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Tsunami waves caused by a giant underwater volcanic eruption have hit the Pacific country of Tonga.
Social media footage showed water washing through a church and several homes, and witnesses said ash was falling over the capital, Nuku'alofa.
Tsunami warnings across the region sent residents scrambling to higher ground.
The eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai volcano was heard across the South Pacific, and eventually as far away as the US.
The Chinese capital, Beijing, has reported its first locally transmitted case of Omicron coronavirus variant, state media reported on Saturday, less than three weeks before the Beijing Olympic Winter Games.
An official at the city’s disease control authority said at a press conference that laboratory testing found “mutations specific to the Omicron variant” in the person. The authorities have since published detailed account of the patient’s activity that dates back to 31 December.
Haidian district officials in Beijing said they had sealed up the infected person’s residential compound and workplace. They have also collected 2,430 samples for testing from people linked to the two locations.
Pfizer Japan Inc said Friday it has applied to the Japanese health ministry for approval of its COVID-19 pill which, if granted, would make it the second oral drug for mild coronavirus cases available in the country.
The new drug application for Paxlovid, a combination of two antiviral drugs nirmatrelvir and ritonavir, comes at a time when Japan is battling its sixth surge of COVID-19 cases amid a spread of the Omicron variant, with Japan already agreeing to procure enough of the drug for 2 million people.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said earlier in the week a final agreement with the Japanese arm of U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer on the drug's purchase is expected by the end of January, aiming for its approval in February.
While drone attacks kill dozens of people in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed continues to push for national dialogue to end the conflict. Will his plan succeed?
Pressure from the international community to resolve Ethiopia's Tigray conflict has never been higher.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which bestows the Nobel Peace Prize, on Thursday called on Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, a recipient of the award in 2019, to end the bloodshed in Tigray.
The region has been ravaged by a war that broke out between Tigrayan forces and federal troops 14 months ago. Fighting has caused a humanitarian crisis in Tigray with allegations of atrocities leveled against all parties in the conflict.
The agreement was signed last year and includes economic, military and security cooperation.
A 25-year comprehensive cooperation agreement signed between Iran and China last year has now entered the implementation stage, according to Iran’s foreign minister.
Hossein Amirabdollahian, in his first visit to China as foreign minister, announced the news late Friday after a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.
Analysis by Nic Robertson, CNN
Updated 0501 GMT (1301 HKT) January 15, 2022
Europe has a long and bloody history of wars, of borders brutally contested, of nations and empires carving destructive furrows far from home. But a sad harvest of sorrow and loss after the Second World War was followed by decades of relative peace and prosperity, even during a Cold War that did not become hot.
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