Hard Numbers: Moderna vaccine shines, RCEP inked, Israeli assassins strike in Iran, WHO gets some praise

95: US drug company Moderna announced Monday that its COVID-19 vaccine is 95 percent effective at protecting against the disease. The news follows Pfizer's recent announcement that its own vaccine showed a 90 percent success rate. Cause for optimism to be sure, but the data are still preliminary and the logistics of distributing any successful vaccine remain daunting.

15: After almost a decade of negotiations, 15 countries in the Asia Pacific — including China — signed one of the world's largest free trade agreements, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). Experts say that the pact, which covers 2.2 billion people, could help solidify China's role as the world's dominant economic power after the Trump administration pulled out of the rival Trans-Pacific Partnership in 2017.

2: Did Israel assassinate Al Qaeda's number two leader on the streets of Tehran? A New York Times exposé says Israeli agents on motorbikes, acting on US orders, ambushed Abu Muhammad al-Masri and his daughter in the Iranian capital this summer, killing them both. Iran's foreign ministry said the report amounted to a "Hollywood" story fabricated by the "Americans and Zionists."

63: While the World Health Organization (WHO) has been widely criticized for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, a median of 63 percent of adults from 14 countries still believe the WHO has done a "good job" dealing with the COVID crisis. While respondents from the US and UK gave the WHO the lowest rating amongst polled countries, Danes and Australians were the most upbeat.