The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday granted emergency use approval to COVAXIN, India's indigenous COVID-19 vaccine.

It has been developed by Bharat Biotech and adds to a growing portfolio of vaccines validated by the UN health agency for the prevention of the disease.

“The Technical Advisory Group, convened by WHO and made up of regulatory experts from around the world, has determined that the Covaxin vaccine meets WHO standards for protection against COVID-19, that the benefit of the vaccine far outweighs risks and the vaccine can be used,” the WHO said in a statement.

It recommended the use of the vaccine in two doses, with an interval of four weeks in age groups 18 and above.

But the vaccine has not been advised for pregnant women as available data is “insufficient” to "assess vaccine safety or efficacy in pregnancy.”

The WHO said the vaccine was found to have 78% efficacy against COVID-19 of any severity, and is "extremely suitable for low- and middle-income countries due to easy storage requirements."

Other COVID-19 vaccines approved by the specialized UN agency are Pfizer-BioNTech, Oxford-AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson's Janssen, Moderna, Sinopharm, and Sinovac./agencies

On the COP26 climate summit's finance day on Wednesday, Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak set to call for companies to outline plans for the UK to be the world's first net-zero-aligned financial center, urging other countries to follow suit.

"There will be new requirements for UK financial institutions and listed companies to publish net zero transition plans that detail how they will adapt and decarbonise as the UK moves towards to a net zero economy by 2050," the ministry said in a statement on the conference being held in Glasgow, Scotland.

The statement said that the UK would spend £576 million ($785 million) on a package of initiatives to mobilize finance into developing economies.

It said Sunak would also announce the launch of an innovative new financing mechanism -- the Climate Investment Funds' Capital Markets Mechanism (CCMM) -- to boost investment into clean energy in developing countries.

Finance day will see a record number of finance ministers, central bank governors, heads of multilateral financial institutions, and senior industry leaders for a program of public and private events.

Meanwhile, a former governor of the Bank of England made all big western banks sign up to his Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, announcing $130 trillion from 450 financial groups directed at decarbonization.

Mark Carney, the UN special envoy for climate action and finance, said the architecture of the global financial system had been "transformed" to deliver net zero.

"We now have the essential plumbing in place to move climate change from the fringes to the forefront of finance so that every financial decision takes climate change into account," he said.

"Only this mainstream focus can finance the estimated $100 trillion of investment needed over the next three decades for a clean energy future."

Channeling climate funds to developing countries will be one of the success metrics of COP26.

Rich countries had previously committed $100 billion a year by 2020 to help underdeveloped countries tackle the effects of climate change.

But, this goal has not yet been achieved, as a report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) last month showed that in 2019, the latest year for which data is available, only about $80 billion had been enabled./aa

A Belarusian cargo aircraft crashed moments before landing near the Russian city of Irkutsk on Wednesday, killing all seven crew members on board, officials confirmed.

Grodno Airlines said its AN-12 freight plane was about to land near Irkutsk when it crashed, killing the crew from Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine.

Governor Irkutsk Oblast Igor Kobzev told reporters that seven bodies were found at the incident site.

Separately, Russia's Attorney General's Office stated it is investigating the possibility of two civilian passengers being on board.

The plane disappeared from radars shortly before the landing attempt on Wednesday afternoon and was spotted engulfed in flames due to a fuel leak, according to the country's Emergency Ministry.

Pilot error and technical malfunction, such as engine failure due to a collision with birds, are considered preliminary causes of the accident./agencies

Families whose children have been abducted or forcibly recruited by the PKK terrorist organization continued a sit-in protest on Wednesday in Turkey’s eastern province of Mus.

Every week since April 7, families have been staging a sit-in outside the office of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in Mus, trying to make their voices heard against the PKK terror group for abducting their children.

The number of families in the anti-PKK sit-in rose from eight to 15 as of Wednesday.

A mother, Elma Esener, and a father, Salih Kirmiziyildiz, joined the protest to demand the release of their children abducted by the PKK terrorist organization.

