The World Health Organization says the number of COVID-19 cases recorded worldwide increased by 11% last week compared with the previous week, with the biggest increase in the Americas. The gain followed a gradual increase since October.

The U.N. health agency said in its weekly epidemiological report released late Tuesday that there were nearly 4.99 million newly reported cases around the world from Dec. 20-26.

A total of 116 cities in the northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia were in a state of emergency because of flooding due to heavy rains that have been pounding the region since the end of November.

Cities in at least five other states in Brazil's north and southeast have also been flooded in recent days.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier strike group to stay in the Mediterranean Sea region rather than move on to the Middle East, amid worries about the buildup of thousands of Russian troops near the Ukraine border.

A defense official said Tuesday that the change in the schedule of the USS Harry S. Truman, and the five American warships accompanying it, reflects the need for a persistent presence in Europe. It is necessary in order to reassure U.S. allies and partners in the region, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military deployment details.

Many well-off Lebanese who escaped their country's economic tailspin for a new life in the nearby island nation of Cyprus say the transition has been a whirlwind of emotions.

They are grateful they did not have to turn to human smugglers and embark on risky Mediterranean crossings to reach European shores. But they also feel guilty for leaving family and friends behind to struggle with Lebanon's unprecedented crises — a failing economy, political uncertainty and social upheaval.

Energy minister Walid Fayad has launched two projects in the country's north to facilitate the flow of natural gas from Egypt. The move aims to improve electricity production and expand the country's tanks to increase oil reserves.

The revival of the Arab Gas Pipeline to deliver Egyptian gas to Lebanon comes as the small country is reeling from a crippling electricity crisis. The pipeline has been out of service in Lebanon since before Syria's 10-year conflict began in 2011.

Israel's defense minister approved a raft of measures aimed at improving relations with the Palestinians on Wednesday following a rare meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Israel.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz met with Abbas at his private residence in a Tel Aviv suburb late Tuesday night. It was the first time Abbas met an Israeli official inside Israel since 2010. The two discussed security coordination between Israel and Abbas' Palestinian Authority, which administers pockets of the occupied West Bank.

Advertisements featuring some Chinese models have sparked feuding in China over whether their appearance and makeup are perpetuating harmful stereotypes of Asians.

German automaker Mercedes-Benz and a Chinese food company are the latest to get caught up in the fray.

To help make China a self-reliant "technology superpower," the ruling Communist Party is pushing the world's biggest e-commerce company to take on the tricky, expensive business of designing its own processor chips — a business unlike anything Alibaba Group has done before.

Its 3-year-old chip unit, T-Head, unveiled its third processor in October, the Yitian 710 for Alibaba's cloud computing business. Alibaba says for now, it has no plans to sell the chip to outsiders.

Global shares advanced Tuesday following a rally on Wall Street as investors shrugged off concerns about the highly transmissible omicron variant of the coronavirus.

France's CAC 40 edged up 0.2% in early trading to 7,155.68, while Germany's DAX added 0.3% to 15,878.65. Britain's FTSE 100 was little changed at 7,372.10. U.S. shares were set for gains, with Dow futures up nearly 0.1% to 26,200.00. S&P 500 futures were little changed, up less than 0.1% at 4,783.25.

A bird flu outbreak in northern Israel has killed at least 5,200 migratory cranes and forced farmers to slaughter hundreds of thousands of chickens as authorities try to contain what they say is the deadliest wildlife disaster in the nation's history.

Uri Naveh, a senior scientist at the Israel Parks and Nature Authority, said the situation is not yet under control.