,45,660                             262

17           Mexico  49,150                  3,04,803                             495                       6,27,943                             2,326

18           Turkey   93,586                  86,871                  210                       6,03,892                             1,013

19           Portugal               63,833                  19,788                  44                          5,79,370                             1,950

20           Israel     45,376                  8,599                    43                          5,38,228                             922

33           Philippines           18,638                  53,801                  68                          2,31,658                             481

41           Bangladesh         15,440                  28,308                  20                          1,72,094                             169

55           Pakistan               8,183                    29,192                  30                          98,221                  128

106        Sri Lanka              961                       15,386                  17                          15,365                  714

WEST IS IGNORING RUSSIA’S SECURITY CONCERNS: PUTIN

President Vladimir Putin told French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on Friday that the West was ignoring Moscow’s security concerns over Ukraine but added that Russia would hold off from taking action immediately.

Mr. Putin and Mr. Macron spoke by phone amid deep fears that a Russian troop build-up on the Ukrainian border is a precursor to a Russian invasion of its pro-Western neighbour. Russia denies any plans to invade but has demanded security guarantees from the West.

The Kremlin said in a statement that both the leaders held a “long telephone conversation” and that Mr. Putin expressed his dissatisfaction with a U.S. response to Moscow’s demands that was delivered earlier this week.

“The U.S. and NATO responses did not take into account Russia’s fundamental concerns, including preventing NATO’s expansion and refusing to deploy strike weapons systems near Russia’s borders,” Mr. Putin told Mr. Macron.

“The key question was also ignored,” Mr. Putin said, pointing to the “principle of the indivisibility of security” in international affairs, that no country should strengthen its security at the expense of others.

Mr. Putin said Russia would “carefully study” the responses “after which it will decide on further actions”.

10 PAKISTAN SOLDIERS DIE IN BALOCH ATTACK

Ten Pakistani soldiers and a militant were killed in an overnight shootout on January 25-26 at a checkpost in Kech district of Balochistan, while a landmine blast on Friday in Dera Bhugti district left at least four members of a progovernment “peace force” dead and 10 wounded. The military said a hunt was launched after the Kech gunfight and three insurgents were rounded up. “The army is determined to eliminate terrorists,” the army said. Separatist group Balochistan Liberation Front took responsibility for the attack and said one of its members died in the clash and the military lost 17 soldiers. The attack followed new outfit Baloch Nationalist Army’s January 20 bombing in Lahore, killing three people.

T he restive southwestern Pakistani province of Balochistan has seen a rise in separatist, sectarian and Islamist violence since 2004. In the past, Pakistan has blamed India for supporting Baloch separatists through the Wester n-backed government in Afghanistan, before theTaliban take over. B alochistan CM Mir Abdul Qudoos Bizenjo said the victims of Friday’s blast were members of “Aman Force”. Baloch separatists oppose the $60 billion CPEC linking the Chinese province of Xingjian with thestrategic town of Gwadar in Balochistan.

NEOCOV CORONAVIRUS FOUND IN BATS, MAY POSE THREAT TO HUMANS IN FUTURE: EXPERTS

A type of coronavirus, NeoCov, that spreads among bats in South Africa may pose a threat to humans in future if it mutates further, according to a study by Chinese researchers. The yet-to-be peer-reviewed study recently posted on the preprint repository BioRxiv, shows that NeoCov is closely related to the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers). Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Wuhan University noted that NeoCov to date spreads exclusively among these animals.

I n its current form, NeoCov does not infect humans but further mutations may make it potentially harmful, the researchers noted. “We found that NeoCov. . . can use some types of bat Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and human ACE2 for entry,” the authors noted. ACE2 is a receptor protein on cells that provides the entry point for coronavirus to hook into and infect a wide range of cells.

The authors also noted that infection with NeoCov could not be cross-neutralised by antibodies targeting Sars-Cov-2 or Mers-Cov. “Considering the extensive mutations in the RBD regions of the Sars-Cov-2 variants, especially the heavily mutated Omicron variant, these viruses may hold a latent potential to infect humans through further adaptation. ” The WHO, however, told TASS news agency that “whether the virus will pose a risk for humans will require further study. Animals are the source of over 75% of all emerging infectious diseases in humans, many of which are caused by novel viruses. ”

CHINA PLANS 'MEGACONSTELLATION' OF 13,000 SATELLITES, CLAIMS REPORT

China is embarking on a mission that has renewed concerns about spying. It plans to send upto 13,000 satellites in space - a ‘megaconstellation’ - that will encircle the Earth in the lower orbit, a report in the Daily Mail said.

The company that has got the responsibility of this work has said that the main goal of the mission is to establish supremacy in lower Earth orbit, the report further said.

Strengthening of 5G network is the aim: China

China's State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND) has called for orderly development of small satellites, according to the Daily Mail report.

It said that the group of satellites will be able to provide surveillance over much of the Earth and strengthen internet facilities.

Though the details about what the network will cover and how it will work are vague, the aim is to fill gaps in terrestrial communication, especially in rural areas, to strengthen its 5G network services, the report further said.

