Here are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis:COVID 'Far From Over'The COVID-19 crisis is far from over, the World Health Organization's (WHO) emergency committee says as it calls for research into next-generation vaccines for long-term control of the pandemic.Pfizer For Kids Verdict Awaited  US government advisors meet to decide whether to authorise the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in five-to-11-year-olds, likely paving the way for younger children to get thei

Southeast Asian leaders kicked off an ASEAN summit on Tuesday but Myanmar refused to send a representative after being angered by the bloc's decision to exclude the country's junta chief.The virtual gathering marked the start of three days of meetings hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), with United States (US) President Joe Biden as well as Chinese and Russian leaders set to attend.Myanmar topped the agenda of Tuesday's talks between regional leaders,

Facebook was hit Monday by scathing reports from at least a dozen United States (US) news outlets based on internal documents, just hours before the company was to release its earnings report.The social media giant has faced a storm of criticism after former employee Frances Haugen leaked internal studies showing the company knew of potential harm stoked by its sites, prompting US lawmakers to renew a push for regulation.Reports Monday blamed CEO Mark Zuckerberg for the platform bending to st

United States (US) biotech firm Moderna said Monday its COVID vaccine was safe and produced a strong immune response in children aged six-11, adding it would submit trial data to global regulators soon.The news comes as a panel of government advisors was preparing to meet Tuesday on the question of whether to authorise the Pfizer vaccine in kids aged five-11, with top infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci predicting it would be available by mid-November."We are encouraged by the immuno

China is now a global power, something scarcely imaginable just a few decades ago.Its power sometimes stems from cooperation with the wider world, such as signing up to the Paris climate agreement.Or sometimes it means competition with it, such as the Belt and Road Initiative, a network of construction projects in more than 60 countries that has brought investment to many parts of the world deprived of western loans.Yet there is also a highly confrontational tone to much of China's globa

Myanmar's junta on Sunday labelled the United Nation's (UN) latest rights report on the conflict-wracked nation an "incitement to violence" and accused the body of interfering in its internal affairs.The Southeast Asian nation has been in chaos since a February coup, with more than 1,100 killed in a crackdown on dissent, according to a local monitoring group.On Friday, the UN said it feared an even greater human rights catastrophe amid reports that tens of thousands of tro

Here are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis:'We Have The Tools': WHO Chief WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tells a conference in Berlin that the pandemic will end "when the world chooses to end it"."It is in our hands.

Vietnam plans to reopen the resort island of Phu Quoc to vaccinated foreign visitors in late November, authorities said, as the country looks to reboot its tourism industry after almost two years of closure.Phu Quoc, which lies around 10 kilometres (six miles) off Cambodia in the Gulf of Thailand, boasts white-sand beaches and crystal-clear waters, as well as mountains and thick jungle.It attracted around 670,000 visitors and earned more than US$18 billion dollars from international arrivals

British health officials on Friday said they were formally looking into a subvariant of the Delta strain of the coronavirus, after it was seen in a growing number of cases.The United Kingdom Health Security Agency (UKHSA), a public health protection body, said AY.4.2, which was last week seen in six percent of cases, had been "designated as a variant under investigation" but not yet a "variant of concern"."The designation was made on the basis that this sub-lineage ha

After two months of improvement, the coronavirus pandemic took a turn for the worse this week around the world, fuelled by deteriorating situations in Europe and the United States (US).Here is the global state of play based on an AFP database.On The March AgainThe number of new daily cases increased slightly by two percent globally to 410,654, according to an AFP tally to Thursday.There were however wide disparities between regions.The pandemic had been slowing down since late August, but has