California eclipsed two-million COVID-19 cases today as the US heads into a holiday season of travel and family gatherings that threaten to fuel the pandemic. It took 292 days for California to get to one-million confirmed infections. The next million were reported over a period of 44 days. Despite warnings from public health experts to stay home, more than 1.19 million travellers passed through US airport security checkpoints yesterday. COVID-19 has killed more than 327,000 Americans, at a rate of 3,000 per day for the past two weeks.

The apparent drowning death of a prominent Pakistani dissident in Toronto is provoking suspicion. Police said they had found 37 year old Karima Mehrab dead yesterday. Mehrab, widely known as Karima Baloch, had been reported missing a day earlier. A close friend and fellow activist tells The Canadian Press that Mehrab had recently received death threats. Her body was pulled from waters near downtown Toronto. Police in Toronto say they are not treating the apparent drowning death of a prominent Pakistani dissident as suspicious. But Lateef Johar, a friend of Karima Mehrab, says the family fears

Prime Minister Boris Johnson says British and French officials are working "to unblock the flow of trade as fast as possible" after France barred U.K. trucks over concerns about a new variant of the coronavirus. There are kilometres-long lineups of trucks waiting to get out of Britain near the Port of Dover. France has banned trucks from entering for 48 hours while a new strain of COVID-19 that is spreading in southeast England is assessed.Dozens of countries have barred flights from the U.K. because of the new variant, which scientists believe is more easily transmitted. Southern England, wh

More than 300 schoolboys kidnapped last week in an attack on their school in northwest Nigeria have arrived in the capital of Katsina state to celebrate their release. The boys were abducted one week ago from the all-boys Government Science Secondary School in Kankara in Katsina state village. Nigeria's Boko Haram jihadist rebels claimed responsibility for the abduction, saying they attacked the school because it believes Western education is un-Islamic, factional leader Abubakar Shekau said in a video earlier this week. More than 800 students were at the school at the time of the attack. Hun

A North Carolina police officer and an armed suspect have been killed outside a fast food restaurant after a shootout that also left another officer wounded. The shooting happened late Wednesday night in Concord, which is just northeast of Charlotte. Authorities identified the slain officer as Officer Jason Shuping, who joined the force last year. Police Chief Gary J. Gacek says two officers encountered a carjacking suspect at a Sonic Drive-in and were shot. He says another two officers then arrived and fatally shot the suspect. The fatal shooting marks the second time since last week that a

President-elect Joe Biden says his Electoral College victory of the same magnitude as President Donald Trump's in 2016 is a signal that the current president should finally accept his own defeat in this year's election. Biden noted during a speech Monday in Wilmington, Delaware, that Trump called his 2016 tally of 306 electoral votes a "landslide." Biden says if that constituted a clear victory then, he wanted to "respectfully suggest" that Trump now accept Biden's victory this year. Trump has refused to concede defeat in the presidential vote, making repeated and unfounded allegations of wid

US President Donald Trump's campaign is joining an improbable case before the Supreme Court, challenging election results in Pennsylvania and other states that he lost. Trump is apparently trying to look past the justices' rejection of a last-gasp bid to reverse Pennsylvania's certification of Democrat Joe Biden's victory. The suit by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, demands the 62 total Electoral College votes in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin be invalidated.

Margaret Keenan, a 90-year-old grandmother on Tuesday became the first Briton/person in the world to receive the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine shot outside of a clinical trial.The United Kingdom has become the first Western nation to begin vaccinating its citizens with a coronavirus shot outside of clinical trials, a landmark moment amid the pandemic, CNN reported.Those who are vaccinated will be issued with a "vaccination passport" containing details such as date of vaccination and date of the first inoculation to remind people when to receive the second jab.The vaccine has to be administered twice

The US Department of Justice is refusing to comment on media reports that its lawyers are seeking a plea deal of sorts with Chinese tech executive Meng Wanzhou. The Wall Street Journal reports Justice Department lawyers have approached Huawei's chief financial officer about the possibility of a so-called deferred prosecution agreement. The newspaper says in exchange for admitting wrongdoing, Meng would be allowed to leave Canada and Vancouver, where she has been awaiting possible extradition to the US for the last two years. Meng was arrested in Vancouver two years ago at the behest of US off