Similar to SpaceX Starlink

According to China’s plan, the 12,992 satellites will orbit in low earth orbit like the satellites of SpaceX-Starlink company - in a ‘megaconstellation’. Their range will be between 498.89 kilometres to 1144.24 kilometres above the surface of the Earth.

Some firms have been given the contract to begin the development work in Chongqing, the Daily Mail report claimed.

A ‘megaconstellation’ is a network of thousands of satellites which cover the length and breadth of the Earth to deliver internet services. The SpaceX Starlink is currently the most developed, with nearly 2,000 satellites in operation.

The satellite internet constellation is a top priority for the Chinese government.

SIX ROCKETS HIT BAGHDAD AIRPORT, PLANE

Six rockets struck Baghdad’s international airport facility on Friday, damaging two commercial planes but causing no casualties, Iraq’s military said in a statement.

The rockets fired in the early morning landed on planes parked in a waiting area of Iraqi Airways, the country’s national carrier, the statement said.

One rocket punched a gaping hole in the cockpit area of the plane.

The attack marks an escalation of a series of rocket and drone strikes that have targeted the United States and their allies as well as Iraqi government institutions since the start of the year.

10BN COVID VAX DOSES HAVE BEEN GIVEN GLOBALLY

When PM Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel rolled up his sleeve in December 2020 to receive a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, kicking off one of the world’s first mass rollouts of Covid shots, he declared that it marked “the beginning of the end” of the pandemic.

Thirteen months later, his prediction has proved far from true, but 10 billion vaccine doses have been administered globally, a milestone that reflects the astonishing speed with which governments and drug companies have mobilised, allowing many nations to envision a near future in which their people coexist with the virus but aren’t confined by it.

The milestone, reached on Friday, according to the Our World in Data project at the University of Oxford, has not been arrived at equitably, even though 10 billion doses could theoretically have meant at least one shot for all of the world’s 7. 9 billion people.

In the wealthiest countries, 77% of people have received at least one dose, whereas in lowincome countries the figure is less than 10%. As North America and Europe race to overcome Omicron surges by offering boosters, with some nations even contemplating a fourth shot, over one-third of the world’s people, many of them in Africa and poor pockets of Asia, are still waiting for a first dose.

LONDON POLICE CALL FOR LIMITS ON ‘PARTYGATE’ REPORT

An inquiry into Covid-19 lockdown-breaking gatherings in Downing Street that might determine the future of British PM Boris Johnson could be further delayed after police asked for the report to make only “minimal reference” to those events.

The report is looking into several allegations that staff, and PM Boris Johnson, attended parties in Downing Street in breach of Covid rules. It had been expected to be released this week but that time scale was derailed when on Tuesday, London’s Metropolitan Police said they had opened a probe into the events to assess whether criminal offences had been committed. “For the events Metropolitan Police is investigating, we asked for minimal reference to be made in the Cabinet office report,” police said.

RUSSIA LOSES A MILLION PEOPLE IN HISTORIC POPULATION FALL

Russia's population declined by more than one million people in 2021, the statistics agency Rosstat reported Friday, a historic drop not seen since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Ongoing demographic woes have been exacerbated by the pandemic with Rosstat figures showing more than 660,000 had died with coronavirus since health officials recorded the first case in the country.

The new figures continue a downward trend from the previous year when Russia's population fell by more than half a million.

The Covid-related fatalities figures published monthly by Rosstat are far higher than death figures released by a separate government website, which is dedicated to tracking the pandemic in the country.

Those government website figures only take into account fatalities where the virus was established as the primary cause of death after an autopsy and shows just 329,443 total fatalities.

The discrepancy has fed into criticism that the Russian government has been downplaying the severity of the pandemic in one of the worst-hit countries by cases in the world.

The pandemic death toll exacerbates the demographic crisis, linked to low birth rates and a short life expectancy, that Russia has faced for the past 30 years.

Birth rates have been falling because the generation now becoming parents were born in the 1990s, when the birth rate plunged due to economic uncertainties after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The number of births per woman stands at around 1.5, well short of the minimum of 2.1 necessary to renew the population.

HONDURAS GETS ITS FIRST WOMAN PRESIDENT

Leftist Xiomara Castro was sworn in on Thursday as the first woman President of Honduras, vowing to reform the crime-and poverty-stricken nation into a “socialist and democratic state.”

Ms. Castro, 62, took the oath at a massive ceremony attended by international dignitaries after an embarrassing week of fighting within her party that challenged her authority.

In her address at the Tegucigalpa National Stadium, Ms. Castro denounced “social and economic tragedy confronting Honduras” and vowed to improve education, healthcare, security and employment.

GIANTS BRIGADES PULL OUT OF KEY YEMEN BATTLE ZONE

A UAE-trained militia that delivered a series of defeats to Yemen’s rebels has begun withdrawing from a key area of the conflict, it announced on Friday.

The Giants Brigades said it was repositioning its forces after driving the rebels out of Shabwa province and beginning a push north towards Marib, the strategically vital city that the rebels have been trying to capture for months.

The announcement followed two drone-and-missile attacks by the Houthi rebels on the UAE, the first of which killed three oil workers. “After the great success achieved by the Giants Brigades... it began transferring its brigades to the main headquarters,” the militia said in a statement.