FIFA confirmed dates for the delayed 2021 Club World Cup on Monday, with the Feb. 3-12 tournament in the United Arab Emirates requiring Chelsea to postpone two Premier League games.

The schedule was announced hours before the tournament draw was being made in Zurich.

With an expanded definition to reflect the times, Merriam-Webster has declared an omnipresent truth as its 2021 word of the year: vaccine.

"This was a word that was extremely high in our data every single day in 2021," Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster's editor-at-large, told The Associated Press ahead of Monday's announcement.

A powerful storm pounded Istanbul and other parts of Turkey on Monday, killing at least one person and causing havoc in the city of around 15 million people, reports said.

A woman was killed in Istanbul's Esenyurt district where strong gusts tore off part of a roof which landed on top of her and her child, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported. The child survived with injuries.

Can the landmark 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers be restored? As Iran and six global powers gather in Vienna Monday to discuss the tattered treaty, the answer appears to be no.

Since then-President Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement in 2018, Iran has raced forward with its nuclear program, making it all but impossible to simply turn back the clock. The election of a hard-line leader in Iran, coupled with a U.S. administration seen as weak in the region, have further dampened prospects for a breakthrough.

South African doctors say that the rapid increase in COVID-19 cases attributed to the new omicron variant cases is resulting in mostly mild symptoms.

Dr. Unben Pillay, a general practitioner in Gauteng province where 81% of the new cases have been reported, says he has seen a sharp increase in new COVID-19 cases in the past 10 days.

Magdalena Andersson, who last week was Sweden's first female prime minister for a few hours before resigning because a budget defeat made a coalition partner quit, was on elected again on Monday as the Nordic nation's head of government.

In a 101 -173 vote with 75 abstentions, the 349-seat Riksdag elected Andersson, leader of the Social Democrats, as prime minister. She will form a one-party, minority government. Her Cabinet is expected to be named Tuesday. Formally, she will be installed following an audience with King Carl XVI Gustav, Sweden's figurehead monarch.

Dries Mertens scored twice as Napoli beat Lazio 4-0 on Sunday to take the outright lead of Serie A on the night it paid tribute to soccer great Diego Maradona.

As well as Mertens — who has taken over several of Maradona's records at Napoli — Piotr Zieliński and Fabián Ruiz also netted to help Napoli move three points clear of second-place AC Milan, which earlier lost 3-1 at home to Sassuolo.

Revered German coach Ralf Rangnick was hired Monday to lead Manchester United until the end of the season, an appointment that will shake up the playing style and management structure of the Premier League team in its bid to return to the top of the English game.

The 63-year-old Rangnick has left his role as head of sports and development at Russian club Lokomotiv Moscow to take charge of United, which has been managed by former player Michael Carrick since the firing of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer on Nov. 21.

University of Maine researchers are trying to produce potatoes that can better withstand warming temperatures as the climate changes.

Warming temperatures and an extended growing season can lead to quality problems and disease, Gregory Porter, a professor of crop ecology and management, told the Bangor Daily News.

European stocks and oil prices rebounded and Wall Street was poised to open higher Monday even as Asian markets fell further, with investors weighing the new coronavirus variant, omicron, that is being found in more countries and prompting some governments to reimpose travel controls.

Benchmarks in London, Frankfurt and Paris had gained by midday. Indexes in Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong ended lower, though losses were smaller than Friday's fall, sparked by reports that the variant first spotted in South Africa appeared to spread around the globe.