Briefly

DPRK

New anti-aircraft missile test-fired

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea test-fired a newly developed anti-aircraft missile on Thursday, the official Korean Central News Agency reported on Friday. The new missile had a "remarkable combat performance" and included twin rudder controls and other new technologies, the report said. A picture in the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper showed the missile ascending at an angle into the sky from a launch vehicle. Pyongyang test-fired several missiles in September, including both cruise and ballistic ones, amid deadlocked talks with the United States.

ALGERIA

Nation begins Sinovac vaccine production

Algeria on Wednesday started manufacturing the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines in a joint venture with China. The plant is in the eastern province of Constantine. The production line is expected to produce 6 million doses of the vaccine by the end of this year, and 96 million doses each year thereafter. In February 2020, Algeria was one of the first countries to send medical donations to China, which in return has also sent several batches of medical aid and experts to the North African country.

UNITED STATES

Rural areas now deadlier for virus, report says

The COVID-19 pandemic in the US had started mostly in metropolitan areas such as New York. However, as the pandemic played out and vaccines become available, the trend has reversed so that the death rate in rural areas is twice that of metropolitan places, a report showed. Data from the Rural Policy Research Institute indicated that from the beginning of the pandemic until Sept 15, roughly 1 in 434 rural US citizens had died from COVID-19, compared with about 1 in 513 urban residents. However, by Sept 15, the mortality rate for rural residents had grown to 8.5 per million while for metropolitan ones, it was 4.1 per million.

Xinhua - China Daily