Police in Germany are investigating thousands of cases of suspected forgery of coronavirus vaccine certificates, the dpa news agency reported Wednesday.

It cited figures obtained from the country's 16 states showing more than 12,000 police investigations have been opened nationwide.

As U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits Ukraine, the Biden administration said Wednesday it's providing an additional $200 million in defensive military aid to the country amid soaring fears of a Russian invasion.

A senior U.S. State Department official said the assistance was approved in late December as part of American efforts to help Ukraine protect itself. Until Wednesday, however, the administration had refused to comment on it. The official wasn't authorized to discuss the matter publicly before Blinken's meetings in Kyiv and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Israeli police on Wednesday evicted Palestinian residents from a disputed property in a flashpoint Jerusalem neighborhood and demolished the building, days after a tense standoff.

The predawn demolition took place in Sheikh Jarrah, an east Jerusalem neighborhood where attempts by Jewish settlers to evict longtime Palestinian residents have sparked protests that last year helped lead to an 11-day war between Israel and Gaza militants.

The Biden administration has said it will significantly expand efforts to stave off catastrophic wildfires that have torched areas of the U.S. West by more aggressively thinning forests around "hot spots" where nature and neighborhoods collide.

As climate change heats up and dries out the West, administration officials said they have crafted a $50 billion plan to more than double the use of controlled fires and logging to reduce trees and other vegetation that serves as tinder in the most at-risk areas. Only some of the work has funding so far.

An oil spill on the Peruvian coast caused by the waves from an eruption of an undersea volcano in the South Pacific nation of Tonga prompted dozens of fishermen to protest outside the South American country's main oil refinery.

The men gathered outside the refinery in the province of Callao near Lima's capital. Peru's environment minister, Rubén Ramírez, told reporters that authorities estimate 6,000 barrels of oil were spilled in the area rich in marine biodiversity.

Three of Tonga's smaller islands suffered serious damage from tsunami waves, officials and the Red Cross said Wednesday, as a wider picture begins to emerge of the destruction caused by the eruption of an undersea volcano near the Pacific archipelago nation.

Communications have been down throughout Tonga since the eruption on Saturday, but a ship made it to the outlying islands of Nomuka, Mango and Fonoifua on Wednesday, and reported back that few homes remain standing after settlements were hit with 15-meter (49 feet) -high waves, said Katie Greenwood, the head of delegation in the Pacific for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, which had two people aboard the vessel to help assess the damage.

or the first time in 32 years, organizers of the Rendezvous Cross Country Ski Festival in West Yellowstone, Montana, had to cancel November's traditional start-of-the-ski-season event due to a lack of snow.

Some 300 miles away, Soldier Hollow Nordic Center in Utah offered skiing in November by building an elaborate snow-making system while a small operation in Vermont was able to double its ski days after laying new pipe to feed the water-hungry snow-blowers. That wouldn't work at Methow Trails in northern Washington, which can't possibly cover its 200 kilometers (124 miles) of ski tracks with artificial snow; instead, they do snow dances and work on plans to move trails to higher elevation if needed.

In a Himalayan village in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir, young health worker Masrat Farid packed her bag with vaccines on a frigid morning in January as strong winds swept snow through the air.

She is part of a team of health workers undertaking a door-to-door campaign in the region to deliver vaccine shots to teens and boosters to old people in remote mountain villages.

Albert Bourla, chairman and chief executive of global pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc., was awarded on Wednesday the prestigious Genesis Prize for his efforts in leading the development of a COVID-19 vaccine.

The $1 million award is granted each year to a person for their professional achievements, contributions to humanity and commitment to Jewish values. The Genesis Prize Foundation said Bourla had received the largest number of votes in an online campaign in which some 200,000 people in 71 countries participated.

Fans can start registering to buy Qatar World Cup tickets on Wednesday with prices for visitors starting at around $70, one-third cheaper than the tournament in Russia, The Associated Press has learned.

The category-three tickets on international sale will be 250 Qatari riyals ($69), two people with knowledge of the prices said Tuesday, compared to $105 for the equivalent in 2018. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the ticketing process.