US State Department sets up cyber bureau, envoy amid hacking alarm

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Monday that the State Department will establish a new bureau and envoy to handle cyber policy, revamping amid alarm over rising hacking attacks.

Asia suffered hottest year on record in 2020: UN

Asia suffered its hottest year on record in 2020, the United Nations said Tuesday ahead of the COP26 summit, with extreme weather taking a heavy toll on the continent's development.

Rescued from extinction, bison rediscover Romania mountains

Hoof prints in the mud, tree bark nibbled away: even if the newest residents of Romania's Carpathian mountain forest shy away from visitors, their traces are there for those who know where to look.

Novartis says 'all options' on table for Sandoz generics unit

Swiss drugmaker Novartis said Tuesday that it is reviewing the future of its generic medicines division, Sandoz, with all options on the table—from retaining it to a sale.

World failing to learn lessons from pandemic: monitor

A year-and-a-half into the coronavirus pandemic, the world has still done far too little to respond and has failed to learn from its mistakes, a global health monitor said Tuesday.

China locks down city of 4 million over COVID

China placed a city of four million under lockdown on Tuesday in a bid to stamp out a domestic coronavirus spike, with residents told not to leave home except in emergencies.

New Zealand expands vaccine mandate to 40% of all workers

New Zealand's government said Tuesday it will expand a vaccine mandate to include thousands of workers who have close contact with their customers—including employees at restaurants, bars, gyms and hair salons.

Hong Kong to tighten COVID-19 rules, seeks to open to China

Hong Kong will tighten COVID-19 restrictions despite a lack of local outbreaks to better align with China's policies and increase chances of quarantine-free travel between the territory and mainland, leader Carrie Lam said Tuesday.

CDC extends cruise line health rules until mid-January

Federal health officials on Monday extended for nearly three more months its rules that cruise ships must follow to sail during the pandemic.

Belgium poised to boost COVID-19 measures to counter surge

Belgium is poised to reinforce pandemic measures in an attempt to stunt a sharp increase of coronavirus cases, with officials indicating Monday that they are looked at increased mandatory use of face masks and virus passports.

YouTube, TikTok, Snap execs face senators on kids' safety

Bearing down on hugely popular social media platforms and their impact on children, the leaders of a Senate panel have called executives from YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat to face questions on what their companies are doing to ensure young users' safety.

Facebook profits rise amid Facebook Papers findings

Amid fallout from the Facebook Papers documents supporting claims that the social network has valued financial success over user safety, Facebook on Monday reported higher profit for the latest quarter.

Poll: Majority in US concerned about climate

President Joe Biden heads to a vital U.N. climate summit at a time when a majority of Americans regard the deteriorating climate as a problem of high importance to them, an increase from just a few years ago.

Addition of genotypic resistance testing did not improve virologic response in patients with HIV virologic failure

A randomized controlled trial found that the addition of genotypic resistance testing to routine care did not improve virologic suppression among persons whose first-line antiretroviral therapy (ART) failed in public-sector HIV clinics in Uganda and South Africa. These results reinforce the critical need for and persistent challenge of finding effective interventions for persons who have virologic failure after ART initiation in the public sector in sub-Saharan Africa. The findings are published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Stress In America 2021: Pandemic impedes basic decision-making ability

Americans are struggling with the basic decisions required to navigate daily life as the effects of pandemic-related stress continue to take a toll, especially on younger adults and parents, according to a national survey from the American Psychological Association.

'Nanozyme' therapy prevents harmful dental plaque build-up

A growing body of evidence points to a link between iron-deficiency anemia and severe tooth decay. Whether the connection is correlative or causative is unknown, though both conditions are associated with poor diets and are more common in people living in impoverished environments and with underlying medical conditions.

Publication of 500-year-old manuscript exposes medieval beliefs and religious cults

A rare English illuminated medieval prayer roll, believed to be among only a few dozen still in existence worldwide, has been analyzed in a new study to expose Catholic beliefs in England before the Reformation in the sixteenth century.

Shadow loss: Young adults cope with missing out during pandemic

A new paper featuring college students' experiences with loss during the COVID-19 pandemic shows that although few directly experienced a close death, everyone lost something that impacted their lives.

Stimulus designed to help restaurant workers led to more COVID cases

A new paper in The Economic Journal indicates that a large-scale government subsidy aimed at encouraging people to eat out in restaurants in the wake of the first 2020 COVID-19 wave in the United Kingdom accelerated a second COVID19 wave.

Waters off French coast in winter may be a deadly trap for small, foraging turtles

The documented habitat boundaries of the loggerhead, Kemp's ridley and green turtles are questioned by a new study suggesting that stranded turtles rescued from European French Atlantic and Channel waters could be visiting the area to forage for food. Published in Frontiers in Marine Science, satellite tracking data reveals that while some turtles may be able to return home, after their rehabilitation and release to Florida in the US, or Cape Verde off the African coast, younger individuals are at risk of being trapped in the region.