The COVID-19 death toll in the US has now hit 150,000. The total reported by Johns Hopkins University is the highest by far in the world. A number of states in the Sunbelt had seen surges in cases, with Florida reporting 216 today. South Carolina's death toll has more than doubled over the past month, surpassing 15-hundred earlier this week. More than 4.5 million people have been tested positive for COVID-19 in US so far.

A nurse in Binghamton, New York was one of the first to get a shot this morning as the world's biggest COVID-19 vaccine study got underway.The world's biggest COVID-19 vaccine test got underway Monday with the first of 30,000 planned volunteers. Melissa Harting says she volunteered as a way to do her part to help out since she has other family members in front-line jobs that could expose them to the virus.The experimental vaccine is made by the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc., and it's one of several candidates in the final stretch of the global vaccine race.The needed proof: Wh

US President Donald Trump's coronavirus briefings are coming back starting tomorrow afternoon. That will be a first since late April, when ratings began to slide and Trump mused about the possibility of using disinfectants inside the body to kill the virus. He now says record numbers of people watched the briefings adding that, ``in the history of cable television, television, there's never been anything like it.'' The virus has killed at least 140,000 Americans and is surging again in much of the country.

There have been some minor side effects, but scientists at Oxford University say their experimental COVID-19 vaccine has produced good early results. The study conducted on about one-thousand people prompted a protective immune response in hundreds of people who got the shot. Dr. Adrian Hill says the vaccine does well at triggering both arms of the immune system. He says neutralizing antibodies are produced, molecules which are key to blocking infection and that the vaccine also causes a reaction in the body's T-cells which help to fight off the coronavirus.

After many Twitter accounts belonging to Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Bill Gates among others were on Wednesday hacked to promote a bitcoin scam, the microblogging site said it is investigating the incident and taking steps to fix it.In a first response after the incident, Twitter Support tweeted: "We are aware of a security incident impacting accounts on Twitter. We are investigating and taking steps to fix it. We will update everyone shortly."A number of high profile Twitter accounts including that of US presidential hopeful Joe Biden, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Microsoft Co-founder Bill Gates and

A man in suburban Detroit was given the wrong lottery ticket. But there was no mistake about the result: a $2 million winner.The Michigan Lottery said the man stopped at a gas station in Eastpointe, Michigan, to put air in a tire. He needed change for the air machine and also asked for a $10 Lucky 7's scratch-off ticket."The clerk handed me the $20 ticket by mistake. He offered to exchange it for me but something told me to keep it. I am sure glad I did!" the man said in a statement released Tuesday by the Lottery.The name of the 57 year old man wasn't released. He decided to take a lump sum o

Authorities say a body has been found at a Southern California lake during the search for ``Glee'' star Naya Rivera. The Ventura County Sheriff's Office says in a tweet that the body was found Monday morning in the search of Lake Piru for Rivera, five days after her four year old son was found alone in a boat the two had rented. Authorities would not immediately say the person was 33 year old Rivera, but said the day after she disappeared that they believed she drowned in the lake. Rivera played singing cheerleader Santana Lopez on the musical series that ran on Fox from 2009 to 2015.

Authorities said Thursday that they believe ``Glee'' star Naya Rivera drowned in a Southern California lake but they are continuing to search for her. Ventura County Sheriff's Sgt. Kevin Donoghue said Thursday there is no sign Rivera ever left the waters of Lake Piru, where her 4 year old son was found alone on a boat they had rented a day earlier. He said the search has shifted from an attempt to rescue Rivera to an attempt to recover the the 33 year old's body. Donoghue says surveillance video shows mother and son leaving the dock together. He said Rivera had experience taking boats on the

The longest-serving mayor of South Korea's capital, a fierce critic of economic inequality who was seen as a potential presidential candidate, has been found dead. Park Won-soon was 64. Police say Park's body was found near a restaurant nestled in wooded hills stretching across northern Seoul after he was reported missing by his daughter. Local media reports say one of Park's secretaries recently lodged a complaint with police over alleged sexual harassment.