CHARGES SLAPPED ON SUU KYI, FACES DETENTION UNTIL FEBRUARY 15

Police levelled their first formal charge against Myanmar's ousted leader

Aung San Suu Kyi, members of her party said on Wednesday, giving military

authorities who staged a coup a legal reason to detain her at least through

the middle of the month.

The charge - that Suu Kyi was in possession of illegally imported walkie

talkies - came to light two days after she was placed under house arrest and

appeared to be an effort to lend a legal veneer to her detention, though the

generals have previously kept her and others locked up for years.

National League for Democracy spokesman Kyi Toe confirmed the charge against

Suu Kyi that carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison. He also

said the country's ousted president, Win Myint, was charged with violating

the natural disaster management law.

A leaked charge sheet dated February 1 indicates they can be held until

February 15.

Meanwhile, Internet providers in Myanmar including state-owned telecom MPT

were blocking access to Facebook Inc-owned services in the country on

Thursday, days after military leaders seized power in a coup.

A letter posted online by the Ministry of Communications and Information

overnight said Facebook would be blocked until Feb.7 for the sake of

"stability."

RUSSIA SHRUGS OFF FURY OVER NAVALNY'S PRISON SENTENCE

The United Nations human rights office on Wednesday voiced deep dismay at

the sentencing of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny and called

for the immediate release of peaceful protesters, including around 1,400

arrested on Tuesday.

A Moscow court jailed Navalny for three and a half years on Tuesday,

although he may actually serve two years and eight months because of time

spent under house arrest.

UN human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said in a statement his

sentence was for allegedly violating the conditions of a 2014 suspended

sentence in an embezzlement case "that the European Court of Human Rights

had in 2017 already unanimously found to be arbitrary, unfair and manifestly

unreasonable".

US secretary of state Antony Blinken reiterated calls for Navalny's

immediate release. "We will coordinate closely with our allies and partners

to hold Russia accountable for failing to uphold the rights of its

citizens," he said.

Russia accused the West on Wednesday of descending into hysteria over the

jailing of Navalny. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russian riot police

were justified in using harsh methods to break up protests against the

sentence, saying illegal protest activity needed to be stamped out.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the ruling was "far from any rule of

law".

France's President Emmanuel Macron called it "unacceptable", while UK Prime

Minister Boris Johnson said the ruling was "pure cowardice and fails to meet

the most basic standards of justice".

WILL COUNTER CHINA'S COERCIVE ACTIONS: US

Acknowledging that the US is in "serious competition" with China, the Biden

administration has asserted that it will counter Beijing's "aggressive and

coercive" actions, sustain its key military advantages and restore America's

vital security partnerships.

The relations between the US and China are at an all-time low. The two

countries are currently engaged in a bitter confrontation over various

issues, including trade, Covid origin, aggressive military moves in the

disputed South China Sea, human rights and Taiwan, the self-governing

democracy that China claims as its own territory and threatens to bring

under its control by military force.

China resents US support for Taiwan along with the US military presence in

the South China Sea. "When it comes to China more broadly, you have heard us

talk about our strategic approach. We are in serious competition with China.

Strategic competition is the frame through which we see that relationship,"

State Department Spokesperson Ned Price said.

FRENCH GOVERNMENT HELD LIABLE FOR INACTION ON CLIMATE CRISIS IN LANDMARK

CASE

A court on Wednesday ruled that the French state failed to take sufficient

action to fight the climate crisis in a case brought by four non-government

organisations.

The NGOs cheered the decision as "historic" for their country and a boon to

those elsewhere using the law to push their governments in the fight against

global warming. The four organisations are Greenpeace France, Oxfam France,

the Nicolas Hulot Foundation and Notre Affaire a Tous (Our Shared

Responsibility).

In its ruling, the Paris administrative court recognised ecological

"deficiencies" linked to the climate crisis and held the French state

responsible for failing to fully meet its goals in reducing greenhouse

gases.

The government said in a statement that it "took note" of the decision, and

provided a list of actions in the pipeline to "allow France to respect in

the future the objectives it set".

"The government remains fully engaged to take up the climate challenge and

leave no one on the side of the road in this indispensable transition,"

added the statement, which was signed by Barbara Pompili, the minister for

ecological transition.

U.S. EXTENDS NEW START NUCLEAR ARMS TREATY WITH RUSSIA: SECRETARY OF STATE

ANTONY BLINKEN

The United States has extended the New START nuclear disarmament treaty with

Russia for five years starting Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken

said.

"President Biden pledged to keep the American people safe from nuclear

threats by restoring U.S. leadership on arms control and nonproliferation,"

Mr. Blinken said in a statement.

"Today, the United States took the first step toward making good on that

pledge when it extended the New START Treaty with the Russian Federation for

five years."

