What can the world learn from countries where Omicron is surging?
Updated 1030 GMT (1830 HKT) December 17, 2021
South Africa, the United Kingdom and Denmark are three of the countries where the Omicron variant is now surging, less than a month after it was first detected.
Russia issues list of demands it says must be met to lower tensions in Europe
Contentious security guarantees Moscow is seeking include a ban on Ukraine from entering Nato
Russia has put forward a highly contentious list of security guarantees it says it wants the west to agree to in order to lower tensions in Europe and defuse the crisis over Ukraine, including many elements that have already been ruled out.
The demands include a ban on Ukraine entering Nato and a limit to the deployment of troops and weapons to Nato’s eastern flank, in effect returning Nato forces to where they were stationed in 1997, before an eastward expansion.
The eight-point draft treaty was released by Russia’s foreign ministry as its forces massed within striking distance of Ukraine’s borders. Moscow said ignoring its interests would lead to a “military response” similar to the Cuban missile crisis of 1962.
Iran nuclear talks adjourn, seen resuming before year's end
Talks aimed at salvaging Iran’s tattered 2015 nuclear deal with world powers have been adjourned, following a round marked by tensions over new demands from Tehran
Talks aimed at salvaging Iran s tattered 2015 nuclear deal with world powers were adjourned Friday, following a round marked by tensions over new demands from Tehran
China’s lead negotiator, Wan Qun, said the talks will “resume hopefully before the end of the year.” He said that “we haven’t firmed up a date yet.” Enrique Mora, the European Union diplomat who chaired the talks, said that “we will resume soon.”
The current talks in Vienna between the remaining signatories to the 2015 nuclear agreement — known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA — opened on Nov. 29, after a gap of more than five months caused by the arrival of a new hard-line government in Iran. There was a short break last week as delegations returned home to consult with their governments.
Peshawar school massacre parents: 'We kept his pen'
Parents have accused the government of lacking empathy, as they remember one of the worst attacks in Pakistan's history. Imran Khan is negotiating with the TTP — which is responsible for the deaths of 132 children.
For Shahana Ajoon, every December brings grief, anger and agony for her family which is still struggling to come to terms with the deadly terror attack on a school in the north-western Pakistani city of Peshawar, seven years ago.
Ajoon's torture is mirrored among the parents of the 132 school children who were killed in the massacre on December 16, 2014, perpetrated by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants, in what remains one of the worst terror attacks in the history of Pakistan.
Last month Imran Khan's government signed a month-long ceasefire agreement with the TTP — a militant group which carried out several attacks on Pakistan's security forces and civilians in the past 15 years.
Two years into pandemic, WHO emergencies chief eyes 'brighter future'
– After two years at the forefront of WHO's pandemic battle, emergencies chief Michael Ryan remains optimistic humanity will change course and take the steps needed to tame the virus.
As concern grows about the fast-spreading coronavirus variant Omicron and surging infection rates, the World Health Organization's second-in-command acknowledged the crisis could plausibly evolve in disastrous directions.
We could face the constant emergence of new and more dangerous variants and waves of infection that repeatedly collapse our health systems.
"That's a plausible future if we don't adequately deal with the virus," Ryan told AFP in an interview.
But, he said, "I don't see that right now. I see a brighter future."
Ethiopia slams new probe proposal at UN rights body session
Ambassador Zembe Kebede accuses UN Human Rights Council of having been ‘hijacked’ and used as ‘instrument of political pressure’.
The United Nations’ Human Rights Council is due to consider a draft resolution that, if adopted, will set up an international commission of rights experts investigate abuses in war-hit Ethiopia.
Speaking at the largely virtual one-day session on Friday, Nada al-Nashif, the deputy rights chief, said the UN is continuing to receive “credible reports” that all sides in the brutal 13-month conflict have been committing severe human rights violations amid a deepening humanitarian crisis.
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