London police are investigating an "offensive banner" unfurled by Crystal Palace fans at the football match against New Castle on Saturday, protesting the recent Saudi-led takeover of the Tyneside club.

"Police received a report of an offensive banner displayed by Crystal Palace fans," Croydon Metropolitan Police said in a tweet.

"Officers are assessing the information and carrying out enquiries. Any allegations of racist abuse will be taken very seriously."

The banner was displayed at Selhurst Park, Crystal Palace’s home stadium. It showed a man in traditional Gulf Arab clothing with a bloody sword about to behead a magpie, which is the symbol of Newcastle club.

Next to the image, the banner listed multiple human rights abuses Saudi Arabia is accused of: terrorism, beheading, civil rights abuses, murder, censorship, and persecution.

Each line was ticked off, and the list was placed on a clipboard titled “Premier League Owners Test.”

Premier League chief executive Richard Masers was also on the banner, shown to be giving a thumbs-up to a bag of money while standing in a pool of blood.

Holmesdale Fanatics, Crystal Palace supporters' group, in a statement said the Saudi-led takeover of Newcastle has "received widespread condemnation and anger."

"To give the thumbs up to this deal at a time when the Premier League is promoting the women's game and inclusive initiatives such as rainbow armbands, shows the total hypocrisy at play and demonstrates the league's soulless agenda where profits trump all," it said.

The press release added that "we are lucky to live in a country where we can display a banner such as this without repercussion."

The news is the latest in the long-running controversy over the takeover of Newcastle led by Saudi Arabia’s state sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), which was completed earlier this month in a £300 million deal.

PIF is chaired by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has been linked to the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, but has denied involvement./aa

At least 25 people, including children, were killed in an explosion at an illegal oil refinery in southern Nigeria on Sunday.

Dozens of houses near the refinery in the Rumuekpe area of Rivers State were also destroyed, according to an official.

Several more people were injured and moved to a nearby hospital.

The official, who requested anonymity, said the area has several such illegal oil refineries that pose a threat to people’s lives, calling for immediate government action on the issue.

Nigeria is among the leading oil producers in Africa, but its oil revenues have been declining due to rising violence and insecurity, along with the increasing number of illegal refineries, technical inadequacies, and lack of infrastructure and materials./aa

“Israeli” forces dispersed a Palestinian rally in the West Bank city of Hebron on Sunday in support of hunger-striking detainees in Israel, according to local residents.

Protesters chanted slogans for the release of six detainees, who have staged a hunger strike in protest of their detention without charge or trial, the resident said.

“Israeli” soldiers fired rubber-coated bullets and teargas canisters to disperse the protesters, who responded by hurling stones.

Medics said dozens of protesters were injured and suffered temporary asphyxiation during the rally.

The policy of administrative detention allows “Israeli” authorities to extend the detention of a prisoner without charge or trial.

There are around 4,850 Palestinian detainees in “Israeli” prisons, including 520 administrative detainees, according to institutions concerned with prisoners’ affairs./aa

“Israel” and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Sunday signed an agreement under which they recognize each other’s coronavirus vaccination certificates for travel.

The “Green Corridor” agreement was signed by “Israeli” Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz and Abdul Rahman Al-Oweis, his UAE counterpart.

"The agreement allows free movement between “Israel” and the Emirates, and mutual recognition of vaccine certificates and green passes, without isolation and bureaucracy," Horowitz said on Twitter.

According to Israeli authorities, out of the country’s nearly 9.33 million people, over 5.7 million “Israelis” have gotten two COVID-19 vaccine jabs.

The Emirati Health Ministry, meanwhile, said that 86.8% of its population (9.5 million) have gotten two anti-virus doses.

On Oct. 10, a visa exemption agreement between Israel and UAE entered into force, after being suspended in January in an effort to stem the spread of coronavirus.

The UAE was the first Arab country to sign a visa waiver agreement with Israel.

On Sept. 15, 2020, “Israel” and the UAE signed a controversial US-sponsored deal to normalize their relations, a move that was followed by Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco./aa

The Moroccan Union of Lawyers announced Sunday that it is against a government-imposed mandatory coronavirus vaccine mandate and vaccination certificate.

The group rejected providing a vaccination certificate for intercity transportation, entrances to private and public places as well as making vaccination compulsory.

