World News Roundup: 'It's all lies'; migrants stuck at Polish border feel cheated by people smugglers; Macau arrests 11 people for alleged illegal gambling and money laundering and more

Health officials in Australia's most populous state, New South Wales, said two passengers who arrived in Sydney from southern Africa on Saturday evening had tested positive for the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. Kyrgyzstan parliamentary election expected to bolster president Kyrgyzstan votes for a new parliament on Sunday, a year after an election triggered riots that toppled the government.


Reuters | Updated: 28-11-2021 18:36 IST | Created: 28-11-2021 18:28 IST
World News Roundup: 'It's all lies'; migrants stuck at Polish border feel cheated by people smugglers; Macau arrests 11 people for alleged illegal gambling and money laundering and more
Representative Image Image Credit: ANI

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

'It's all lies'; migrants stuck at Polish border feel cheated by people smugglers

Syrian friends Anas Kanaan, 34, and Mouein al-Hadi, 36, were told by people smugglers that they would easily be able to get to Germany from Belarus. They just had to pay 3,000 euros ($3,390) each to an intermediary in Turkey. But the safe crossings from Belarus to Poland indicated by the smugglers were closed off. Then, after more than a week spent camping in freezing forests on the border, a smuggler led them to a Polish village in broad daylight where they were easily spotted by police, arrested and returned to Belarus.

Macau arrests 11 people for alleged illegal gambling and money laundering

Macau police have arrested 11 people in an investigation into an illegal gambling and money laundering syndicate, according to an official WeChat account, a day after junket mogul Alvin Chau was questioned at a Macau police station. At a Sunday press conference Macau's judiciary police did not name the individuals but said they included a 47-year-old Macau businessman surnamed Chau, Hong Kong's South China Morning Post reported.

Lithuania says Belarus will keep testing West, urges NATO rethink

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said on Sunday that the NATO military alliance needed to adjust its stance towards Belarus, whose military, he said, was becoming more integrated with Russian armed forces. Nauseda told a news conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Vilnius that he was worried by the "total military integration" of Belarus into Russian military structures.

Dutch find 13 Omicron cases among S.Africa travellers

Dutch health authorities said on Sunday that 13 cases of the new Omicron coronavirus variant have been found in the Netherlands among passengers that were on two flights from South Africa that arrived on Friday. They were among 61 passengers who tested positive for COVID-19 on the two flights, which carried about 600 people. Those who tested positive are being kept in isolation at a hotel near the airport.

Former Cambodian prime minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh has died - information minister

Former Cambodian Prime Minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh has died in France, the Cambodian minister of information said. He was 77. The prince, whose royalist political party won elections in 1993, was ousted in a 1997 coup by his coalition partner and rival Hun Sen, who remains Cambodia's prime minister more than 20 years later.

China study warns of 'colossal' COVID outbreak if it opens up like U.S., France

China could face more than 630,000 COVID-19 infections a day if it dropped its zero-tolerance policies by lifting travel curbs, according to a study by Peking University mathematicians.

In the report published in China CDC Weekly by the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, the mathematicians said China could not afford to lift travel restrictions without more efficient vaccinations or specific treatments.

New coronavirus variant Omicron keeps spreading, Australia detects cases

The new Omicron coronavirus variant kept spreading around the world on Sunday, with two cases detected in Australia, even as more countries tried to seal themselves off by imposing travel restrictions. Health officials in Australia's most populous state, New South Wales, said two passengers who arrived in Sydney from southern Africa on Saturday evening had tested positive for the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

Kyrgyzstan parliamentary election expected to bolster president

Kyrgyzstan votes for a new parliament on Sunday, a year after an election triggered riots that toppled the government. After a low-key campaign, political analysts expect the vote to favour allies of President Sadyr Japarov, cementing his grip on the Central Asian nation with close ties to Russia and China.

Greece asks faithful to be COVID-clear to attend church

Greece introduced new restrictions obliging churchgoers to present negative COVID-19 tests to attend services on Sunday following a surge in infections in recent weeks. Under new rules announced on Nov. 18, unvaccinated people are barred from indoor spaces including restaurants, cinemas, museums and gyms, even if they test negative for the coronavirus.

Taiwan scrambles to see off Chinese air force as Xi meets top brass

Taiwan's air force scrambled again on Sunday to warn away 27 Chinese aircraft that entered its air defence zone, Taiwan's defence ministry said, the latest increase in tensions across the Taiwan Strait as China's president met his top generals. Chinese-claimed Taiwan has complained for a year or more of repeated missions by China's air force near the democratically governed island, often in the southwestern part of its air defence identification zone, or ADIZ, close to the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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