KUNDUZ, Afghanistan -- The Afghan army's Special Forces freed 24 people from a prison at a Taliban hideout in restive northern province of Kunduz overnight, a local official confirmed on Thursday.

"The special operation was launched in Kabuli Qishlaq village of Haqtash district Wednesday night. No armed clash took place following the raid as the militants manning the Taliban hideout fled before troops' arrival," Mohammad Omar Haqtash told Xinhua. (Afghanistan-Prison)

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NEW DELHI -- India's COVID-19 tally rose to 10,950,201 on Thursday, as 12,881 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours, the latest data from the federal health ministry showed.

According to the official data, the death toll mounted to 156,014 as 101 COVID-19 patients died since Wednesday morning.

There are still 137,342 Active Cases in the country, while 10,656,845 people have been discharged so far from hospitals after medical treatment. (India-COVID-19)

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HONG KONG -- The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government on Thursday gave nod to the emergency use of the inactivated vaccine produced by Sinovac Biotech, two days after a panel of experts recommended the vaccine to the authorities.

Secretary for Food and Health of the HKSAR government Sophia Chan announced the decision in a statement, making Sinovac's vaccine the second allowed to be administered in Hong Kong following the mRNA vaccine developed by Fosun Pharma and BioNTech. (Hong Kong-Sinovac)

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WELLINGTON -- A dry run of the end-to-end process shows New Zealand's COVID-19 vaccination program is ready to roll from Saturday, when the first border workers will receive the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said on Thursday.

The trial run took place in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch on Wednesday, ahead of the vaccination program formally kicking off on Saturday. The first batch of COVID-19 vaccines arrived in New Zealand on Monday. The vaccine will be offered to border and managed isolation workers, with the first immunizations given out to those working in the Auckland region. (New Zealand-Vaccine) Enditem

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