Elma Esener said she decided to be a part of the sit-in for her daughter, Elif Esener, who was kidnapped by the terror group seven years ago just two days before her wedding day.

Stressing that she will continue to protest until her daughter comes back, Esener stated: “Let them give my daughter back. I want my beloved child.”

“I am hurt crying all the time,” the mother moaned, calling on her daughter to return and surrender to the security forces.

“They took my daughter just two days before her wedding day. She did not leave by her will. They kidnapped her on gunpoint,” the woman said, adding: “I will keep waiting here till the day I die.”

Salih Kirmiziyildiz said he joined the anti-terror sit-in for his son, who was forcibly taken to the mountains by the PKK in 2014.

“I was in Istanbul when they abducted my son,” he said, adding: “I have not heard a single word about my son since then.”

He stated: “I’m waiting here for the return of my child. This is the first time I have joined any kind of protest.”

Suheyla Yenilmez, another mother in the sit-in, said: “They deceived my daughter Sumeyye Yenilmez in 2015 when she was still studying.”

“I want my daughter from the HDP. I will keep protesting until my child returns,” she added.

In Turkey, offenders linked to terrorist groups are eligible for possible sentence reductions under a repentance law, if they surrender.

The Turkish government accuses the HDP of having links to the PKK terror group.

In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK – listed as a terrorist group by Turkey, the US, and the EU – has been responsible for the deaths of at least 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants./aa

Algerian Information Minister Ammar Belhimer said Wednesday that African youth have recently raised their voices to demand France to take its hands off their continent and its resources.

"Africans, especially the youth, are committed to the demand that France takes its hands off their continent,” Belhimer told the private Algerian News Network.

The minister’s statements come amid tensions between Algeria and France following remarks by French President Emmanuel Macron last month that were viewed by many Algerians as insulting.

Algeria responded by recalling its ambassador in Paris and banning French military aircraft from using Algerian airspace on Oct. 3.

Belhimer described France as a colonial power “as long as it continues to drain Africa's resources.”

He said not only Africans but also French and European politicians agree that France is plundering Africa’s wealth.

He added that the anti-France stance “is evidenced by the bold, angry and honest interventions of the Africans who recently participated in the so-called Africa-France Summit."

On Oct. 8, hundreds of young people from African “civil society” gathered for a one-day Africa-France summit in the southern French city of Montpellier.

For the first time since 1973 when France-Africa summits began and before it was rebranded, Africa-France, no African head of state was invited.

Macron invited 3,000 people for the summit, including young entrepreneurs, researchers, students, artists, sports personalities, and representatives from associations on the African continent who met their French national counterparts and members of the African diaspora to discuss economic, political, and cultural matters.

The summit came at a time when France's influence was being challenged in its former colonies.

France framed the gathering as one meant to “provide a new foundation” for the relationship.

Belhimer said Africa is witnessing a “resurgence of African nationalism” that is compelling foreign countries “to respect the sovereignty (of African states)” and to “stop draining their wealth under any slogan."

"Algeria's current and future relations with France will only be based on its respect for our sovereignty, civilization, and identity, and its liberation from the complex of the former colonizer," Belhimer said.

On Sunday, more than 100 Algerian MPs across different political parties submitted a bill criminalizing the French colonization of Algeria (1830-1962).

Algeria spent 132 years under French colonial rule, gaining independence in 1962./agencies

Iran on Wednesday claimed to have thwarted what it terms a US attempt to "steal" an oil tanker in the strategic Sea of Oman amid heightening tensions between the two countries.

A US military vessel reportedly confiscated an Iranian oil tanker and diverted the oil to another tanker headed to an undisclosed location, state media said.

Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps naval forces reportedly landed on the deck of the second tanker and moved it back to Iran's territorial waters, the media said.

The US forces, the report said, tried to chase the tanker with warships and helicopters but failed to gain control over it.

They reportedly tried a second time to block the tanker from entering Iranian waters, but again failed.

The tanker is currently docked in Iranian territorial waters, Iran's state media said.

