Briefly

INDIA

Emergency use of Sputnik V authorized

The Drugs Controller General of India, or RDIF, has granted an emergency use authorization license to Russian COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V, officials said on Tuesday. The decision came hours after an expert panel recommended the move. With this permission, Sputnik V is now the third vaccine to get an emergency authorization after the Serum Institute of India's Covishield and Bharat Biotech's Covaxin. According to the RDIF, the Russian vaccine has an efficacy grade of 91.6 percent and provides full protection against severe cases of COVID-19 as demonstrated by data published in The Lancet, a leading medical journal. More than 850 million doses of Sputnik V are going to be produced in India annually. India is in the grip of a second wave of COVID-19 pandemic and it is the second worst-hit country after the United States. India on Monday reported more than 161,000 new cases－the seventh-consecutive day that more than 100,000 infections have been recorded.

HAITI

Kidnappings prompt vow to combat gangs

President Jovenel Moise vowed on Monday to do more to combat the country's "scourge" of kidnappings following the abductions of 10 people, including clergy members and French citizens. Kidnappings for ransom have surged in recent months in Port-au-Prince and other provinces, reflecting the growing influence of armed gangs in the Caribbean nation. Anger in one of the least developed countries in the Americas has been piqued by the abductions on Sunday of 10 people in Croix-des-Bouquets, a town northeast of the capital Port-au-Prince. They include seven Catholic clergy－five of them Haitian, as well as two French citizens, a priest and a nun. Moise vowed he would "not give up" and "do everything the law allows" to secure the kidnapped group's release－and to tackle the kidnapping problem more broadly. Paris opened an investigation on Monday for "kidnapping and sequestration in an organized gang".

Xinhua - Agencies