The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it authorized the use of Pfizer Inc's COVID-19 vaccine on Friday, with the first inoculations expected within days, marking a turning point in the United States where the pandemic has killed more than 292,000 people.

The US Food and Drug Administration granted an emergency use authorization for the vaccine, developed with German partner BioNTech, which was shown to be 95% effective in preventing the disease in a late-stage trial.

The number of Covid-19 claims received by non-life insurers has surpassed the 660,000 mark, amounting to Rs 9,989.89 crore as of December 11, 2020. The general insurers and standalone health insurers have settled more than 76.5 per cent of the claims that have been intimated.

According to the data compiled by General Insurance Council, which is not publicly available, the insurers have settled 508,334 claims amounting to over Rs 4,800 crore. At the end of July, only 81,000 Covid-19 claims were filed with insurers.

Bengali actress Arya Banerjee -- also known as Devdutta -- who has acted in several Bollywood films including critically acclaimed 'The Dirty Picture', passed away on Friday.

The actress was found dead in her apartment Jodhpur Park, South Kolkata, as per news reports.

The Supreme Court has rejected a lawsuit backed by President Donald Trump to overturn Joe Biden's election victory, ending a desperate attempt to get legal issues rejected by state and federal judges before the nation's highest court.

The court's order was its second this week rebuffing Republican requests that it get involved in the 2020 election outcome. The justices turned away an appeal from Pennsylvania Republicans on Tuesday.

Oil rose on Friday, adding to sharp gains overnight that saw Brent top $50 for the first time since March, as the rollout of coronavirus vaccination programmes fed hopes that demand for fuel would rebound up next year.

Brent was up 30 cents or 0.6 per cent at $50.55 a barrel by 1:22 pm IST, after gaining nearly 3 per cent on Thursday. US oil was up 31 cents, or 0.7 per cent, at $47.09 a barrel, having also risen almost 3 per cent in the previous session.

With farmers gearing up to block the highway and picket toll plazas on the border to Delhi on Saturday in response to a call from protesting farmer unions to intensify their agitation against the three agricultural sector laws, police personnel have been deployed in strength to protect toll booths and ensure smooth flow of traffic, Faridabad Police said.

As many as 3,500 police personnel will be deployed at the five toll plazas in the area, a statement said.

Late President Pranab Mukherjee's memoir titled 'The Presidential Years', will be globally released in January 2021. The book is said to give an insight into his political career, Congress party and tussle for power. The former President who died this year in August, has apparently blamed in his book, the former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi for the party's 2014 defeat.

India will deploy its vast election machinery to deliver 60 crore doses of COVID-19 vaccines to the most vulnerable people in the next six to eight months through conventional cold chain systems, the expert leading the initiative said on Friday.

The government has lined up cold storage facilities with temperatures between 2 to 8 degrees Celsius (36 to 48°F), said VK Paul, who heads the group of experts on vaccine administration for COVID-19 that advises India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the global climate summit on Saturday on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the landmark Paris Climate Agreement, said Prakash Javadekar, Union Minister of Environment here on Friday.

Tomorrow, the Paris Climate Agreement would complete five years. The United Kingdom has called for a global climate summit and Prime Minister Narendra Modi would also be taking part in the meeting, Javadekar said.

2020 has been a tough year for citizens across the globe. With millions losing lives since the time the coronavirus pandemic hit the human race, any help in terms of donation of PPE kits, government-approved injections or medications have been welcomed by authorities that are working day and night to bring down the count of infected people.

Amid the efforts by one and all, actor Shah Rukh Khan, who is known to have extended a helping hand in this difficult time of COVID-19 pandemic (he earlier donated 2,000 PPE kits to COVID-19 frontline health workers in Chhattisgarh) and for various causes in the past too, donated 500 Remdesivir injections for COVID-19 patients in Delhi.

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