World News Roundup: Azerbaijan says 2,783 of its soldiers killed in Karabakh conflict; How COVID upended life as we knew it in a matter of weeks and more

New rules issued on Wednesday limit the validity of travel visas for party members and families to one month and a single entry, the paper reported https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/03/world/asia/us-visa-china-communist-party.html, citing people familiar with the matter. Promise of COVID vaccines is 'phenomenal', WHO says The promise of COVID-19 vaccines is "phenomenal" and "potentially game-changing", Hans Kluge, the World Health Organization's regional director for Europe, told a briefing on Thursday.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Special Report: Burner phones and banking apps: Meet the Chinese 'brokers' laundering Mexican drug money

Early next year, a Chinese businessman named Gan Xianbing will be sentenced in a Chicago courtroom for laundering just over $530,000 in Mexican cartel drug money. Gan, 50, was convicted in February of money laundering and operating an unlicensed money-transfer business that whisked cartel cash from U.S. drug sales offshore. Gan has maintained his innocence; his lawyers say he was entrapped by U.S. authorities. The trial garnered few headlines and little of the public fascination reserved for kingpins of powerful narcotics syndicates that U.S. federal prosecutors said Gan served.

Azerbaijan says 2,783 of its soldiers killed in Karabakh conflict

Azerbaijan said on Thursday that 2,783 of its soldiers were killed during its conflict with ethnic Armenian forces over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, and that more than 100 of its troops were still missing. Azerbaijan had until now not disclosed any of its military losses in the conflict that erupted on Sept. 27 and came to a halt on Nov. 10 when a Russian-brokered peace deal ushered in a ceasefire.

Good progress being made on Brexit trade deal, British minister says

Good progress is being made by Britain and the European Union in Brexit trade negotiations but Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government will not sign up to a deal that is not in Britain's interest, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said on Thursday. "We always expect negotiations to go up to the wire, it's a very typical situation when you're having a negotiation with the European Union," Williamson told Sky.

How COVID upended life as we knew it in a matter of weeks

On Jan. 1, 2020, as the world welcomed a new decade, Chinese authorities in Wuhan shut down a seafood market in the central city of 11 million, suspecting that an outbreak of a new "viral pneumonia" affecting 27 people might be linked to the site. Early lab tests in China pointed to a new coronavirus. By Jan. 20 it had spread to three countries.

Iran ready for further prisoner swaps; seeks U.S. nuclear move - foreign minister

Iran is ready to engage in further prisoner swaps after last week exchanging a jailed British-Australian academic with three Iranians detained abroad, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Thursday. "We can always engage in that, it is in the interests of everybody," Zarif told an Italian diplomatic conference speaking via video-link. "Iran is ready to reciprocate. We can do it tomorrow. We can also do it today."

English health service looking at ways to deploy Pfizer vaccine in care homes - official

England's National Health Service (NHS) is looking at ways to deploy Pfizer/BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine in care homes with the medical regulator, but there is no guarantee that it will happen, deputy Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Van-Tam said. Britain became the first country to approve the vaccine candidate developed by Germany's BioNTech and Pfizer on Wednesday, jumping ahead of the rest of the world in the race to begin a crucial mass inoculation programme.

Russia orders U.S. rights worker to leave on national security grounds - spokeswoman Russia has revoked the residence permit of a U.S. human rights worker on national security grounds and ordered her to leave within two weeks, a spokeswoman for the organisation she heads said on Thursday. Vanessa Kogan, director of the Justice Initiative rights group, an organisation that provides legal assistance to rights victims, particularly from the turbulent North Caucasus region, has lived in Russia for 11 years, Ksenia Babich, the spokeswoman, told Reuters.

Bahrain open to imports from Israeli settlements, Palestinians fume

Bahrain's imports from Israel will not be subject to distinctions between products made within Israel and those from settlements in occupied territory, the Bahraini trade minister said on Thursday, drawing a rebuke from the Palestinians. Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates formalised ties with Israel on Sept. 15, in a U.S.-sponsored deal billed by the Gulf countries as being made possible by Israel's shelving of a plan to annex West Bank settlements. Most world powers deem them illegal.

United States toughens visa rules for 'malign'

Chinese Communist Party members: NYT U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has restricted travel to the United States by Chinese Communist Party members and their families, the New York Times newspaper reported on Thursday, a move China condemned as political oppression. New rules issued on Wednesday limit the validity of travel visas for party members and families to one month and a single entry, the paper reported https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/03/world/asia/us-visa-china-communist-party.html, citing people familiar with the matter.

Promise of COVID vaccines is 'phenomenal', WHO says

The promise of COVID-19 vaccines is "phenomenal" and "potentially game-changing", Hans Kluge, the World Health Organization's regional director for Europe, told a briefing on Thursday. Speaking from Copenhagen, he said supplies were expected to be very limited in the early stages and countries must decide who gets priority, though the WHO said there is "growing consensus" that first recipients should be older people, medical workers and people with co-morbidities.

(With inputs from agencies.)