WHO TEAM LEAVES WUHAN QUARANTINE TO START COVID PROBE

A World Health Organization (WHO) team emerged Thursday from a Wuhan hotel

used for 14 days quarantine and boarded a bus to begin its probe into the

first known coronavirus cases.

Outside the hotel, reporters were kept distant by yellow entrance barriers.

It was not immediately clear where the team's masked members were headed in

the central Chinese city. Despite a tough early lockdown, nearly 3,900

people died from the virus in the city, according to Chinese figures.

A so-called wet market where wild animals were sold as food is the

speculative source of the pandemic. It has killed more than 2 million people

worldwide, infected more than 95 million, and gutted the global economy.

Beijing has floated the unsubstantiated theory that the virus emerged

elsewhere.

Relatives of Wuhan's coronavirus dead have sought a meeting with the UN

agency-led team, saying since it arrived they have faced heightened official

Chinese obstruction.

In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told the media

that the expert team will conduct interviews and discussions with their

Chinese colleagues while complying with China's epidemic prevention

regulations.

China also emphatically denied former US President Donald Trump's charge

that the virus may have escaped from the bio-lab called the Wuhan Institute

of Virology. "Presumptions, negative speculation and politicised

interpretations will be very inappropriate and will bring unnecessary

disruptions to WHO experts' joint study in China and is not conducive to

reaching science-based conclusions," Zhao said.

"On the origin tracing, there are reports and studies.that show origin

tracing is an ongoing process that might involve many places and it is a

complicated scientific matter that should be conducted by scientists all

over the world," he said.

While denying that coronavirus originated in Wuhan, China points to reports

from Italy, Spain and the US about its prevalence to predating its emergence

in Wuhan.

Also, Beijing appeared relieved over US President Joe Biden banning his

predecessor's references to COVID-19 as "China virus and Wuhan virus"

PAK SC ORDERS RELEASE OF PRIME SUSPECT IN DANIEL PEARL MURDER

Pakistan's Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the release of Ahmed Omar Saeed

Sheikh, the principal accused in the 2002 beheading of American journalist

Daniel Pearl, dismissing the appeal of the govt of Sindh province against a

high court order for his immediate release. Pearl's family, in a statement

released by their lawyer, said, "Today's decision is a complete travesty of

justice and the release of these killers puts in danger journalists

everywhere and the people of Pakistan."

The order was issued by a three-judge SC bench, of which one member opposed

the decision. Sheikh's lawyer said that according to the SC, there wasn't

sufficient evidence to prove that he had committed the offence. Provincial

attorney Salman Talibuddin said the court also ordered that three others who

had been sentenced to life in prison for their part in Pearl's kidnapping

and death be freed.

In April last year, the Sindh HC had overturned the death sentence of

Sheikh, who had been convicted of the 2002 kidnapping and killing of the US

journalist by an anti-terrorism court, into seven years' imprisonment and

acquitted the three others. Sheikh, who had already spent 18 years in

prison, was expected to be released after the verdict. The accused, however,

were not released as the Sindh govt kept them behind bars under the

Maintenance of Public Order law.

IRAN DISMISSES U.S. CALL

Iran dismissed on Thursday a call by the U.S. for it to return to full

compliance of a nuclear deal first, insisting it had only taken "remedial

measures" since America's withdrawal.

"Reality check for @SecBlinken: The US violated (the) JCPOA," Iran's Foreign

Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted, referring to the accord by its formal

name, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. He said that as well as its

unilateral withdrawal, the U.S. had also imposed sanctions that "blocked

food/medicine to Iranians" and "punished adherence" to a UN resolution.

"Now, who should take 1st step? Never forget Trump's maximum failure," he

added, stressing Iran had "abided by the JCPOA".

COVID-19: NOVAVAX VACCINE SHOWS 89% EFFICACY IN UK TRIALS

A new coronavirus vaccine has been shown to be 89.3% effective in

large-scale UK trials.

The Novavax jab is the first to show it is effective against the new variant

of the virus discovered in the UK, the BBC's medical editor Fergus Walsh

said.

The PM welcomed the "good news" and said the UK's medicines regulator would

now assess the vaccine.

The UK has secured 60 million doses of the jab, which will be made in

Stockton-on-Tees.

The doses are expected to be delivered in the second half of this year, if

approved for use by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency

(MHRA), the government said.

The UK has so far approved three coronavirus vaccines for emergency use -

one from Oxford University and AstraZeneca, another by Pfizer and BioNTech,

and a third from drug firm Moderna.