It underlined in a statement that the state of emergency should not be a reason to "step back" from human rights achievements and decisions that violate the Constitution.

More than 20,000 support a signature campaign launched against the vaccine mandate and certificate in Morocco.

With the decision on Oct. 12, the government announced it is obligatory to present a certificate at entrances to intercity transportation, cafes, restaurants, baths, sports fields and stores.

According to the latest data from Moroccan authorities, 14,606 people have died since the beginning of the pandemic, while 944,076 have been infected./aa

U.S. Army veteran Leighton Slattery, 83, who lives with his daughter outside of Jakarta, Indonesia, says the two have spent much of the year housebound as they implored officials to share coronavirus vaccines donated by the U.S. government.

In Bangalore, India, Asray Gopa, 17, still waits to get vaccinated because - unlike his friends in the United States - he is not old enough to obtain the shots under that country's rules.

And in Bangkok, businessman Charlie Blocker, 59, spent weeks scouring that city for a vaccine as the coronavirus exploded. But he got nowhere even as the U.S. government shipped doses to its embassy. He and he and his family would later be hospitalized with covid-19.

Slattery, Gopa and Blocker are all U.S. citizens, attempting to navigate the pandemic without easy access to the high-quality vaccines that are the linchpin of the U.S. strategy. They are among 14 Americans abroad who spoke with The Washington Post about their struggles to get the shots, saying they received little guidance from the Biden administration and watched enviously as hundreds of thousands of doses in the United States expired this summer and fall without any takers.

The disparity has grown as millions of people in the United States are receiving their third dose of high-quality vaccines, while some citizens abroad have yet to get their first. And months of pleading from the expats and their advocates, who represent as many as 9 million Americans overseas, has produced no change in policy.

"You have Americans who are filing and paying taxes, and a promise by the administration that all Americans will get vaccinated, and yet that whole community has been left out of the equation," said Marylouise Serrato, executive director of American Citizens Abroad, which advocates for expatriates.

The White House has insisted that it has no special responsibility to vaccinate Americans abroad, citing precedent that the U.S. government doesn't provide private health care to citizens living overseas. State Department officials also don't want to spark international disputes over vaccine priorities, particularly with many countries struggling to secure enough doses to immunize their own citizens.

"It's a thorny issue," said Jennifer Kates, director of global health at the Kaiser Family Foundation. "We're in a pandemic, so maybe there should be some bending of the normal way of doing things ... but on the other hand, what does it look like if the U.S. government is all of a sudden swooping in and providing preferential treatment in a country where no one else is getting vaccinated?"

The U.S. government has urged expatriates to return home for vaccinations, saying it's for their safety and citing the ample supply of shots in this country. But Americans abroad said it's not that simple, citing pandemic travel restrictions, often considerable costs and health risks.

"Where I live ... covid-19 is rampant," said Gopa, who originally grew up outside of Chicago, before his family moved to India to help his ailing grandparents. "You don't want me to travel home and bring a dangerous covid-19 variant."

Americans overseas say they had reason to expect easy access to high-quality vaccines, like the three shots authorized by the Food and Drug Administration, citing the vows by the administration that it would provide shots to all U.S. citizens while becoming an "arsenal of vaccines" for the world.

"Every American 12 and older, no matter where they live, has vaccines readily available to them," White House coronavirus coordinator Jeffrey Zients said at a July briefing, a clip that a coalition of international Americans cut into a video they circulated last month, criticizing the administration.

White House officials say that Zients was referring to Americans who live in the United States. Asked about the continued struggles of Americans to secure shots overseas, a spokesperson touted a three-pronged approach that many expats criticize as insufficient.

"Where countries have a robust vaccination program, the Administration will pursue diplomatic options to ensure American citizens can receive vaccines in their country of residence," White House spokesperson Kevin Munoz wrote in a statement.

He added that the administration "will ensure that U.S. citizens overseas who travel back to the U.S. to get vaccinated can be vaccinated easily and effectively" and "will provide clear information to U.S. citizens overseas regarding their eligibility to receive a vaccination in the country in which they reside."

Officials at the State Department, which is helping oversee the U.S. global vaccination rollout, also predicted that shortages abroad would be alleviated over time but offered no specific timetables. The administration this week touted that it had delivered 200 million doses of vaccines to more than 100 countries.

