USA

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 06 (APP): Disruptions due to the coronavirus pandemic resulted in considerable increases in malaria cases and deaths between 2019 and 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO), a Geneva-based UN agency, said Monday.

However, “the doomsday scenario” projected by the WHO has not materialized,” Dr Pedro Alonso, Director, WHO Global Malaria Programme said at the launch of the UN agency’s annual World Malaria Report in Geneva.

HOUSTON, Dec 6 (NNN-AGENCIES) – The World Petroleum Congress, the largest triennial gathering for the industry, kicked off yesterday in Houston, the largest city of south central U.S. state Texas, amid the shadow of the fast-spreading Omicron variant of COVID-19 and the uncertainty of global economic activity and energy consumption.

NEW YORK, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) -- For the first time in two months, the United States is averaging more than 100,000 new COVID-19 cases each day, a few days after millions of Americans traveled for the Thanksgiving holiday.

The seven-day moving average of new cases was 121,437 as of Saturday, CNN cited data from Johns Hopkins University (JHU). Prior to the week, the United States last topped the 100,000-cases-a-day mark in early October.

MADISON, Wisc. (AP) — A group formed to support former President Donald Trump’s agenda is working with Wisconsin Republicans on a ballot measure that would bypass the state’s Democratic governor to change how elections are run in the battleground state.

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy appears to have settled on a strategy to deal with a handful of Republican lawmakers who have stirred outrage with violent, racist and sometimes Islamophobic comments.

If you can’t police them, promote them.

(AP) --- U.S. health officials said Sunday that while the omicron variant of the coronavirus is rapidly spreading throughout the country, early indications suggest it may be less dangerous than delta, which continues to drive a surge of hospitalizations.

President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told CNN’s “State of the Union” that scientists need more information before drawing conclusions about omicron’s severity.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Bob Dole willed himself to walk again after paralyzing war wounds, ran for Congress with a right arm too damaged to shake hands, and rose through the Senate ranks to become a long-serving Republican leader and tough and tireless champion of his party.

He embodied flinty determination to succeed.

Yet Dole, who died Sunday at age 98, was most famous for the times he came up short.

WASHINGTON, Dec 5 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United States led a group of Western nations and allies in condemnation of the Taliban over the “summary killings” of former members of the Afghan security forces reported by rights groups, demanding quick investigations.

“We are deeply concerned by reports of summary killings and enforced disappearances of former members of the Afghan security forces as documented by Human Rights Watch and others,” read a statement by the United States, the European Union, Australia, Britain, Japan and others, which was released by the State Department.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Insurance companies operating in Louisiana will be charged at least $100 million to pay the claims of two failed property insurers who went belly up in Hurricane Ida’s aftermath. But the cost of dealing with the insolvent insurers ultimately will fall on the state after companies recoup the dollars through a series of tax credits.

Washington, Dec 5 (PTI) The US has made it mandatory for all incoming passengers, including those from India, to carry a negative COVID-19 test report or a proof of recovery from the contagion amidst rising number of cases of the new Omicron variant.

The new protocol comes into effect from December 6, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has said.