More than a dozen Ethiopian staffers working for the United Nations have been arrested in Addis Ababa in raids targeting ethnic Tigrayans under a state of emergency, UN and humanitarian sources told AFP Tuesday. “Some of them were taken from their homes,” one of the sources said, while a UN …
Read More »“Pragmatic” Biden-Putin summit agrees to resume arms talks, return envoys
U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed at a “pragmatic” first summit on Wednesday to resume arms control talks and to return ambassadors to each other’s capitals after they were withdrawn earlier this year. The discussions at the lakeside Villa La Grange in Geneva lasted less than …
Read More »Wide disagreements, low expectations as Biden, Putin meet
US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin face off on Wednesday in their first meeting since Biden took office with wide disagreements likely and expectations low for any breakthroughs. Both have said they hope their talks in a stately lakeside Geneva villa can lead to more stable and …
Read More »Putin says US wants to ‘hold back’ Russia as Biden meeting looms
Russian president says he wants to improve strained ties with the US but sets a tough tone ahead of the Geneva summit. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he wants to improve Moscow’s ties with Washington when he holds his first summit with US counterpart Joe Biden later this month, …
Read More »Don’t issue virus ‘immunity passports’, WHO says
Governments should not issue so-called “immunity passports” or “risk-free certificates” as a way of easing lockdowns, the World Health Organization (WHO) says. It said there was “no evidence” that people who had developed antibodies after recovering from the virus were protected against a second infection. Such a move could actually …
Read More »WHO confirms two coronavirus cases among its staff
An official from the World Health Organization, the body leading the global fight against the coronavirus pandemic, said on Tuesday that two staff members have been confirmed to be infected with the coronavirus. The cases are the first at the Geneva-based organization and follow a confirmed case at the U.N. …
Read More »World Health Organization’s Coronavirus Warning: “This Is Not a Drill”
In Geneva, the director of the World Health Organization said there’s a “long list of countries not doing enough” to combat the virus. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus: “We’re concerned that some countries have either not taken this seriously enough or have decided there is nothing they can do. … This is …
Read More »Swiss police use water cannon, tear gas at Cameroon protesters.
Swiss police fired water cannon, tear gas and stun grenades at Cameroonian protesters outside UN headquarters in Geneva Saturday as the crowd surged towards a luxury hotel hosting Cameroon’s president. Parts of the “city of peace” resembled a war zone, with police wearing gas masks and black riot gear chasing …
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