"We expect increasing availability of vaccines for U.S. citizens overseas as the United States' efforts to increase global access to vaccines continue," a State Department spokesperson wrote in an email. "We encourage all countries to ensure all persons within their borders, regardless of status and including U.S. citizens, can receive vaccines through national vaccination programs."

President Joe Biden vowed this summer that U.S. vaccine donations abroad would be "no strings attached," empowering countries that receive them to use the doses as they saw fit. The move was seen as a diplomatic rebuke of rivals like China and Russia, which have attached preconditions to their vaccine donations. But it left the White House with little influence over who receives the doses it gives away.

Some Americans abroad have argued that the administration should attach strings, at least to ensure that U.S. citizens don't get left at the back of the line. For instance, Indonesia has received donated doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines from the United States but generally excluded foreign residents from getting those shots, said Slattery and his 19-year-old daughter, Megan.

"We're on the daily lookout for vaccination sites," said Megan Slattery, who last week received her first shot after finding a hospital willing to administer Moderna vaccines to any unvaccinated person, regardless of citizenship. Meanwhile, her father settled for a Chinese-made vaccine, Sinovac, which has been found to have limited effectiveness, and said he remains eager to get an FDA-authorized vaccine. Both of them say they are immunocompromised because of health problems.

Other U.S. citizens said that encouraging Americans to travel home isn't practical during a pandemic, and noted that peer nations like France have taken steps to inoculate their citizens abroad.

"People ask me why I don't just fly back to the U.S. to get my shots, but I simply cannot afford it," said Kim Walsh, 31, who grew up in California and worked as an accountant there but now lives in Bali, Indonesia with her partner. The two work for a small health supplement company and live "paycheck to paycheck," Walsh said, struggling to navigate the pandemic even as the island's tourism-based economy all but shut down last year.

Walsh faulted the U.S. Embassy in Indonesia for its aloof response to Americans' requests for help. She finally secured a Moderna shot this month after spending much of the year searching for an FDA-authorized vaccine. "I feel like I shouldn't have had to go through so much stress and anxiety to get a vaccine that is widely available in the U.S.," Walsh said.

Blocker, a Kentucky-born businessman who lives in Bangkok with his family, describes another harrowing struggle to obtain a vaccine. As infections surged by more than 4,000 percent across Thailand in April, he said he desperately hunted for an effective vaccine for himself and his family. "Did we search? Yes. But it was all in vain," Blocker said.

Thailand's vaccine supply at the time was limited to a small pool of Chinese-made vaccines, and an even smaller cache of AstraZeneca doses and shots available on the black market. The United States did ship FDA-authorized vaccines to Thailand as part of a plan to immunize U.S. government workers, including staff at a local Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hub. But Americans in private business like Blocker, who works in the hospitality industry, got no access.

On May 29, Blocker was admitted to Bangkok's Bumrungrad International Hospital with coronavirus-associated pneumonia, where he stayed for nearly two weeks, reliant on oxygen. His wife and teenage son soon joined him, battling their own infections. Despite their continued efforts, the family would not be fully vaccinated until August, after they traveled back to the United States to get the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech regimen, a trip that kept Blocker away from his office for more than a month.

Blocker estimates that he spent about $30,000 to cover his family's travel, medical and associated costs that could have been avoided had he and his wife been vaccinated last spring, at the same time as their peers in Kentucky and U.S. government workers in Bangkok.

Now he's weighing the need for a booster dose, having read reports about waning immunity and is worried about the prospect of another international trip. "The question on everyone's mind: Are we going through this all over again?" said Blocker.

The issue has caught the attention of members of Congress, with Democrats like Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and House Oversight Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., pressing the administration to take action.

Murphy has suggested sending additional vaccine doses to embassies overseas that would be targeted to American expats and advanced legislation that would mandate the U.S. government to craft a strategy to help citizens abroad. Other lawmakers have pushed plans to empower the Defense Department, which has immunized tens of thousands of service members overseas, to play a larger role in delivering shots to citizens abroad.

But Democrats say they've heard little from the White House, and they're growing frustrated by the inaction. "This is a pretty extraordinary moment, and that creates a higher level obligation for the U.S. government," said a senior Democratic congressional aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail conversations with the White House. "I don't think, for a lot of people, it will resolve itself ... it will be a hanging issue in a lot of countries."

