New Delhi, Dec 31 (PTI) Dec 1:Toronto: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said that his country will always be there to defend the right of peaceful protest, as he reached out to the Indian community and expressed concern over the ongoing farmers protest in India against the new farm laws, the first world leader to voice his views on the issue.

Dec 2:

London: The UK on Wednesday became the first country to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19 after "rigorous" analysis by its independent regulator, paving the way for mass vaccinations from as early as next week among people at the highest risk of death from the deadly virus.

Dec 3:

Dhaka: Authorities in Bangladesh have begun relocating thousands of Rohingya refugees to an isolated island despite calls by human rights groups for a halt to the process, officials said Thursday.

Dec 4:

Washington: The US has approved the sale of USD 90 million worth of military hardware and services to India in support of its fleet of C-130J Super Hercules military transport aircraft.

Dec 5:

United Nations: People have a right to demonstrate peacefully and authorities should let them do so, spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said on the farmers' protests in India.

Dec 6:

Beijing: China's Chang'e-5 probe that touched down on the moon transferred the rock samples it collected from the lunar surface to its orbiter on Sunday, with an ambitious aim to bring them back to Earth for the first time in nearly 45 years, the country's space agency said.

Dec 7:

New York: Essential workers -- the nurses, doctors, delivery people, grocery-store employees and others who risked their lives on the frontlines during the COVID-19 pandemic this year to provide critical services to the people -- have won TIME's 2020 Person of the Year Reader Poll.

Dec 8:

Kathmandu/Beijing: The world's highest peak is now taller by 86 centimetres, Nepal and China jointly announced on Tuesday after they remeasured Mt. Everest at 8,848.86 metres, over six decades after India conducted the previous measurement in 1954.

Dec 9:

Washington: US President-elect Joe Biden has said that in the first 100 days of his administration, he would mandate everyone to wear a mask, ensure 100 million COVID-19 vaccinations and reopen the majority of schools as he assured Americans that his "crisis-tested" team of experts will deliver better healthcare and revive the economy.

Dec 10:

Washington: The US has set a new grim record of more than 3,000 COVID-19 related deaths in a single day, reflecting a bleak reminder of the pandemic's devastating toll, even as two coronavirus vaccine candidates appear to be on the verge of clearing the country's final regulatory hurdles.

Dec 11:

New York: US President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris have been named by the prestigious TIME magazine as its '2020 Person of the Year' for changing the American story, showing that the "forces of empathy" are greater than the "furies of division" and sharing a vision of healing in a grieving world.

Dec 12:

Washington: The US has given a final nod for the emergency use of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine, paving the way for its use in the country worst-hit by the pandemic, with the first dose set to be administered in less than 24 hours.

Dec 13:

Lahore: Pakistan's Opposition alliance on Sunday held its final anti-government rally in Lahore despite a ban on the gathering of more than 300 people owing to an increase in COVID-19 cases across the country, with top coalition leaders announcing a long march to Islamabad to force Prime Minister Imran Khan to resign.

Dec 14:

New York: The biggest vaccination drive in American history got underway on Monday with a critical care nurse here becoming the first person in the US to be vaccinated for COVID-19, providing a glimmer of hope as the country nears the grim milestone of nearly 300,000 coronavirus deaths.

Dec 15:

New York: The coronavirus vaccine by biotechnology company Moderna is highly protective and prevents severe COVID, new data has shown that could pave the way for the vaccine to get emergency authorisation by federal regulators this week and eventual roll-out across the country.

Dec 16:

Washington: Indian-American US Air Force Colonel Raja Chari has been selected as the Commander of the SpaceX Crew-3 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) by NASA and the European Space Agency.

Dec 17:

Beijing: China's Chang'e-5 probe successfully touched down on Earth in the early hours of Thursday, bringing home the first samples of the moon in over 40 years.

Dec 18:

Kabul: A bomb rigged to a rickshaw killed at least 15 children and wounded 20 others in a Taliban-controlled area in eastern Afghanistan on Friday, a provincial official said, as violence in the war-weary country continued to surge.

Dec 19:

United Nations: Global vaccine partnership COVAX has lined up almost two billion doses of existing and candidate COVID-19 vaccines for use worldwide, including 200 million doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine through an agreement between the Vaccine Alliance Gavi, the Serum Institute of India and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Dec 20:

Kathmandu: Nepal's embattled Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli on Sunday sprang a surprise on his rivals and got the President to dissolve Parliament, a controversial move amidst a prolonged tussle for power between him and former premier Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda” within the ruling dispensation.

Dec 21:

Amsterdam: The European Union on Monday gave official approval for the coronavirus vaccine developed by BioNTech and Pfizer to be used across the 27-nation bloc, raising hopes that countries can begin administering the first shots to their citizens shortly after Christmas.

Dec 22:

Washington: President Donald Trump has conferred the Legion of Merit, one of the highest military honours of the US, on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his leadership in elevating bilateral strategic partnership and accelerating emergence of India as a global power.

Dec 23:

Washington: US President Donald Trump has refused to sign the COVID-19 relief bill, saying the USD 600 stimulus payment to most Americans was not enough as he asked Congress to increase the amount to USD 2,000.

Dec 24:

Lahore: Mumbai terror attack mastermind and banned Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed was on Thursday sentenced to 15 and a half years in jail by an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan in one more terror financing case.

Dec 25:

London: A record number of people have tested positive for COVID-19 in England as millions spend Christmas Day away from friends and family due to a continuing spike in coronavirus infections on Friday. By Aditi Khanna

Dec 26:

London: Millions of people in the U.K. faced tough new coronavirus restrictions Saturday, with Scotland and Northern Ireland demanding tighter measures to try to halt a new variant of the virus that is believed to spread more quickly.

Dec 27:

Islamabad: Pakistan's Sindh province government has decided not to release British-born al-Qaeda leader Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and his three aides, accused of kidnapping and murdering US journalist Daniel Pearl, in view of a Supreme Court order, according to a media report.

Dec 28:

Washington/Beijing: US President Donald Trump has signed into law a bill that reaffirms the right of Tibetans to choose a successor to the Dalai Lama and calls for establishing an American consulate in Tibet, prompting China to warn that the act will seriously disrupt and hurt bilateral relations.

Dec 29:

Beijing: The Chinese city of Wuhan, where the novel coronavirus emerged a year ago before it became a pandemic and upended life across the globe, has started the emergency COVID-19 vaccination on some key groups, a senior health official said on Tuesday, even as China is yet to officially certify its multiple vaccines.

Dec 30:

London: UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson added his formal signature of the Brexit trade deal with the European Union (EU) on Wednesday soon after members of Parliament voted overwhelmingly for it, 521 votes to 73 in the House of Commons. PTI

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)