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World News in Brief: December 27

 
World News in Brief: December 27

Oman will not allow employees in the public or private sectors to enter their workplace without a vaccination certificate that proves they are fully vaccinated, the health minister said in a news conference on Monday. (File photo: AFP)   

Australia reported its first confirmed death from the new Omicron variant of COVID-19 on Monday amid its biggest daily surge in infections, but the authorities refrained from imposing new restrictions saying hospitalisation rates remained low.


* Japan's Defence Minister Nobuo Kishi spoke with his Chinese counterpart Wei Fenghe by video call on Monday, Kyodo news reported, citing unnamed government sources.

* The Kremlin said on Monday it made sense for Russia to hold talks with NATO on security guarantees it wants from the West in addition to bilateral negotiations with the United States.

* Malaysia is seeking 3 million USD from the U.N. Green Climate Fund (GCF) to develop a national plan to adapt to climate change, the environment ministry said last week, amid deadly floods that have displaced nearly 70,000 people this month.

* Iran’s main focus in nuclear talks that resume in Austria on Monday will be the lifting of all US sanctions in a verifiable process that guarantees Tehran’s unhindered ability to export its oil, the foreign minister said.

* Japan's industry ministry said on Monday it will hold an auction on Feb. 9 to sell about 100,000 kilolitres, or 628,980 barrels, of crude oil from its national reserve as a part of a US-led coordinated release of oil reserve to cool rising prices.

* China's Xian tightened curbs on travel within the city on Monday as it started a new round of testing on the fifth day of a lockdown of its 13 million people.

* The Republic of Korea authorised for emergency use Pfizer's antiviral pills targeting COVID-19 as the first of its kind to be introduced in the RoK, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said on Monday.

* Italy reported 81 coronavirus-related deaths on Sunday against 144 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new cases fell sharply as testing plunged over the Christmas weekend.

* An Israeli hospital administered fourth COVID-19 vaccine doses on Monday to a test group, as the country considers approving the measure for vulnerable populations in a bid to outpace a surge in infections fuelled by the Omicron variant.

* Iran has banned the entry of travellers from Britain, France, Denmark and Norway for 15 days.

* A major Israeli hospital will begin administering a fourth vaccine shot to 150 staff on Monday in a trial aimed at gauging whether a second booster is necessary nationwide.

* Bharat Biotech's COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin has gained approval for emergency use in children aged 12 to 18, the Indian company said on Twitter.

* Oman will not allow employees in the public or private sectors to enter their workplace without a vaccination certificate that proves they are fully vaccinated, the health minister said in a news conference on Monday.

* Asian stock markets were generally weaker with US crude in holiday-thinned trading on Monday, as uncertainty over the economic impact of the Omicron variant weighed on investor sentiment.

* Japan's retail sales rose faster than expected in November, thanks to decreasing COVID-19 cases in the month, which have encouraged shoppers to ramp up spending on goods and services.

* The Yamal-Europe pipeline, that usually delivers Russian gas to Western Europe, was sending the fuel back to Poland for a seventh straight day on Monday, according to data from German network operator Gascade.

* Somali's president said on Monday he had suspended the prime minister for suspected corruption in the latest power struggle distracting the government from an Islamist insurgency, prompting the United States to call for calm.

* The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen said on Sunday the Iran-aligned Houthi group had fired 430 ballistic missiles and 851 armed drones at Saudi Arabia since the war started in 2015, killing 59 Saudi civilians.


Reuters

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