Gopa, the teenage expat in India, says he's braced for continued uncertainty. That country's vaccine rollout for children has stalled, which means that only those 18 and over can get shots, and his 17th birthday was just last month. Unless something changes, "it'd take 11 more months to get one vaccine," he said./agencies

Vaccines for children will "very likely" be available the first or second week of November, White House Chief Medical Adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday.

"If all goes well, and we get the regulatory approval and the recommendation from the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], it's entirely possible if not very likely that vaccines will be available for children from 5 to 11 within the first week or two of November," Fauci told ABC "This Week" anchor George Stephanopoulos.

Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine is nearly 91% effective against symptomatic illness in children ages 5-11, according to new data. A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel will meet Tuesday to discuss authorizing the vaccine for children, which is currently only available to those ages 12 and older.

The CDC issued recommendations for both Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccine boosters for certain populations on Thursday evening, clearing the way for millions of Americans to receive additional shots. The CDC's authorization followed the FDA's, which it issued Wednesday.

The CDC is also permitting mix-and-match booster doses -- allowing people to get a different booster brand than was used for a primary vaccination.

Fauci said Sunday the new recommendations should not cause confusion, as they allow for flexibility in booster selection.

"We would hope that people, if available, would get the boost from the original product," Fauci said. "But if not, there's the flexibility of what we're calling 'mixing and matching.'"

Stephanopoulos pressed Fauci on whether receiving a different brand shot from the original dose yields better protection.

"I have read some studies that suggest that it's actually better to mix. Like, say, if you got the Johnson & Johnson the first time around, it's better to get Moderna the second time," Stephanopoulos asked.

"If you look at the level of antibodies that are induced -- if you originally had J&J, and you get, for example, a Moderna or a Pfizer, the level of antibodies, namely, the proteins that you would predict would protect you, those levels go up higher with the Moderna boost to J&J than the J&J boost," Fauci responded. "However, it's a little bit more complicated, because, in the clinical trial that J&J did, the clinical effect of the second dose of J&J was quite substantial."

"So, it really becomes an issue of, what's the most convenient? What do you feel is best for you?" Fauci added, recommending that people consult their physician.

Stephanopoulos also pressed Fauci on the controversy over to what extent the U.S. was funding bat coronavirus research in Wuhan after the NIH released a letter this week about a New York City-based nonprofit's research on bat coronavirus spike proteins. The letter states that the subcontractor had not disclosed some results in a timely manner.

"Now, some critics and analysts have seized on that to say you and others have misled the public about U.S. funding of this so-called gain-of-function research. The NIH says that's false. Our medical unit backs that up," Stephanopoulos said. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has called for Fauci's firing over the controversy.

"Well, I obviously totally disagree with Senator Paul. He's absolutely incorrect. Neither I nor Dr. Francis Collins, the director of the NIH lied or misled about what we've done," Fauci responded.

"What did we learn from the letter? Does it show that some of the research we were finding was riskier than we know?" Stephanopoulos pressed.

Fauci said they knew what the risk was and there's "no denial" that they should have put their progress report in a timely manner, but that the implication that the research led to COVID-19 is "unconscionable" and "molecularly impossible."

"There's all of this concern about what's gain-of-function or what's not, with the implication that that research led to SARS-CoV-2, and COVID-19, which, George, unequivocally anybody that knows anything about viral biology and phylogeny of viruses know that it is molecularly impossible for those viruses that were worked on to turn into SARS-CoV-2 because they were distant enough molecularly that no matter what you did to them, they could never, ever become SARS-CoV-2," Fauci explained.

"And yet when people talk about gain-of-function, they make that implication which I think is unconscionable to do, to say, 'Well, maybe that research led to SARS-CoV-2'," Fauci added. "You can ask any person of good faith who's a virologist, and they will tell you, absolutely clearly, that that would be molecularly impossible."/GMA

Russians hoping to apply for an immigrant visa to the United States are now required to travel to the US Embassy in Warsaw, the State Department confirmed Sunday, while blaming restrictions imposed by Moscow.

That development came amid unresolved US-Russian tensions, and tit-for-tat expulsions that earlier led Moscow to limit the number of US diplomatic staff in Russia.

The US visa move, in effect since October 12, prompted a heated rejoinder from Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

American diplomats, she wrote on the Telegram platform, had long been "destroying" the consular services system in Russia, turning what should be a routine, technical procedure "into a real hell."

