Britain will launch a new health security agency next week to better prepare for and tackle pandemics by bringing together its testing, analytical and scientific capabilities.
The new agency, called the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), will be headed up by Jenny Harries, England's deputy chief medical officer, who has been at the forefront of the government's efforts to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.
Britain has one of the highest death tolls from the novel coronavirus but is gradually easing the latest lockdown under a four-step plan underpinned by the success of its vaccination programme.
"On the first of April, so next week, we will formally establish the new UK Health Security Agency. UKHSA, as it will be known, will be this country's permanent standing capacity to plan, prevent and respond to external threats to health," health minister Matt Hancock said in a speech to the Local Government Association.
Police forcibly removed scores of defiant pro-Palestinian protesters at several colleges on Thursday, including taking down an encampment at UCLA in a jarring scene that underscored the heightened chaos that has erupted at universities this week.
Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi will contest the general election from the family bastion in the north, his Congress party announced on Friday, a move that will challenge Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a region he dominates.
A bus veered into a ravine in Pakistan's far north early on Friday, a local government spokesman said, killing 20 passengers, while 21 injured were rescued and taken to hospital.
The death toll from heavy rains in Brazil's southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul rose to 29, local authorities said on Thursday evening, as the state government declared a state of public calamity to handle the dramatic situation.