Europe

GENEVA, Dec 16 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The new coronavirus variant Omicron is spreading across the globe at an unprecedented rate, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.

Cases of the heavily mutated variant have been confirmed in 77 countries.

But at a press conference, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was probably in many others that had yet to detect it.

Dr Tedros said he was concerned that not enough was being done to tackle the variant.

PARIS, Dec 16 (NNN-AGENCIES) — There are currently 488 media professionals imprisoned around the world, the highest number since Reporters Without Borders began counting more than 25 years ago, the NGO announced Thursday. 

By contrast, the number killed this year – 46 – was the lowest since it began issuing annual tallies, due to the relative stabilisation of conflicts in the Middle East.

DNIPRO, Ukraine, Dec 16 (Reuters) - When war broke out seven years ago in eastern Ukraine, Hanna Teryanik volunteered with her husband and friends to transport wounded government troops to and from hospital.

The soldiers fighting against Russian-backed separatists were a motley, ill-equipped bunch, recalled Teryanik, 45, who now works as a research scientist at a war museum in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.

These days, she believes, they are a much tougher and more professional outfit.

LONDON, Dec 15 (Reuters) - England's Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said on Wednesday that the Omicron coronavirus variant posed a really serious threat and that what health officials already knew about was "bad".

"This is a really serious threat at the moment. The how big a threat - there are several things we don't know, but all the things that we do know, are bad," Whitty told a news conference.

"And the principle one being the speed at which this is moving, it is moving at an absolutely phenomenal pace."

PARIS, Dec 16 (Reuters) - France imposed travel restrictions on travellers from Britain on Thursday due to surging COVID-19 cases there, and several European countries also strengthened border controls on visitors from other EU states.

Plans for Christmas celebrations in Europe and many countries across the globe have been thrown into disarray by the rapid spread of the highly infectious Omicron variant, which emerged in Hong Kong and Southern Africa last month.

BRUSSELS, Dec 16 (Reuters) - The European Union is under assault from Russia on multiple fronts and must unite behind new economic sanctions, Baltic and central European leaders said on Thursday, with Lithuania citing a risk of possible Russian military strikes from Belarus.

The warnings at an EU summit were some of the most direct in recent weeks as the United States and its NATO allies seek to deter any possible Russian attack on Ukraine and reduce Moscow's margin for surprise. Many NATO allies are also EU member states.

BRUSSELS/BANGKOK, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Tens of millions of migrants may be denied COVID-19 vaccines from a global programme because some major manufacturers are worried about legal risks from harmful side effects, according to officials and internal documents from Gavi, the charity operating the programme, reviewed by Reuters.

LONDON (AP) — An independent, unofficial body set up by a prominent British barrister to assess evidence on China’s alleged rights abuses against the Uyghur people concluded Thursday that the Chinese government committed genocide and crimes against humanity.

The Uyghur Tribunal, made up of lawyers, academics and businesspeople, doesn’t have any government backing or powers to sanction or punish China. But organizers hope the process of publicly laying out evidence will compel international action to tackle Beijing’s policies against the Uyghurs, a largely Muslim ethnic group.

LONDON (AP) — Spiraling infections in Britain driven in part by the new omicron variant of the coronavirus sent shockwaves Thursday into the rest of Europe, fueling a familiar dread that tighter restrictions will scuttle holiday plans again this year.

LONDON, December 15. /TASS/: Ukraine’s Security and Defense Council Secretary Alexey Danilov said that there was no evidence that Russia was preparing an imminent invasion of Ukrainian territory.