China's Guangdong reports 5 new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases

Guangdong Province registered five new asymptomatic cases of COVID-19 on Thursday.

Three of the cases were found in the provincial capital Guangzhou. One was reported in Shenzhen and the other in Foshan.

The province also reported one imported COVID-19 case on Thursday in Zhanjiang. The patient entered the city from Egypt.

By the end of Thursday, Guangdong Province had reported over 24-hundred cases, including over a thousand imported ones.

China, Croatia pledge to deepen ties, cooperation

Senior Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi says solidarity and cooperation have been a distinctive feature of China's relationship with Croatia.

Yang made the remarks when meeting with Croatian leaders during his one-day official visit to the country.

Yang says the two countries should deepen cooperation in areas like infrastructure, technology, business, people-to-people exchanges and tourism.

The Croatian leaders have pledged to maintain high-level exchanges with China and play a positive role in promoting the further development of EU-China relations.

Chinese inactivated vaccines effective against COVID-19 in phase-3 human trials: study

Two inactivated vaccines developed by Sinopharm have proven to be safe and effective against COVID-19 in phase-3 human trials.

A study by The Journal of the American Medical Association says the two inactivated vaccines both showed efficacy of above 70 percent based on the interim analysis of the ongoing trials.

Wang Guiqiang is with Peking University First Hospital. He says this study is the first to publish the phase-3 trial results of such vaccines.

"A Phase III clinical trial of COVID-19 vaccine is a random comparative study conducted in epidemic areas, in which one group of participants are given genuine vaccines, while the other are given placebo shots. All participants then proceed with their normal lives and work in society. Finally, we analyze the number of cases in each group and use them to calculate the protection rate."

The vaccination procedure required two injections with an interval of 21 days.

The study says the trials are still ongoing overseas, and long-term efficacy of the two Chinese vaccines for COVID-19 prevention needs to be further evaluated.

Chinese envoy asks for robust Security Council actions to address Palestinian-Israeli issue

A Chinese envoy has asked for action from the U.N. Security Council to address the Palestinian-Israeli issue.

Chinese permanent representative to the UN Zhang Jun says the Security Council bears the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, and must address the Palestinian-Israeli issue and reaffirm its support for a two-state solution.

He has called for efforts to push the two parties to relaunch equal-footed dialogue to rebuild trust and overcome their differences.

He has also called on the international community to act without delay and provide humanitarian assistance to Palestine through multiple channels.

Sheriff: gunman in Calif. appeared to target victims

Police in the US say a gunman who shot and killed nine people at a California rail yard appeared to have targeted some of the victims.

Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith says the shooter, identified as Sam Cassidy, was armed with two semi-automatic handguns when he attacked.

"It appears to us at this point that he said to one of the people there, I'm not going to shoot you. And then he shot other people. So I imagine there was some kind of thought on who he wanted to shoot. He fired thirty nine rounds. There are no injuries, only fatalities. And that's very, very difficult."

Eight people died on the scene of the shooting and the ninth victim later died in hospital.

In addition to the handguns, police say Cassidy had 11 loaded magazines and his work locker contained materials for bombs.

Police say the 57-year-old shooter committed suicide when deputies arrived at the scene.

The shooting in San Jose was the 15th mass killing in the U.S. this year.

U.S. not to rejoin Open Skies Treaty: State Department

The United States says it has decided not to rejoin the Open Skies Treaty, which allows unarmed surveillance flights over member countries.

The U.S. withdrew from the multilateral arms control agreement last November under former President Donald Trump, accusing Russia of violating it.

The State Department said in a statement that the U.S. took the decision not to rejoin the treaty due to Russia's failure to take any action to return to compliance.

Moscow has denied the allegations of flouting the Open Skies Treaty.

Sanxingdui Ruins-themed event to be held in Sichuan

An event themed on the ancient Sanxingdui Ruins will be held today in Guanghan, Sichuan Province.

The event is set to introduce the latest achievements involving archaeological excavation at the site and unveil key projects on promoting Sanxingdui culture globally.

The Sanxingdui Ruins are believed to be the remnants of the Shu Kingdom dating back at least 4,800 years and lasting over 2,000 years.

It's dubbed one of the greatest archeological finds in the 20th century.