India has approved the COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, paving the way for a huge immunisation campaign in the world's second most populous country.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters on Saturday the vaccine had been approved on Friday, confirming what sources close to the matter had told Reuters.
It is the first COVID-19 vaccine to be approved for emergency use by India, which has the highest number of infections after the United States.
Javadekar said at least three more vaccines were waiting in line to be approved.
"India is perhaps the only country where at least four vaccines are getting ready," he said.
"One was approved yesterday for emergency use, Serum's COVISHIELD," he said, referring to the fact that the shot is being made locally by the Serum Institute of India (SII).
India has reported more than 10 million COVID-19 cases, though its rate of infection has come down significantly from a mid-September peak.
The country hopes to inoculate 300 million of its 1.35 billion people in the first six to eight months of 2021.
Israeli forces raided Jenin in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday in an operation that the Palestinian health ministry said killed seven Palestinians, including a doctor, and left nine others wounded.
Recovery teams refloated the huge cargo vessel in the Port of Baltimore two months after the boat crashed into the Francis Scott Key bridge and caused the span to collapse.
An infected blood scandal in Britain was no accident but the fault of doctors and a succession of governments that led to 3,000 deaths and thousands more contracting hepatitis or HIV, a public inquiry has found.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, seen as a potential successor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in a helicopter crash in mountainous terrain near the Azerbaijan border, officials and state media said on Monday.
The International Criminal Court prosecutor's office said on Monday it had requested arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his defence chief and three Hamas leaders for alleged war crimes.