Mexico’s president tests positive for COVID-19

Kremlin foe Alexei Navalny, detained on Sunday after flying back to Russia for the first time after being poisoned with a nerve agent, is spending his days under strict control in a VIP cell inside one of Moscow’s most infamous jails.

Democrat Joe Biden was sworn in as President of the United States on Wednesday, vowing to end the 'uncivil war' in a deeply divided country reeling from a battered economy and a raging coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 400 000 Americans.

For Joe Biden, becoming president of the United States was the realisation of a decades-long quest, with two previous failed bids.

Kamala Harris made history on Wednesday when she was sworn in as Joe Biden's Vice President, becoming the first woman, the first Black American and the first Asian American to hold the second highest US office.

Joe Biden is being inaugurated as the 46th President of the United States of America.

Former United States of America vice president, Joe Biden is being inaugurated as the 46th president of the United States of America

Joe Biden will sign 15 executive actions after he is sworn in as US president on Wednesday, aides said, undoing policies put in place by outgoing President Donald Trump and making his first moves on the pandemic and climate change.

The Kremlin said on Wednesday it remained committed to extending the New START nuclear arms control treaty with the United States and would welcome efforts promised by the administration of U.S. President-elect Joe Biden to reach agreement.

Pope Francis on Wednesday urged more nations to join a UN treaty banning nuclear weapons, saying their prohibition is badly needed to promote peace today.

United States Army National Guard and Secret Service police remained on duty in Washington D.C, on Tuesday night ahead of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration as the 46th president.

China’s capital Beijing said on Wednesday it will investigate all individuals who entered the city from abroad from December 10 and shut down a subway station after reporting the biggest daily jump in new COVID-19 cases in more than three weeks.

An earthquake of magnitude 6.8 struck west-central Argentina on Monday, followed by at least five aftershocks that shook buildings and sent products tumbling off supermarket shelves, but there were no immediate reports of injuries.

US President Donald Trump, in a farewell address released on Tuesday, urged prayers for the new administration of President-elect Joe Biden but declined to acknowledge his Democratic successor by name.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and state premiers agreed on Tuesday to extend a lockdown for most shops and schools until February 14 as part of a package of steps to try to rein in the coronavirus.

The US coronavirus death toll topped 400 000 on Tuesday, according to a Reuters tally, as the country hardest hit by the pandemic struggled to meet the demand for vaccines to stem the spread of infection.

A Virginia man with an apparent leadership role in the far-right militia group known as the "Oath Keepers" was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly "planning and coordinating" the January 6 breach of the US Capitol, the Justice Department said.

India, one of the world's biggest drugmakers, will start exports of COVID-19 vaccines as early as Wednesday, government sources said, paving the way for many mid- and lower-income countries to secure supplies of the easy-to-store Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.

Guatemalan security forces on Monday cleared a road of hundreds of people in a mostly Honduran migrant caravan that had camped out overnight when authorities barred it from advancing toward the United States.

China reported more than 100 new COVID-19 cases for a seventh day on Tuesday in the worst domestic outbreak since March last year, with one northeastern province seeing a record daily increase.

US President-elect Joe Biden plans to quickly extend travel restrictions barring travel by most people who have recently been in much of Europe and Brazil soon after President Donald Trump lifted those requirements effective January 26, a spokesperson for Biden said.

Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny on Monday urged Russians to take to the streets in protest after a judge remanded him in pre-trial detention for 30 days despite calls from Western countries to free the opposition politician.

France's average daily new COVID-19 infections hit a six-and-a-half week high of 18 270 on Monday, while the number of people being treated in intensive care units for the disease rose above 2 800 for the first time in a month.

An independent panel said on Monday that Chinese officials could have applied public health measures more forcefully in January to curb the initial COVID-19 outbreak, and criticised the World Health Organization (WHO) for not declaring an international emergency until January 30.

Global deaths from COVID-19 are expected to top 100,000 per week “very soon”, from more than 93,000 reported last week, the World Health Organization’s top emergency expert Mike Ryan said on Monday.

Gun rights activists will converge on the Virginia state capital on Monday for an annual demonstration that falls at an especially tense time this year, after the Jan. 6 siege of the U.S. Capitol and two days before the presidential inauguration.

Law enforcement officers far outnumbered protesters at state capitol grounds on Sunday, as few Trump supporters who believe the president’s false claim that he won the 2020 election turned out for what authorities feared could be violent demonstrations.

Russian police detained Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny at passport control after he flew home to Russia on Sunday, his lawyer, the prison service and Reuters witnesses said.

Guatemalan security forces on Sunday used sticks and tear gas to beat back a large migrant caravan bound for the United States

Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny took off on a plane bound for Russia on Sunday, to return home for the first time since he was poisoned last summer, despite Russian authorities' stated desire to arrest him and potentially jail him for years.

At least 78 people have been killed after an earthquake struck Indonesia's West Sulawesi province on Friday, the Search and Rescue agency (Basarnas) said on Sunday, the latest in a string of disasters to hit the Southeast Asian country.