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COVID-19 vaccine passports raise concerns about discrimination amin hope for an economic restart

If vaccines become a passport to doing things, we may see communities that have been already hardest hit by COVID being left behind.

WHO chief says there is no return to normalcy in the future, too many countries are heading in the wrong direction with Coronavirus

The WHO said that government and individual responses should depend on local virus conditions - namely, whether there is community spread or no.

Watch: The Inflatable Refugee art installation that hopes to eliminate fear

OPEC signals larger 2017 oil surplus, unless cuts implemented | Reuters

By Alex Lawler | LONDON LONDON OPEC on Wednesday signaled a growing oil supply surplus next year unless members implement their deal to curb output from record levels and outside producers also deliver on cutback pledges made at the weekend.The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries pumped 33.87 million barrels per day (bpd) last month, according to figures OPEC collects from secondary sources, up 150,000 bpd from October, OPEC said in a monthly report.OPEC's own figures show the group's output has continued to rise, adding to a global glut, ahead of the January start of its first supply cut agreement since 2008. This could raise questions about its ability to comply fully with the deal.But OPEC was hopeful that supply curbs pledged by Russia and other non-members at the weekend, in addition to its own reductions, will tackle the surplus and support prices, which at $55 a barrel LCOc1 are still half the level of mid-2014. The non-OPEC cuts should help to "accelerate the reduction of global inventories and bring forward the rebalancing of the oil market to the second half of 2017," OPEC said in the report.To speed it up, OPEC last month finalised a plan to cut output by about 1.20 million bpd from Jan

Oil above $50 on hopes for non-OPEC output cuts | Reuters

By Catherine Ngai | NEW YORK NEW YORK Oil rebounded from the week's lows to close above $50 a barrel on Thursday, on growing optimism that non-OPEC producers might agree to cut output following a cartel agreement to limit production.Both Brent and U.S. benchmarks rallied after the former secretary general of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries made comments supportive of non-member production cuts. The benchmarks remain more than $1 below the highs reached Dec

Designer of Soviet MiG jet fighters Mikoyan dies at 89 | Reuters

MOSCOW Vano Mikoyan, one of the developers of the MiG fighter jets for the Soviet and then Russian air force, has died at the age of 89, aircraft maker MiG said on Friday.Mikoyan is best-known for engineering the MiG-29 jet fighter, a warplane that entered service in the 1980s as the Soviet counterpart to the U.S. F-15 and F-16 fighters

At least three dead in mall fire in Peru, days before global summit | Reuters

LIMA At least three people died in a fire at a popular seaside mall in Lima on Wednesday, fire officials said, ahead of a global summit bringing together presidents from the United States, Russia, China and other countries this week.The cause was still unknown and firefighters were trying to rescue people from the Larcomar commercial centre, Miguel Eduardo Yi, a fire department chief in Lima, said.The British embassy in Lima, less than a block from the mall, was closed, officials said. Images on local television showed smoke billowing from Larcomar, the mall in the upscale district of Miraflores that is popular with tourists.Peru is hosting the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit this week, and world leaders are expected to arrive in the coming days

Pentagon to send about a dozen Guantanamo inmates to other countries soon | Reuters

WASHINGTON The Pentagon has notified the U.S Congress that it plans to transfer about a dozen prisoners held at the Guantanamo military prison to at least two countries, a U.S. official said on Wednesday, the latest move in President Barack Obama's push to close the facility

Indonesia identifies militants, arrests others over attack | Reuters

JAKARTA Indonesian police on Saturday named the five men they suspect launched this week's gun and bomb attack in the heart of Jakarta and said they had arrested 12 others linked to the plot, which was claimed by Islamic State. As investigators pieced together clues from the radical group's first strike on Indonesia, neighbouring Malaysia said it had arrested a man in Kuala Lumpur who had confessed to planning a suicide attack in the country

Myanmar's Suu Kyi says peace process will be government's priority | Reuters

YANGON Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi said on Monday the country's peace process will be the first priority of her new government that will take power later this year, following a landslide victory in a November election. The country has struggled for decades to reach lasting peace agreements with a multitude of ethnic minority guerrilla groups that have fought against the government for greater autonomy and recognition. The government signed a ceasefire in October, but the deal fell short of its nationwide billing, with seven of 15 groups invited declining to sign, including some of the most powerful.