The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday said injustices in coronavirus vaccine distribution and access around the world “is a scandal that must stop now."

"Every day, there are six times more boosters administered globally than primary doses in low-income countries," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a news conference on Friday.

The global disparity is most evident in Africa where only 6% of its population is fully vaccinated, according to the latest WHO data.

The WHO is also struggling with a new COVID-19 crisis in Europe, which saw almost 2 million new cases in the last week -- the most in a single week on the continent since the start of the pandemic.

The UN health agency wants to vaccinate 40% of the population in every country by the end of 2021 but said it needs an additional 550 million doses to meet that target./aa

After a dramatic shootout, Catalan police arrested a former security guard who earlier on Tuesday shot four people in and around the city of Tarragona.

The man's former employer, two ex-colleagues, and a police officer are all receiving hospital treatment with serious injuries, with one of them in critical condition.

The incident began at around 11 a.m. local time, when the shooter opened fire on his former colleagues while they were at work. He had recently been fired from the security company Securitas, according to local media reports.

Before the attack, he sent his former co-workers a threatening email that included a picture of him holding two large guns with knives and bullets strewn out on a desk before him, reported local daily La Vanguardia.

He attempted to flee the city after mowing down his victims, but police were quickly notified and on his tail.

During his escape, he shot a police officer who tried to pull him over on the highway.

He eventually made his way to an abandoned house in the countryside, which police quickly surrounded.

Authorities tried to negotiate with the man, but the situation deteriorated into a shootout, according to police, before they could shoot him in the leg to neutralize and arrest him.

Little more is known on the shooter's motivations, except that it appears to be work-related vengeance./aa

Pfizer announced Tuesday that its coronavirus candidate pill, PAXLOVID, appears to work against the new omicron variant.

The US pharmaceutical company said recent data "indicates that PAXLOVID will retain robust antiviral activity against current variants of concern."

"Emerging variants of concern, like omicron, have exacerbated the need for accessible treatment options for those who contract the virus, and we are confident that, if authorized or approved, this potential treatment could be a critical tool to help quell the pandemic," it added.

The company said the data is based on final results from an analysis of 2,246 adults enrolled in its phases 2-3 trials of PAXLOVID.

It added that PAXLOVID reduces the risk of hospitalization or death by 88%./aa

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine provides 33% protection against the coronavirus' omicron variant, said the results of a study done in South Africa released on Tuesday.

The protection from two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, reaching as high as 80% against the delta variant, fell to 33% against the omicron strain, said the study by Discovery Health, South Africa’s largest health insurance provider.

The vaccine also proved 70% effective in preventing hospitalizations due to the recently emerged strain, versus around 90% for delta variant, said the study of 78,000 patients done this November and December.

However, Discovery CEO Ryan Noach said patients infected with the omicron variant showed far milder symptoms than other variants of COVID-19.

Noach underlined that most of the patients hospitalized due to infection with the omicron strain were unvaccinated.

Glenda Gray, head of the South African Medical Research Council, said despite the relatively low protection rate, vaccination is important for preventing the hospitalization of people who get the omicron variant.

She added that the results of the study are encouraging in the fight against the virus in South Africa, where the omicron strain was first detected and is currently the dominant variant./aa

A mosque in the eastern German city of Leipzig has been vandalized by left-wing extremists, authorities said on Tuesday.

During a rally of far-left groups on Monday night in the east Leipzig, some of the protesters attacked the Eyup Sultan Mosque in the same district and smashed its windows, according to a police statement.

Small groups of violent demonstrators also threw fireworks and rocks at police officers, burned garbage cans, and tried to torch parked cards in the district, according to local media reports.

Police said they arrested 11 suspects after the demonstrators turned violent.

Germany’s largest Turkish-Muslim group DITIB, which runs Leipzig’s Eyup Sultan Mosque, has condemned the attack and called for stronger protection for the places of worship.

A country of over 82 million people, Germany has the second-largest Muslim population in Western Europe after France. Among the country's nearly 5 million Muslims, 3 million are of Turkish origin./aa

  The Ministry of Interior will begin to implement a project to cancel old valid driving licenses and replace them with new, in this process it is expected that 250,000 driving licenses of expats will be canceled.

The committee in charge has begun its work this month; it will take 3 months to finish it. This is done to reduce congestion of traffic on Kuwait roads. The total number of licenses issued has reached more than 3 million, from these valid ones are estimated to around a million which will be replaced with new driving licenses.

Replacing these licenses will require a large number of employees to receive visitors, new driving license will have a magnetic strip, reports Al Rai. The reason to cancel 250,000 driving license of expats is that there are several reasons. One of them is that the driving license was obtained by fraud, change in condition on which driving license was granted and those who have left the country and were unable to return as their residence was not renewed. 

The traffic department will be strict in granting driving licenses to expats in future to reduce congestion of traffic on Kuwait streets./KT

The National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) said Monday that it is gathering signatures on a petition to have Prime Minister Justin Trudeau intervene after a Muslim teacher in Quebec province was removed for wearing a hijab in the classroom. 

Quebec's Bill 21, passed in 2019, outlaws the wearing of religious symbols -- the hijab, kippah, turban and cross -- by most public servants while on the job.

The NCCM along with the Canadian Civil Liberties Association is fighting to have the bill nullified by the courts because it violates fundamental human rights. The NCCM also said the bill unfairly targets Muslim women.

The battle over the bill intensified after the teacher was removed last week. Mustafa Farooq, NCCM’s chief executive officer, said in a statement to Anadolu Agency that Fatemeh Anvari is "a brave Quebec Muslim woman who was removed from her position as a teacher because she had the courage to wear her hijab to school.”

"The disgraceful truth is she is not the first, nor will she be the last -- as long as Bill 21 is in place."

The court battle has shifted to the Quebec Court of Appeal in the fight to have this "heinous law" struck down, Farooq said.

While Trudeau is on record as saying the province has no business telling people what to wear, the NCCM wants him to act more forcefully and is now calling on people to put their signatures on a petition to aid the fight to get the government and members of parliament (MPs) on their side.

"Sign our petition calling on the Prime Minister to intervene in our legal challenge," Farooq said in the statement. "Your principled advocacy is working -- and MPs are starting to rise up to ask the Prime Minister to do the right thing. Let's make it happen now.”

"In the courts, in the media, on the streets -- we won't stop till this law is struck down."/aa

Americans' inflation expectations have jumped to a new record high, according to a survey released Monday by the New York Federal Reserve. 

The median expectation for the survey in November showed that Americans expect inflation to hover at 6% a year from now, according to the Survey of Consumer Expectations.

This is the highest level for the gauge since its launch in June 2013.

The consumer expectation for inflation has also climbed for the 13th month in a row.

Inflation expectations over the next three years, on the other hand, declined slightly to a median level of 4%, marking the first decline in six months./aa