Vienna (AFP) – Thousands gather in Vienna to protest against the new measures announced by the Austrian government to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic. Authorities have announced plans to make coronavirus vaccinations mandatory and will next week impose a partial lockdown in the face of spiralling infections.
Geneva (AFP) – UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Liz Throssell says the UN wants proof of the whereabouts of Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai, who went missing after making sexual assault allegations against a top Communist Party official.
Zagreb (AFP) – Thousands take to the streets in the Croatian capital Zagreb in the biggest demonstration the country has seen against Covid-19 measures since the beggining of the pandemic.
Jerusalem (AFP) – The evening gowns shine under the spotlights and the tiaras sparkle, but this beauty pageant is like no other: all the contestants are Holocaust survivors.
Lima (AFP) – Women who were forcibly sterilized between 1996 and 2000 in Peru under a program of then-President Alberto Fujimori denounce new obstacles to the progress of their emblematic trial after the sudden change of the judge in charge.
Nad-e-Ali (Afghanistan) (AFP) – For decades, Afghanistan’s Helmand province has been on the frontline of the country’s conflict, and the landscape bears the scars. Since the departure of US troops in the summer, the remnants of war remain a serious threat to Afghans’ safety. Since 1989, 41,085 Afghan civilians have been killed or injured by landmines and unexploded ordnance, according to the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS). In an effort to prevent any further loss of life, demining NGO the HALO Trust is racing against time to “decontaminate” one of the most heavily mined countries in the world.
Netanya (Israel) (AFP) – Migrating great white pelicans, also known as the eastern white pelicans, feed on fish at a water reservoir as part of a project funded by Israel’s Nature and Parks Authority which aims at preventing pelicans from feeding from commercial fish farms.
New Delhi (AFP) – One of India’s holiest rivers – the Yamuna – is coated with toxic foam, adding to the woes of New Delhi residents already enduring a blanket of thick smog over the capital. The city government has blamed the blight on “heavy sewage and industrial waste” discharged into the river from further upstream last week. But it didn’t stop several Hindu worshippers from taking a dip in the river to mark Chhath Puja, a four-day festival to offer prayers to the sun.
Tuvalu (Tuvalu) (AFP) – Tuvalu’s Foreign Minister Simon Kofe calls for COP26 nations to urgently address climate change, standing mid-thigh in seawater, from one of the countries most threatened by rising water levels. Tuvalu is a pacific island country in the Polynesian subregion of Oceania situated about midway between Hawaii and Australia.
Iquique (Chile) (AFP) – A mountain of discarded clothing including Christmas sweaters and ski boots cuts a strange sight in Chile’s Atacama, the driest desert in the world, which is increasingly suffering from pollution created by fast fashion.
