* Germany expects everyone willing to be vaccinated to have received a first dose of a COVID-19 shot by the end of July or early August, Chancellor Angela Merkel's chief of staff said.

AMERICAS

* Mexico will donate more than 400,000 AstraZeneca vaccine doses on Thursday to the so-called Northern Triangle Central American nations of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, the nation's foreign ministry said.

* Brazil registered a single-day record of 115,228 new confirmed coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, as its outbreak shows new signs of accelerating despite long-delayed vaccination efforts finally gaining steam.

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA

* South Africa's health regulator said it had received documentation for China's Sinopharm vaccine and will evaluate the data to assess the efficacy of the shot.

MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS

* The US National Institutes of Health said it had begun a study to evaluate the immune responses generated by COVID-19 vaccines in pregnant or postpartum women.

ECONOMIC IMPACT

* Global shares edged up on Thursday, while the US dollar steadied below an 11-week high as investors reassessed US Federal Reserve statements on inflation and looked to upcoming data for direction.

* German business morale rose by more than expected in June as companies' assessment of current conditions improved and their optimism increased about the second half of the year in Europe's largest economy, a survey showed.

* Austria's economy will grow faster than expected this year as vaccine rollouts and the end to pandemic restrictions are accelerating the recovery, the WIFO institute said, predicting a return to pre-crisis levels this northern summer.

* Japan's corporate services prices rose at the fastest annual pace in eight months in May, data showed, adding to growing signs the world's third-biggest economy is gradually emerging from last year's devastating impact of the pandemic.

Australian Associated Press