The Novavax jab was shown to be 89.3% effective at preventing Covid-19 in

participants in its Phase 3 clinical trial in the UK, which enrolled more

than 15,000 people aged between 18-84, of whom 27% were older than 65,

Novavax said.

In the South African part of the trial, where most of the cases were the

South African variant of the virus, the vaccine was 60% effective among

those without HIV.

UN CHIEF CALLS FOR REGULATING SOCIAL MEDIA COMPANIES

The United Nations chief called Thursday for global rules to regulate

powerful social media companies like Twitter and Facebook.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he believes it shouldn't be a

company that has the power to decide whether, for example, then president

Donald Trump's Twitter account should be closed, as a questioner asked.

Rather, he said, a "mechanism" should be created "in which there is a

regulatory framework with rules that allow for that to be done in line with

law."

"I do not think that we can live in a world where too much power is given to

a reduced number of companies," Guterres stressed at a news conference.

Mr. Guterres said he is "particularly worried" about the power of social

media companies.

He pointed to "the volume of information that is being gathered about each

one of us, the lack of control we have about ... the data related to

ourselves, the fact that that data can be used not only for commercial

purposes to sell to advertising companies ... but also to change our

behavior, and the risks of that to be used also from a political point of

view for the control of citizens in countries."

Mr. Guterres said this "requires a serious discussion" and that is one of

the objectives of his "Roadmap for Digital Cooperation" launched last June.

The roadmap's aim is to promote "a safer, more equitable digital world."

UN CHIEF CALLS VACCINE DISTRIBUTION 'EMERGENCY'

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Thursday that while every country

has the duty to protect its own people "no country can afford to neglect the

rest of the world."

He called "vaccine nationalism" both a moral and economic failure and said:

"We need a global vaccination campaign to deal with a global pandemic."

If Covid-19 continues circulating in the global south, it will inevitably

mutate, Guterres told a news conference. New variants could be more deadly

and more transmissible and threaten the effectiveness of current vaccines,

"prolonging or risking to prolong the pandemic significantly."

Research by the International Chamber of Commerce showed that without

support to the developing world, "this crisis could cost the global economy

up to $9.2 trillion -- almost half, including in the wealthiest countries,''

the secretary-general said.

EUROPE'S VAX ROW DEEPENS

Europe's fight to secure Covid vaccine supplies intensified on Thursday when

the European Union (EU) said it would tighten oversight of exports after a

row with AstraZeneca. Britain demanded that it receive all the shots it paid

for.

The EU, whose member states are far behind Israel, the UK and the US in

rolling out vaccines, is scrambling to get supplies just as the West's

biggest drugmakers slow deliveries to the bloc due to production problems.

As vaccination centres in Germany and France cancelled or delayed

appointments, the EU publicly rebuked AstraZeneca for failing to deliver and

even asked if it could divert supplies from Britain.

Britain, which has repeatedly touted its lead in the vaccine rollout race

since leaving the EU, said its deliveries must be honoured.

BIDEN SIGNS HEALTHCARE EXECUTIVE ORDERS, SAYS UNDOING DAMAGE TRUMP HAS DONE

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US President Joe Biden has reversed a ban on federal funds going to

international aid groups that perform or inform about abortions.

He said the ending of the so-called Mexico City Policy reverses former

President Trump's "attack on women's health access".

The memo orders a review of a Trump-era policy blocking funding for US

clinics that offer abortion referrals as well.

Mr Biden also signed an edict expanding the Obamacare insurance programme.

"I'm not initiating any new law, any new aspect of the law," he said in the

White House Oval Office on Thursday, responding to criticism that he was

governing by executive order, rather than congressional legislations.

"There is nothing new that we're doing here other than restoring the

Affordable Care Act ... to the way it was before Trump became president," he

added.

POLAND: NEAR-TOTAL ABORTION BAN TAKES EFFECT AMID PROTESTS

A near-total ban on abortion has taken effect in Poland and triggered a new

round of nationwide protests three months after a top court ruled that the

abortion of congenitally damaged fetuses is unconstitutional.

Led by a women's rights group, Women's Strike, people poured onto the

streets of Warsaw and other cities and towns on Thursday for the second

evening in a row.

"I wanted to have more children, you killed this desire,'' read a banner

held by one woman among the demonstrators in Warsaw. Some Polish women said

that if they are denied the right to terminate pregnancies in cases of badly

deformed fetuses, they would not try to have children at all.

Poland's top human rights official denounced the further restriction of what

was already one of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe, calling it

a tragedy for women.

"The state wants to further limit their rights, risk their lives, and

condemn them to torture,'' said Adam Bodnar, the human rights commissioner,

or ombudsman, whose role is independent from the Polish government. "This

offensive is opposed by civil society.''