Later on Wednesday, Iran's state television released footage of the incident, which showed the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps conducting an operation against an oil tanker.

The footage recorded a scene when the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps surrounded a red oil tanker with small speedboats and later landed on the tanker.

Some warships claimed to be belonging to the US were also seen in the video.

The incident reportedly took place on Oct. 25.

The US on Wednesday rejected Iranian claims that it thwarted a US attempt to "steal" an oil tanker in the Sea of Oman.

A Pentagon official told Anadolu Agency the claims were "false" and US forces were "just monitoring” the vessel in the strategic waters.

"It occurred last week. Iran illegally boarded and seized the internationally-flagged vessel in international waters and took it back into Iranian waters," said the official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

It is the latest of many close encounters between the naval forces of Iran and the US in the Persian Gulf in recent years.

The announcement of the incident comes two days after the Iranian naval forces claimed to have foiled a pirate attack on one of their oil tankers en route to the Gulf of Eden.

Pirates attempted to confiscate the tanker but were forced to escape after the Iranian Navy's timely intervention, reports said./agencies

The Daesh/ISIS terrorist group has claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s deadly assault on Afghanistan’s biggest military hospital in the capital Kabul.

A statement in Arabic posted on the terror group’s propaganda site Amaq claimed more than 40 people were killed or injured in the bomb and gun attack on the Sardar Mohammad Daud Khan military hospital, located near the US Embassy in Kabul’s diplomatic enclave.

The figure was refuted by the Taliban, who said seven people – three women, a child, and three Taliban personnel – were killed and five others wounded.

Five Daesh/ISIS terrorists were shot dead at the hospital’s gate and in the courtyard, before they could enter the facility, Zabiullah Mujahid, the deputy information minister in the interim Taliban government, said in a statement.

He said the Taliban used military helicopters in the operation, lowering special forces on the hospital’s roof to target the attackers from a vantage point.

However, according to local media reports and sources in Kabul who spoke to Anadolu Agency, at least 23 people were killed and more than 50 wounded.

Daily Etilaat Roz reported that Hamdullah Mukhlis, a senior Taliban commander who headed an army corps in Kabul, was among the fatalities.

Mukhlis became a known face in Afghanistan during the Taliban’s rise to power in August, as he was the first Taliban commander to enter the presidential palace after ex-President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, and his photo on the former leader’s chair was widely circulated.

Over the past three months, the Daesh/ISIS terror group has claimed responsibility for multiple attacks that have claimed hundreds of lives in Afghanistan, including two suicide bombings at Shia mosques in Kandahar and Kunduz that killed more than 100 people./aa ​​​​​​​

France has barred a campaign launched by the Council of Europe against anti-Muslim hate speech.

Speaking to LCI TV, Sarah El Hairy, the minister of state for youth and engagement attached to the minister of national education, youth and sport, said the campaign by the council’s Inclusion and Anti-Discrimination Division shocked her.

The campaign is against the values of France, El Hairy claimed.

"Wearing a headscarf is encouraged in the campaign's video. We condemn this. France conveyed its disapproval of this campaign [to the Council of Europe] and the campaign was cancelled."

They have defended secularism and religious freedom, but this campaign defended the headscarf, she added.

After France ensured the cancellation of the campaign, the Council of Europe deleted the related posts on its campaign's Twitter account.

The European Commission provided funding for the campaign as part of the law, equality and citizenship program, according to the Le Figaro daily.

The Council of Europe launched the campaign against the discrimination of women wearing headscarves Thursday.

Images of women wearing headscarves were shared on the Twitter account of the Inclusion and Anti-Discrimination Division with the slogans "Freedom is in the headscarf," "Bring joy & accept hijabs" and "Beauty is in diversity as freedom is in the hijab.”/aa

• Nine out of ten survey respondents didn’t know that bitcoin’s supply was limited to 21 million, while 90% also do not understand stablecoins
• About 30% of Brazilians and 28% of Mexicans advised they intend to purchase or sell cryptocurrencies in the next six months, versus 12% of Americans

All but 2% of survey participants across the US, Mexico and Brazil failed to score 60% or better on a quiz of basic concepts related to bitcoin, stablecoins and NFTs, helping to quantify the extent that the general public still does not understand crypto. 