The State Department, for its part, pinned the blame squarely back on Moscow.

"The Russian government's decision to prohibit the United States from retaining, hiring or contracting Russian or third-country staff severely impacts our ability to provide consular services," a State Department spokesman said in a statement received by AFP.

"The extremely limited number of consular staff in Russia at this time does not allow us to provide routine visa or US citizen services."

It added: "We realize this is a significant change for visa applicants," and it cautioned them not to travel to Warsaw before booking an appointment with the embassy there.

The statement recognized that the shift to Warsaw, which took effect this month, was not an "ideal solution."

It added: "We considered a number of factors including proximity, availability of flights, convenience for applicants... the prevalence of Russian speakers among our locally engaged personnel, and the availability of staff."

Warsaw is around 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) from Moscow.

On the State Department website, Russia has been added to a short list of countries where "the United States has no consular representation or in which the political or security situation is tenuous or uncertain enough" to prevent consular staff from processing immigrant visa applications.

Most countries on that list have poor or no direct relations with the US, including Cuba, Iran, Syria, Yemen and Venezuela.

Amid a continuing dispute over how many diplomats each side can post in the other's country, Russia has placed the US on a list of "unfriendly" countries requiring approval to employ Russian nationals.

Russian applicants for nonimmigrant visas can still apply at any overseas US embassy or consulate so long as they are physically present in that country, the US statement said.

Meantime, the US Embassy in Moscow will be able to process only "diplomatic or official visas."

Successive rounds of tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions by the two countries have left embassies and consulates badly understaffed, playing havoc with normal services.

This was a central subject of talks two weeks ago during a Russia visit by Victoria Nuland, the undersecretary of state for political affairs, but little progress was announced./AFP

Japan is showing great interest in participating in the restoration of Azerbaijan’s newly liberated Karabakh region, Vice-President of the country’s Confederation of Entrepreneurs Vugar Zeynalov told Trend News Agency.

According to the official, about 40 investors and entrepreneurs from Japan visited Azerbaijan in 2021.

"They are mainly interested in investing in agriculture. The visits of Japanese investors to Azerbaijan help them become acquainted with existing projects and specific regions. At the same time, Azerbaijani companies get the opportunity to build business relations during such visits to our country," Zeynalov said.

Furthermore, Japanese entrepreneurs are showing interest in establishing businesses in Azerbaijan for the production and export of tobacco, hazelnuts, and jams.

"Our confederation provides broad information to Japanese entrepreneurs about the opportunities in the liberated territories of the country, the investment climate and legislation in this area," Zeynalov said.

Relations between the former Soviet republics of Azerbaijan and Armenia have been tense since 1991, when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Upper Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.

When new clashes erupted on Sept. 27, 2020, the Armenian army launched attacks on civilians and Azerbaijani forces, and violated humanitarian cease-fire agreements.

During the six-week conflict, Azerbaijan liberated several cities and nearly 300 settlements and villages from the nearly three-decade occupation.

It ended after the two countries signed a Russia-brokered agreement to end the fighting, and work toward a comprehensive resolution./aa

“Israeli” Minister of Regional Cooperation Issawi Freij on Sunday came out against Defense Minister Benny Gantz's decision to label six Palestinian rights groups “terrorist groups,” making him the third Israeli Cabinet minister to publicly reject the decision.

"There is no connection between these organizations and terrorism," Freij said in statements cited by Yedioth Ahronoth daily ahead of a Cabinet meeting.

He added that a strong country must know how to deal with criticism.

On Saturday, “Israeli” Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz and Environmental Protection Minister Tamar Zandberg both announced their rejection of Gantz's decision.

"[Israel] must be very careful in imposing restrictions on Palestinian civil society organizations," Horowitz said in a tweet. "This has implications in the field of politics, foreign relations and importantly, in the field of human rights.”

Zandberg also said that three of the six designated groups are "old and well-known human rights organizations."

On Friday, “Israel” accused the six groups of having links with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a group banned by the “Israeli” military.

The designation includes the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights, Al-Haq, the Bisan Center for Research and Development, Defense for Children Palestine, Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), and the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees.

The PFLP is the second-largest group in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and was elected as a member of the Legislative Council in Palestine’s last parliamentary elections in 2006./ yenisafak