The British economy is forecast to shrink by 11.3 percent this year, the worst recession in more than 300 years in the country as a result of the coronavirus crisis, British Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak said Wednesday (November 25). 

NDO/VNA - The 38th Conference of the ASEAN Federation of Engineering Organisations (CAFEO), with the theme “Fostering initiatives and actions by AFEO to build a sustainable and prosperous ASEAN Community”, opened online on November 25.  

All safety precautions have been taken and preparations put in place in the coastal areas of India's southern states of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry ahead of the cyclonic storm Nivar that is expected to make a landfall on Wednesday (November 25) afternoon.  

The climate for doing business in Latin America improved in the fourth quarter of the year, a leading Brazilian economic think tank said in a quarterly report released on Tuesday (November 24). 

Foreign donors pledged a projected US$12 billion in civilian aid to Afghanistan over the next four years at a conference on Tuesday (November 24), but many made it conditional on protecting human rights and making progress on peace talks in a major shake-up for the country's economy. 

NDO/VNA – The United Nations (UN) General Assembly on November 23 adopted the ASEAN-UN cooperation resolution with the backing of 110 countries, the highest number of co-sponsors for the resolution since it was introduced for the first time in 2002. 

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) could produce a scientific opinion on COVID-19 vaccines seeking regulatory approval by the end of the year in a best case scenario, the regulator's new chief was quoted as saying on Tuesday (November 24). British drugmaker AstraZeneca followed rivals Pfizer and Moderna on Monday in publishing successful pivotal trial data for its COVID-19 vaccine, giving the world's fight against the pandemic a third new weapon. 

NDO/VNA – Vietnam will be one of the few nations worldwide to record positive economic growth in 2020 despite a global collapse in trade, travel and investment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to an article recently published by the English language news media publishing group Asia Times. 

In light of "encouraging developments" in clinical trials and the expected regulatory approval of a COVID-19 vaccine, vaccination centers across Germany would be operational by mid-December, Minister of Health Jens Spahn said in a press conference in Berlin on Monday (November 23). 

Republic of Korea (ROK) will raise its social-distancing rules to the third-highest level for two weeks from Nov.24 through Dec. 7 in the Seoul metropolitan area amid the soaring COVID-19 cases in the capital area. 

Britain's AstraZeneca said its COVID-19 vaccine could be around 90% effective without any serious side effects, while the United States and Germany said they could start inoculating their citizens by next month. 

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Sunday (November 22) that the leadership of the Group of 20 (G20) is vital in the global struggle with the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Nearly 2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines will be shipped and flown to developing countries next year in a "mammoth operation", the U.N. children's agency UNICEF said on Monday (November 23), as world leaders vowed to ensure the fair distribution of vaccines. 

Moderna will charge governments between US$25 and US$37 per dose of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, depending on the amount ordered, Chief Executive Stephane Bancel told German weekly Welt am Sonntag (WamS). Moderna has said its experimental vaccine is 94.5% effective in preventing COVID-19, based on interim data from a late-stage clinical trial, becoming the second developer to report results that far exceeded expectations after Pfizer and its partner BioNTech.