Switzerland

14 Jan 2021; MEMO: Yemen's Houthi movement will not walk away from peace talks with the United Nations and Saudi Arabia despite the US decision to designate the Iran-aligned group as a foreign terrorist organisation, the Houthi chief negotiator told Reuters.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said the designation, which will trigger sanctions against the movement and three of its leaders, will come into effect on Jan. 19 at the end of the Trump administration's term.

GENEVA (Reuters) - The number of people fleeing violence in the Central African Republic has doubled in just a week to nearly 60,000, the U.N. refugee agency said on Friday.

Intensifying violence since a Dec. 27 presidential vote is responsible for the sharp increase in refugees, the UNHCR said, adding that most had fled to the Democratic Republic of Congo across the Ubangui River.

GENEVA, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- The World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said that a WHO team in China is working with producers of the Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines for potential emergency use listings.

"I'm pleased that a WHO team is in China currently working with producers of the Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines to assess compliance with international quality manufacturing practices ahead of potential emergency use listing by WHO," Tedros said at a recent media briefing.

GENEVA, Jan 12 (XINHUA/APP): The World Health Organization (WHO) vowed on Tuesday to speed up rolling out safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines and their equitable allocation across the world.

“A year on, there have been almost 2 million deaths from COVID-19 and while we are hopeful about the safe and effective vaccines that are being rolled out, we want to see this sped up and vaccines allocated equitably in the coming weeks,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a virtual press briefing.

GENEVA, Jan 12 (NNN-Prensa Latina) — Every year over 300,000 women in the world die of cervix cancer, which could be prevented if they received timely health care, WHO warns Tuesday.

This could be the first cancer to be eliminated if 90 percent of girls are vaccinated, 70 percent of women are examined and 90 percent of those suffering from it are treated, the health organisation highlighted on Twitter.

It also indicated that nine in ten of these deaths occur in the poorest countries.

GENEVA (Reuters) - Israeli billionaire Beny Steinmetz went on trial in a Geneva court on Monday on corruption and forgery charges linked to mining concessions in the West African nation of Guinea.

Steinmetz was indicted in August 2019 by a Geneva prosecutor who accused him and two aides of paying or having $10 million in bribes paid to obtain exploration permits for some of the world’s richest iron-ore deposits.

Steinmetz and his aides deny the charges. If convicted he could face up to 10 years in prison.

GENEVA, January 9. /TASS/: Over 799,000 new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus infection have been recorded globally in the past day, pushing a total number of infections to more than 87.58 million, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in its daily bulletin on Saturday.

According to the WHO updates, the coronavirus-related death toll increased by more than 15,400 to over 1.9 mln.

ZURICH (Reuters) - Austria’s Labour Minister Christine Aschbacher has resigned after allegations that she plagiarised some of her university work, but denied any wrongdoing and said she was stepping down to protect her family.

Aschbacher, a member of the conservative Austrian People’s Party which leads the coalition government, allegedly copied at least one fifth of her doctoral dissertation from other sources, as well as chunks of her diploma thesis, according to academic Stefan Weber who specialises in plagiarism.

ZURICH (Reuters) - Austrian schools will receive 5 million coronavirus testing kits from Jan. 18, the government said on Saturday, as part of efforts to curb the spread of the virus when pupils eventually return to the classroom.

Education Minister Heinz Fassmann announced the delivery of the voluntary tests which pupils and teachers will be able to take at least once a week.

“Testing is the right answer to bridge the difficult months until the vaccine coverage is complete,” Fassmann said.

GENEVA, January 6. /TASS/: Proliferation of the highly contagious novel coronavirus strain, first detected in Britain, has now been confirmed in 41 countries and territories, the World Health Organization said in its COVID-19 Weekly Epidemiological Update on Tuesday evening.