The 17-question Crypto Literacy Survey was given by YouGov to 1,000 users who are aware of bitcoin or cryptocurrency, in each country, balanced across age, gender and education level. The assessment results were unveiled on Monday as part of a new report by CryptoLiteracy.org, an initiative led by Coinme, CoinDesk and Digital Currency Group.

The assessment measured knowledge in cryptocurrency, bitcoin, decentralized finance, blockchain, mining, types of wallets, NFTs and general sentiment towards digital currencies. 

Questions included, for example, specific facts about the maximum supply of bitcoin and what the smallest unit of bitcoin is called, as well as broader definitions of NFTs, stablecoins and DeFi. A link to the quiz can be found here. 

Nine out of ten respondents did not know that bitcoin’s supply was limited to 21 million, the findings indicate.  

“I’d say that was one of the most surprising attributes because the fixed supply of bitcoin is one of its greatest value propositions,” Neil Bergquist, CEO and co-founder of Coinme told Blockworks. 

Founded in 2014, Coinme was the first state-licensed bitcoin ATM company in the US and now has a vertically integrated network of crypto ATMs, digital wallet and private client services. 

“Now that we have the largest licensed on-ramp in the US, we can really double down on efforts to help educate the broad population in order to understand how to utilize digital currency,” Bergquist added. 

In addition to CryptoLiteracy.org housing the survey, CoinDesk is leading the development of educational content on the site, Bergquist explained. The initiative will include additional programming and events in the future. 

The crypto literacy assessment results also indicate that 90% of respondents do not understand stablecoins.

Just four out of ten of those surveyed had a clear understanding of what determines bitcoin’s price, which was roughly the same amount of people that could define a non-fungible token.

Less than 10% of respondents could answer correctly what the maximum supply of bitcoins is.

“I agree that people have a long way to go on educating themselves about crypto, but the good news is they are working hard to get there,” said Matthew Hougan, chief investment officer of Bitwise Asset Management. “There’s an insatiable appetite for high-quality information about crypto right now.” 

Bitwise, a firm with a variety of index-based crypto investment offerings, focuses on educating financial advisors about the space. 

“We speak with hundreds and thousands of financial advisors each week through webinars, conferences, lunches and one-on-one meetings, and those advisors are very engaged and asking very good questions,” Hougan told Blockworks. “I suspect these statistics will change rapidly over the coming months and years.”

Who is investing, and how and why?

Seventeen percent of the respondents in the US own crypto, according to the survey, while 15% and 14% of those surveyed in Brazil and Mexico, respectively, are invested in the space. About two-thirds of the respondents across regions do not believe purchasing crypto is easy. 

Owning cryptocurrency is associated with higher performance on the crypto literacy test, the results show. Those who own crypto are twice as likely in the US to answer questions correctly, while crypto holders in Mexico and Brazil are 50% more likely to answer correctly.

The majority of cryptocurrency investors in each of the three countries own five or less digital currencies, as more hold between two and five crypto assets than only one. US respondents were the most likely to hold six or more in their portfolio, with nearly a quarter reporting such diversification. 

Half of people in the US, as well as 52% and 62% in Brazil and Mexico, respectively, reported that they see crypto as a way to save for the future.   

“It’s interesting how the brand for digital currency and bitcoin has grown so much that people may not even understand the fundamentals, but they believe it to be a safe store of value,” Bergquist said.

About 30% of Brazilians and 28% of Mexicans advised they intend to purchase or sell cryptocurrencies in the next six months, versus 12% of Americans.

Bergquist explained that Brazil and Mexico have started catching up with the US, which had some key crypto infrastructure developed earlier than some countries.

“In the US, we are already banking on the dollar,” he noted. “In Mexico and Brazil, cryptocurrency includes stablecoins, and so there’s an opportunity for them to also buy dollars.”