A Chinese envoy is urging the U.S. to lift all illegal sanctions against Iran and its "long-arm jurisdiction" against third-party entities and individuals, including those from China.
Senior diplomats from China, France, Germany, Russia, Britain and Iran have met behind closed doors in Vienna. Lifting sanctions on Iran and nuclear implementation measures top the agenda.
The meeting of the Commission of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, known as the Iran nuclear deal, has drawn public attention as representatives from the United States are in Vienna as part of an effort to save the deal.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has received an injection of coronavirus vaccine produced by China's Sinopharm.
The inoculation was carried out yesterday.
Vucic says Serbia received its fourth batch of vaccine from China on Monday, with more to come based on a contract signed several weeks ago.
The International Monetary Fund has predicted that China's economy will grow 8.4 percent this year.
The upwardly revised growth is 0.3 points stronger than the IMF's January forecast.
The IMF released its latest World Economic Outlook on Tuesday.
The United States is projected to return to end-of-2019 activity levels in the first half of this year and expected to register a 6.4 percent growth rate for the year.
Meantime, global growth is projected to reach six percent in 2021, a stronger-than-expected recovery with a 0.5 point upgrade.
A US scientist says vaccinations and precautions can help stop the rise of new COVID-19 cases driven by new variants.
Dr. Wafaa El-Sadr is a professor of epidemiology at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health.
She says authorities need to quickly upscale vaccinations and transmission prevention efforts to curb a spike in infections.
"We just have not had sufficient uptake, sufficient coverage by these new vaccines in the context of these new variants that are now circulating in our communities. I anticipate fully that as we get more people vaccinated over time and hopefully rapidly vaccinated, that we will see eventually a decrease in the numbers of new cases."
Since the middle of March, the number of new COVID-19 cases has ticked up and hospitalizations have plateaued in the United States.
A growing number of migrants have taken shelter in Mexico after being sent back from the US border.
Authorities in the border city of Ciudad Juarez have been forced to turn a local gymnasium into a temporary shelter due to other shelters reaching maximum capacity.
Children traveling alone are allowed to remain in the US to pursue asylum claims while nearly all single adults are expelled to Mexico under pandemic-era rules.
French Prime Minister Jean Castex has expressed confidence that France will meet its goal of getting 10 million people vaccinated against COVID-19 by April 15.
He was speaking during a visit to a newly opened mass vaccination site at the country's national stadium, which is set to administer 10,000 jabs per week.
"We can all understand that we will not be able to vaccinate everyone at once, we need to be a bit more patient. You are familiar with the calendar we have set, the priority groups we've identified, the widening of those groups, we will expand on in the coming days."
Vaccines in France are currently reserved for people aged 70 and older, in addition to those with serious health conditions and healthcare workers.