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed off last Friday legislation

extending the accord.

The New START treaty is the last remaining arms reduction pact between the

former Cold War rivals.

Signed in 2010, New START caps to 1,550 the number of nuclear warheads that

can be deployed by Moscow and Washington, which control the world's largest

nuclear arsenals.

The agreement, which was due to expire on February 5, is seen as a rare

opportunity for compromise between Moscow and Washington, whose ties have

dramatically deteriorated in recent years.

PAKISTAN BEGINS COVID-19 VACCINATION PROGRAMME

Pakistan began its countrywide coronavirus vaccination programme on

Wednesday, with the first jabs administered simultaneously in all four

provinces, a day after Prime Minister Imran Khan launched the immunisation

drive in capital Islamabad.

As per the schedule, frontline health workers are being vaccinated first,

followed by the elderly citizens and then the rest.

The drive began after half a million doses of vaccines were donated by China

on Monday.

The nationwide campaign is being held in major cities of all provinces and

Pakistan occupied-Kashmir.

CORONAVIRUS | WHO TEAM VISITS WUHAN VIRUS LAB AT CENTRE OF SPECULATION

World Health Organisation (WHO) investigators on Wednesday visited a

research centre in the Chinese city of Wuhan that has been the subject of

speculation about the origins of the coronavirus, with one member saying

they intended to meet key staff and press them on critical issues.

The WHO team's visit to the Wuhan Institute of Virology is a highlight of

their mission to gather data and search for clues as to where the virus

originated and how it spread.

"We're looking forward to meeting with all the key people here and asking

all the important questions that need to be asked," zoologist and team

member Peter Daszak said.

Reporters followed the team to the high security facility, but as with past

visits, there was little direct access to team members, who have given scant

details of their discussions and visits thus far. Uniformed and plainclothes

security guards stood watch along the facility's gated front entrance, but

there was no sign of the protective suits team members had donned Tuesday

during a visit to an animal disease research centre.

GLOBAL CORONAVIRUS VACCINE TRUST RISING, BUT FRANCE, JAPAN, OTHERS SCEPTICAL

People's willingness to get vaccinated against COVID-19 is rising around the

world and more than half of those questioned said they would take the shot

if it were offered next week, an updated survey of global vaccine confidence

found on Thursday.

But attitudes and confidence vary widely in the 15 countries covered in the

survey, with France showing high levels of scepticism and some Asian

countries showing declining trust in vaccines, while some European nations

see rising confidence.

Overall, vaccine confidence is higher than in November, when the same survey

- conducted in 15 countries and covering 13,500 people each time - found

that only 40% would be willing to get vaccinated.

The survey, co-led by YouGov and Imperial College London's Institute of

Global Health Innovation (IGHI), found that people in Britain were the most

willing to have a COVID-19 vaccine, at 78%, followed by Denmark at 67%.

France had the highest proportion of respondents who said they would not

take a vaccine, at 44%, but saw a doubling in the proportion who strongly

agreed that they would take a vaccine, from 15% in November to 30% in

January.

In Australia, Japan, South Korea and Singapore, willingness to take a

vaccine has dropped off since November, with Japan showing the least

preparedness, followed by Singapore.

EU FACES 100 BILLION-EURO PRICE TAG FOR BUNGLED VACCINE PUSH

The European Union is facing a cost of tens of billions of euros for the

slow and chaotic rollout of coronavirus vaccinations compared to countries

such as the U.K. and U.S.

Lockdowns mean the bloc's economy is operating at about 95% of its

pre-pandemic level, equating to about 12 billion euros ($14 billion) a week

of lost output, according to calculations by Bloomberg Economics. It's also

weeks behind its peers in inoculations, and progressing at a slower pace.

Unless it can make up ground, the EU will be forced to keep lockdowns or

similar restrictions in place even as other major economies get fully back

to work. A delay of 1-2 months would amount to a 50-100 billion-euro blow.

The numbers highlight the massive stakes for the European Commission, which

became embroiled in a public standoff with drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc over

supply curbs before imposing export restrictions for Covid-19 vaccines. That

turned into a U-turn for President Ursula von der Leyen over shipments into

Northern Ireland.

"Every week that the lockdown has to be extended because the population

isn't vaccinated and vulnerable means substantial economic costs," said

Guntram Wolff, director of the Bruegel think tank in Brussels. "Those costs

are a lot higher than the costs of the vaccinations themselves."

So far, the EU has administered just 3 doses per 100 people, far behind the

15 in the U.K. and 10 in the U.S., according to the Bloomberg Vaccine

Tracker. In the meantime, more contagious strains of the coronavirus are

spreading, forcing governments to extend lockdowns.