The Group of Seven leaders aim to end their first summit in two years with a punchy set of promises Sunday, including vaccinating the world against coronavirus, making huge corporations pay their fair share of taxes and tackling climate change with a blend of technology and money.

About two-thirds of people eligible for inoculation against COVID-19 have now received two doses of the vaccine in Dubai, the tourist and business hub of the United Arab Emirates, Dubai Health Authority (DHA) said.

Group of Seven countries will provide 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses over the next year and work with the private sector, the G20 and other countries to increase the contribution over months to come, according to an almost finalised draft of the communique.

China on Sunday pointedly cautioned Group of Seven leaders that the days when "small" groups of countries decided the fate of the world was long gone, hitting back at the world's richest democracies which have sought a unified position over Beijing.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's 12-year hold on power was set to end on Sunday when parliament votes on a new government, ushering in an administration that has pledged to heal a nation bitterly divided over the departure of the country's longest serving leader.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made a strong push for the G7's support for the proposal moved at the WTO by India and South Africa for a patent waiver on Covid-19 related technologies.

Leaders of the world’s largest economies unveiled an infrastructure plan Saturday for the developing world to compete with China’s global initiatives, but there was no immediate consensus on how forcefully to call out Beijing over human rights abuses.

Blasts hit two buses in western Kabul yesterday, killing at least seven people, according to police.

Myanmar’s junta yesterday accused some of the country’s two dozen ethnic armed groups of providing training to its opponents to carry out a wave of bombings that it said had targeted public buildings including schools.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson yesterdayexpressed “serious concern” about rising infections of the Delta variant of coronavirus, reinforcing suggestions that he is set to delay lifting England’s last remaining lockdown curbs.

Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin yesterday announced a “non-working” week in the Russian capital, with non-essential workers told to stay home, as Covid-19 cases hit a six-month high.

Hong Kong democracy activist Agnes Chow described prison as “agony” yesterday after she was released on the second anniversary of the city’s huge

Sri Lanka is seeking $40 million in damages from the operator of a ship that left massive pollution when it caught fire off the country’s west coast,

Armed cattle thieves have killed 53 people in northwest Nigeria’s Zamfara state, police and local residents said yesterday, the latest violence to hit the

Russian President Vladimir Putin voiced hope Friday that US President Joe Biden will be less impulsive than his predecessor Donald Trump, ahead of his first summit with the new US leader.

US lawmakers unveiled sweeping antitrust measures Friday aimed at tempering the dominance of Big Tech firms including Apple and Facebook, in

Democrats erupted in outrage Friday over news that Donald Trump’s Justice Department secretly surveilled lawmakers probing possible collusion with Russia, reaping the phone records of top political foes in what they called an unprecedented abuse of power.

The Pulitzer Prize Board awarded a “special citation” on Friday to the teenager whose video of the murder of George Floyd by a white police officer sparked worldwide protests against racial injustice.

Britain will do “whatever it takes” to protect its territorial integrity in a trade dispute with the European Union, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said yesterday, threatening emergency measures if no solution was found.

Britain yesterday acclaimed a “historic” action plan by G7 nations to prevent future pandemics, as the elite group showcased US-led unity against China and Russia at its first in-person summit in almost two years.