GLOBAL ALARM GROWS OVER CHINA'S COVID-19 SURGE

Beijing’s sudden pivot away from containing COVID-19 has caused jitters around the world, with the United States saying it may restrict travel from China following its decision to end mandatory quarantine for overseas arrivals.

China late on Monday scrapped quarantine for inbound travellers from January 8 onwards, dismantling the last remaining piece of its stringent zero-COVID policy and ending some of the world’s harshest border restrictions.

The move was greeted with jubilation by Chinese citizens, who rushed to book international flights, triggering a surge in ticket prices.

Hospitals and crematoriums across China continue to be overwhelmed by an influx of mostly elderly people.

Dozens of mostly elderly COVID patients were lying on gurneys in overflowing hospital emergency wards in Tianjin, 140 kilometres (87 miles) southwest of the capital Beijing on Wednesday.

Medical staff are “pretty much all” expected to continue working despite testing positive for the virus, one doctor said.

Other countries have expressed concerns about the potential for new variants to emerge as China battles the world’s biggest surge in infections.

The United States is “considering taking similar steps” to countries such as Japan and Malaysia, they added. Taiwan, a self-ruled island that China claims as its own, said on Wednesday that it would also screen travellers from the mainland for the virus.

Italy Wednesday said it would make coronavirus tests for all visitors from China mandatory.

France's president, too, said it had "requested appropriate measures to protect" its citizens, with Paris noting it was closely monitoring "the evolution of the situation in China".

The European Commission is set to meet Thursday to discuss "possible measures for a coordinated approach" by EU states to the explosion of Covid cases in China.

PROGRESS TOWARD UKRAINE-RUSSIA PEACE TALKS APPEARS FAR OFF

As the battle for Ukraine turns into a bloody, mile-by-mile fight in numbing cold, Ukrainian and Russian officials have insisted that they are willing to discuss making peace. But it is increasingly clear that both sides’ demands even to start talks are flatly unacceptable to the other, leading US and European officials to conclude that serious discussions on ending the war are unlikely in the near future. There have been no peace talks between Ukraine and Russia since the early weeks of the conflict.

This week, Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, detailed a proposal for a “peace” summit by the end of February but told Associated Press that Kyiv would negotiate with Moscow only if Russia first faced a war-crimes tribunal.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that “there cannot be a peace plan for Ukraine that does not take into account today’s realities with Russian territory,” including the four annexed regions, according to the Interfax news agency.

The hard-line positions suggest that both sides believe they have more to gain militarily. Ukraine holds the battlefield momentum, having retaken much of the land that Russia captured early in the war, although Moscow’s forces still occupy large chunks of the east and south. And Russia is pressing its own advantage, readying more troops and launching aerial attacks on infrastructure.

PAK DETAINS 4 TO 5 SUSPECTS FOR ROLE IN BOMBING IN ISLAMABAD

Islamabad : At least “four or five” suspects and handlers involved in the suicide bombing attack in Islamabad have been detained, Pakistan’s interior minister Rana Sanaullah has claimed.

A policeman and two suspected militants were killed and at least six others, including four policemen, injured in the bombing on Friday in the upscale residential area, barely 15km away from Rawalpindi, where Pakistan’s powerful military establishment is located.

“We have arrested the suspects of the Islamabad terrorist attack and have also detained their handlers,” Sanaullah tweeted. His tweet showed that the second person in the vehicle was not a woman, as police initially said, but was the taxi driver hired by the suicide bomber for transportation from Rawalpindi to Islamabad. “The taxi driver was innocent,” he said.

The bombing was claimed by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, a banned terrorist group that reactivated after capture of Kabul by Afghan Taliban.

UNSC VOICES CONCERN ABOUT RESTRICTIONS ON WOMEN IN AFGHANISTAN

United Nations : The UN Security Council, under the current presidency of India, has voiced concern over restrictions on women and girls’ education and work imposed by the Taliban in Afghanistan, calling for a swift reversal of these policies. The Taliban have banned women from attending university and working for NGOs last week.

India’s ambassador to the UN and the UNSC president for the month, Ruchira Kamboj, issued a press statement on Tuesday, saying that said the members are “deeply alarmed” by reports that the Taliban have suspended access to universities for women and girls. It “called on the Taliban to reopen schools and swiftly reverse these policies which represents an increasing erosion for the respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms. ” The members furtherexpressed concerned over ban on female employees of NGOs. It said these restrictions contradict the commitments made by the Taliban to the Afghan people as well as the expectations of the international community.

