World News Roundup: Over half in New Delhi may have had COVID, govt survey suggests; Top Chinese diplomat calls for China, U.S. to mend relations and more

Israel sees 6-month Iran nuclear breakout, longer than Blinken projection Israel's energy minister said on Tuesday it would take Iran around six months to produce enough fissile material for a single nuclear weapon, a timeline almost twice as long as that anticipated by a senior member of the Biden administration.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Over half in New Delhi may have had COVID, govt survey suggests

More than half of New Delhi's 20 million inhabitants may have been infected with the coronavirus, according to a government serological survey whose findings echoed earlier private-sector research. India has reported 10.8 million COVID-19 infections, the most anywhere outside the United States. But Tuesday's survey, based on some 28,000 samples, suggests the true figure among its 1.35 billion population is dramatically higher and approaching herd immunity levels.

Top Chinese diplomat calls for China, U.S. to mend relations

China's top diplomat called on Tuesday for Beijing and Washington to put relations back on a predictable and constructive path, saying the United States should stop meddling in China's internal affairs, like Hong Kong and Tibet. Yang Jiechi, director of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission of the Chinese Communist Party, is the highest ranking Chinese leader to speak on China-U.S. relations since President Joe Biden took office.

In Algerian mountains, army operation shows persistent militant threat

Algerian soldiers fired high-calibre rounds into a scrubby hillside of the Ain Defla mountains last week, part of an operation against the persistent threat of Islamist militants after they launched a fresh attack last month. They stalked in the rain between pine trees along muddy tracks, rifles raised, before dropping into a crouch, many of them too young to remember the 1990s jihadist insurgency that killed 200,000 Algerians.

Israel sees 6-month Iran nuclear breakout, longer than Blinken projection

Israel's energy minister said on Tuesday it would take Iran around six months to produce enough fissile material for a single nuclear weapon, a timeline almost twice as long as that anticipated by a senior member of the Biden administration. Israel is wary of the Biden administration's intent to reenter the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal and has long opposed the agreement. Washington argues that the previous Trump administration's withdrawal from the deal backfired by prompting Iran to abandon caps on nuclear activities.

Analysis: In China, post-coup Myanmar likely to find support if sanctions bite

Three weeks before Myanmar's military commander took power in a coup, he met the Chinese government's top diplomat in an exchange that pointed to potential support as Myanmar faces the prospect of renewed Western sanctions. China's foreign ministry noted the "fraternal" relationship as State Councillor Wang Yi met last month in Myanmar's capital with the military chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, making him one of the last foreign dignitaries to visit before the coup.

Pakistan court orders release from prison of mastermind in Daniel Pearl case

Pakistan's Supreme Court ordered the release from prison on Tuesday of a British-born militant who had been convicted in the kidnapping and murder of U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl by al Qaeda and Pakistani Islamist militants in 2002. In a decision that is expected to draw criticism from the United States, the court recommended that Ahmad Omar Saeed Sheikh be transferred to a government safe house as a stepping stone to his full release after spending 18 years on death row. Suu Kyi's party demands her release as Myanmar generals tighten grip

The party of Myanmar's detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi called on Tuesday for her immediate release and for the miitary junta that seized power a day earlier to recognise her victory in an election in November. The Nobel Peace laureate's whereabouts remained unknown more than 24 hours after her arrest in a military takeover that derailed Myanmar's tentative progress towards full democracy. Twitter says Turkish minister's LGBT comments about protesters "hateful conduct"

Turkey's interior minister on Tuesday condemned protesters at a top Istanbul university as "LGBT deviants" in a statement which Twitter deemed as hateful conduct. Students and teachers at Istanbul's Bogazici University have held protests for the last month against the appointment of Melih Bulu as rector by President Tayyip Erdogan, which they said was undemocratic. Russia's Sputnik V vaccine 91.6% effective in late-stage trial

Russia's Sputnik V vaccine was 91.6% effective in preventing people from developing COVID-19, according to peer-reviewed results from its late-stage clinical trial published in The Lancent international medical journal on Tuesday. Scientists said the Phase III trial results meant the world had another effective weapon to fight the deadly pandemic and justified to some extent Moscow's decision to roll out the vaccine before final data had been released. D-day for Kremlin critic Navalny as Russian court considers longer jail term

A Russian court on Tuesday weighed whether to jail Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny for up to three and a half years in a case that has sparked nationwide protests and talk of new Western sanctions. Navalny, one of President Vladimir Putin's most prominent critics, was arrested at the Russian border on Jan. 17 for alleged parole violations after returning from Germany where he had been recovering from a nerve agent poisoning in Russia.