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International News

Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine set to get clearance by year-end: Report

In India, the vaccine is being produced as part of a tie-up with the Serum Institute of India.Health officials in the UK hope that the authorisation of the Oxford jab will prove a game-changer, allowing vaccines to be transported and administered far more easily compared to the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine which must be stored at very cold temperatures.

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Global cos, govt agencies among 200 victims of suspected Russian hacking

Recorded Future Inc., a cybersecurity firm based in Massachusetts, has identified 198 victims that were hacked using the SolarWinds backdoor, said threat analyst Allan Liska. Three other people said the inquiry so far has determined that the hackers further compromised at least 200 victims, moving within the computer networks or attempting to gain user credentials — what cybersecurity experts call “hands on keyboard” activity. The final number could rise from there.

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Global Covid-19 cases surpass 76 mn, death toll up by 1.68 mn: Johns Hopkins

The US is the worst-hit country with the world’s highest number of cases and deaths at 17,631,293 and 316,006, respectively, according to the CSSE.

India comes in second place in terms of cases at 10,004,599, while the country’s death toll soared to 145,136.

The other countries with more than a million confirmed cases are Brazil (7,213,155), Russia (2,792,615), France (2,516,957), the UK (2,010,077), Turkey (2,004,285), Italy (1,938,083 ), Spain (1,797,236), Argentina (1,537,169), Colombia (1,496,062), Germany (1,494,063), Mexico (1,301,546), Poland (1,194,110) and Iran (1,152,072), the CSSE figures showed.

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‘Powerful tradecraft’: how foreign cyber-spies compromised America

Revelations of the attack come at a vulnerable time as the U.S. government grapples with a contentious presidential transition and a spiraling public health crisis. And it reflects a new level of sophistication and scale, hitting numerous federal agencies and threatening to inflict far more damage to public trust in America’s cybersecurity infrastructure than previous acts of digital espionage.

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European neighbours shut doors to Britain as new coronavirus strain spreads

“The United Kingdom has issued an alert concerning a new strain of Covid-19,” Di Maio wrote on his Facebook account. “As the government, our duty is to protect Italians and for this reason… we will sign, with the health minister, a decree suspending flights to and from Britain,” he said, without specifying when the measure would come into effect.

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Global stocks, sterling unsettled as new virus strain shuts UK

Analysts at BofA noted a huge $46.4 billion flowed into equities in the latest week, while the outflow from cash was the largest in four months. There were record flows into tech shares and large flows to the consumer sector, healthcare, financials, real estate and value stocks.

BofA chief investment strategist Michael Hartnett said a “sell signal” had been triggered for the first time since February as cash levels declined to 4.0% in the latest Global Fund Manager Survey.

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