NETANYAHU GOVT.’S TOP PRIORITY IS WEST BANK

Benjamin Netanyahu’s incoming hard-line government put West Bank settlement expansion at the top of its list of priorities on Wednesday, vowing to legalize dozens of illegally built outposts and annex the occupied territory as part of its coalition deal with its ultra-national allies.

The coalition agreements, released a day before the government is to be sworn into office, also included language endorsing discrimination against LGBTQ people on religious grounds, as well as generous stipends for ultra-Orthodox men who prefer to study instead of work.

The package laid the groundwork for what is expected to be a stormy beginning for Mr. Netanyahu’s government and could put it at odds with large parts of the Israeli public and Israel’s closest allies abroad.

Its lengthy list of guidelines was led by a commitment to “advance and develop settlement in all parts of the land of Israel.”

EYE-FOR-AN-EYE SHARIA SYSTEM RETURNS TO COURTS IN AFGHANISTAN

Kneeling in front of a turbanned judge in a tiny room at the Ghazni Court of Appeal in eastern Afghanistan, a convict sentenced to death for murder pleads for his life.

Under sharia punishments, officially ordered by the Taliban’s supreme leader for the first time last month, he faces public execution.

Islamic law, or sharia, acts as a code of living for Muslims worldwide, offering guidance on issues such as modesty, finance and crime. However, interpretations vary according to local custom, culture and religious school of thought. Taliban scholars in Afghanistan have employed one of the most extreme interpretations of the code, including capital and corporal punishments little used by most modern Muslim states.

Court proceedings in Afghanistan take place in a small room, with participants sitting on a carpeted floor. The cramped room, heated by an old wood stove, has a bunk bed in a corner, on which religious books and a Kalashnikov rifle are placed.

If the convict’s appeal fails, the case goes to the Supreme Court in Kabul, and finally to supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, who validates all capital sentences.

CHESS PLAYER SANS HIJAB WAS NOT REPRESENTING IRAN: OFFICIAL

Tehran : An Iranian Woman Grandmaster who competed at an international chess event without the mandatory hijab was not representing the Islamic republic, a local federation official said on Wednesday. Sara Khademalsharieh, 25, appeared without a headscarf during this week’s International Chess Federation World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan, according to media reports. Her action is seen by some as a show of support for the protests that have gripped Iran since the Sept 16 death in custody of Mahsa Amini. Amini had been arrested by Tehran morality police for an alleged breach of the country’s dress code for women. “This chess player participated freely and at her own expense in the tournament,” Hassan Tamini, head of Iran’s chess federation, was quoted as saying by Fars news agency. “Khademalsharieh did not participate in these competitions through the federation, but went independently and did this action,” he added.

Iranian female athletes are required to abide by the Islamic republic’s strict dress code for women, mainly by covering their heads when representing their country at international events. “We didn’t expect this chess player to do this because she had participated in the previous tournaments in compliance with the standards,” Tamini said.

POPE FRANCIS APPEALS FOR PRAYERS FOR 'VERY ILL' PREDECESSOR BENEDICT

Pope Francis has said former Pope Benedict XVI is very ill and he has asked pilgrims at the Vatican to pray for him.

Benedict, 95, became the first leader of the Catholic Church to stand down in 600 years in 2013, citing advanced age.

At the end of the Pope's final audience of the year, he asked people to "pray a special prayer for Pope Emeritus Benedict".

The Vatican then said the ex-Pope's health had worsened in recent hours.

"The situation at the moment remains under control, constantly followed by doctors," said spokesman Matteo Bruni.

Pope Francis was addressing a general audience in the Vatican's Paul VI hall when he looked up from a piece of paper and spoke about Benedict's declining health.

He then made the short trip from the hall to the Vatican Gardens to see Benedict at the Mater Ecclesiae monastery, where he has lived since he stepped down.

PAKISTAN COURT FREES RAPIST AFTER DEAL TO MARRY VICTIM

A Pakistan court freed a rapist after he married his victim in a settlement brokered by a council of elders in the northwest of the country, his lawyer said on Wednesday.

Dawlat Khan, 25, was sentenced in May to life imprisonment for raping a deaf woman. He was released from prison after the Peshawar High Court accepted an out-of-court settlement agreed by the rape survivor’s family.

BANGLADESH OPENS FIRST METRO LINE

Bangladesh’s sprawling capital inaugurated its first ever metro rail line on Wednesday as authorities work to ease congestion that has throttled growth and inflamed tempers in the gridlocked metropolis.

Dhaka is one of the world’s most densely populated cities, and daily commutes along its car-clogged roads are a source of constant frustration for its 22 million people.

The new elevated train network has been in development for nearly a decade and is slated to grow to over a hundred stations and six lines criss-crossing the city by 2030.

The line is expected to carry 60,000 people each hour when it is fully operational.