One way to counter China’s military modernization, growing nuclear capabilities and technological advances is to strengthen U.S. alliances in the region, Austin told a security conference in California on Saturday, fresh from a visit to South Korea.

A conflict between two of Ethiopia’s northern states has intensified, with thousands of people in the western Tigray region forced to flee their homes or detained.

A federal judge in Virginia on Friday ruled that war-crimes lawsuits against a Libyan military commander who used to live in the U.S. must stay on hold for now to avoid interfering with upcoming presidential elections there.

China on Wednesday urged its citizens to leave three provinces in eastern Congo as violence intensifies in the mineral-rich region.

Ethiopia’s government said its forces have recaptured a swathe of territory in the north of the country in a major counter-offensive against fighters loyal to the dissident Tigray province and have gained the upper hand in a year-long civil war.

The Netherlands' RIVM health institute disclosed that patient samples dating from Nov. 19 and 23 were found to contain the variant. It was last Wednesday, Nov. 24, that South African authorities reported the existence of the highly mutated virus to the World Health Organization.

Deposed Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok was reinstated earlier this month under military oversight in a deal that many in the pro-democracy movement oppose. Since the generals seized power on Oct. 25 and rounded up more than 100 civilian government figures, protesters have repeatedly taken to the streets.

Chinese President Xi Jinping said 600 million doses will be donated while the rest will be jointly produced by Chinese enterprises and African countries, without providing details. He was speaking via video at the eighth triennial Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in the Senegalese city of Diamniadio on Monday.

The hoarding of limited COVID-19 shots by rich countries — creating virtual vaccine deserts in many poorer ones — doesn't just mean risk for the parts of the world seeing shortages; it threatens the entire globe.

BioNTech said Monday that it has started development in order to move as quickly as possible. The first steps of developing a new vaccine overlap with the research necessary in order to evaluate whether the shot will be needed — a process that both it and Moderna began last Thursday as news of the new variant began to spread around the world.