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GENEVA (Reuters) - The U.N. human rights chief said on Monday that three years after a Rohingya exodus “no concrete measures” on accountability had been taken by authorities and said some cases of recent civilian casualties in Myanmar may represent war crimes.

“In some cases, they appear to have been targeted or attacked indiscriminately, which may constitute further war crimes or even crimes against humanity,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet told the Human Rights Council in Geneva, speaking of casualties in Rakhine and Chin States.

GENEVA, Sept 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The UN called for an immediate “quantum leap” in funding to fight the new coronavirus as the death toll crossed 900,000 six months after the pandemic broke out.

Alarming figures cropped up, with France registering a record of almost 10,000 new Covid-19 cases over the last 24 hours ahead of a key meeting to decide a toughening of coronavirus measures.

ZURICH/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - AstraZeneca should still know by year-end whether its experimental vaccine protects people against coronavirus, as long as it is cleared to resume trials soon, its chief executive said on Thursday amid doubts over its rollout.

Governments desperate to put an end to the COVID-19 pandemic which has caused more than 900,000 deaths and huge economic and social disruption during 2020 are pinning their hopes on a vaccine.

GENEVA, Sept 8 (NNN-TASS) — The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is not the last one, so the world must brace for a new pandemic in advance, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

“This will not be the last pandemic. History teaches us that outbreaks and pandemics are a fact of life. But when the next pandemic comes, the world must be ready – more ready than it was this time,” the director-general said during a press briefing.

According to Ghebreyesus, the COVID-19 pandemic is “teaching all of us many lessons.”

GENEVA, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Senior World Health Organization (WHO) officials on Monday congratulated the front-line health workers and the people in China for having reached a successful outcome in fighting COVID-19.

"Our deepest congratulations go to the front-line health workers in China and the population who worked together tirelessly to bring the disease to this very low level," said Dr. Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO's Health Emergencies Program, at a routine WHO press briefing.

GENEVA (Reuters) - U.N. human rights experts have told China a new security law for Hong Kong “infringes on certain fundamental rights” and voiced concerns that it could be used to prosecute political activists in the former British colony.

In a rare joint letter made public on Friday, 48 hours after it was sent to the Chinese government, they also said provisions of the new law appear to undermine the independence of Hong Kong’s judges and lawyers, and the right to freedom of expression.

The ICJ today expressed its concern regarding the 31 August 2020 and 14 August 2020 decisions of the Indian Supreme Court to convict prominent human rights lawyer Prashant Bhushan for criminal contempt of court, on the basis of two twitter posts in which the lawyer criticized the performance of the Indian judiciary.

While the Court only imposed a symbolic fine of one rupee, rather than imprisonment, the ICJ considers that the conviction appears to be inconsistent with international standards on freedom of expression and the role of lawyers.

GENEVA (Reuters) - India reported the most new COVID-19 cases of any country in the past week, its nearly half a million fresh infections pushing the global tally up by 1 percent, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.

Overall global new deaths in the past seven days fell by 3% compared to the previous week, the WHO reported, adding that overall new infections around the world rose by 1.8 million.

GENEVA/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The World Trade Organization’s director-general Roberto Azevedo steps down on Monday, leaving the already-damaged global watchdog leaderless as it faces the biggest crisis in its 25-year history.

As the WTO’s influence seeps away, rising international tensions and protectionism during a COVID-induced slowdown, most obviously between China and President Donald Trump’s U.S. administration, make reform of global trade rules ever more urgent.

26 Aug 2020; MEMO: Russia, Turkey and Iran – who form the Astana trio – have announced their intention to hold another round of peace talks on Syria, according to a joint statement following the third meeting of the Constitutional Committee of Syria held in Geneva yesterday.