The annual inflation rate in Germany stood at 5.2% in November, its highest since June 1992, according to data released Friday by the Federal Statistical Office, Destatis.

"The inflation rate increased for the sixth time in a row and in November reached the highest level recorded in 2021 so far," Georg Thiel, the president of the Federal Statistical Office, said in a statement.

Destatis said the main reasons for high inflation rates include base effects due to low prices in 2020, delivery bottlenecks, and marked price increases at upstream stages in the economic process.

The 22.1% rise in energy product prices was markedly higher than overall inflation, it noted./agencies

Up to 30,000 people in northern Cameroon fled to Chad following recent ethnic clashes that claimed 22 lives, the UN's refugee agency said on Friday.

Since Dec. 5, at least 22 people have been killed and 30 others seriously injured during several days of ongoing fighting, the UNHCR said in a statement.

Clashes broke out in the border village of Ouloumsa following a dispute between herders, fishermen, and farmers over dwindling water resources.

The violence then spread to neighboring villages, leaving 10 villages burned to the ground.

“On Dec. 8, fighting broke out in the Cameroonian city of Kousseri – a commercial hub with some 200,000 inhabitants. Kousseri’s cattle market was destroyed in the fighting. At least 10,000 people have fled Kousseri to Chad’s capital N’djamena,” the statement said.

At least 80% of the new arrivals are women, including many who are pregnant, and children, it said.

They have found refuge in N’Djamena and villages along Chad’s bank of the Logone River while those injured in the violence have been admitted to two hospitals in N’Djamena.

The climate crisis is exacerbating tensions in northern Cameroon.

In recent decades, the surface of Lake Chad – of which the Logone River is the main tributary – has decreased by as much as 95%.

Fishermen and farmers have dug vast trenches to retain the remaining river water so they can fish and cultivate crops.

But the muddy trenches are trapping and sometimes killing cattle belonging to the herders, sparking tension and fighting.

Intercommunal violence first broke out in August, leaving 45 people dead and 23,000 forcibly displaced, 8,500 of whom have remained in Chad since then, according to UNHCR.

Chad is home to close to a million refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs) and Cameroon hosts more than 1.5 million refugees and IDPs.

The UNHCR said financial resources to respond to the situation in both countries remain critically low.

The funding requirement is $99.6 million for Cameroon in 2021 and $141 million for Chad, which are only 52% and 54% funded respectively./agencies

Europe is the primary driver of COVID-19 cases and facing an extremely severe outbreak of the disease, a World Health Organization spokeswoman said Friday.

Responding to a question by Anadolu Agency on the severity of the dominant delta variant of the coronavirus despite the emergence of the latest strain omicron, Margaret Harris said: “We would certainly say Europe is the main driver.

"We have 65% of cases coming from Europe, and Europe is in the midst of a very fierce, very difficult outbreak.”

“And the vast majority (of cases) are delta,” she added.

Harris reiterated an old message from the world health body to “really strengthen” public health social measures and vaccinations “because all those things will stop both delta and omicron.”

She said the omicron variant had been detected in 58 countries after first being tracked down in South Africa and Botswana.

Harris said a doubling of trusted measures is needed, such as avoiding mass gatherings and crowds while wearing masks and paying attention to hand hygiene.

The Worldometer website, which gives current and projected data on COVID-19, reported Friday fatality figures for Eastern Europe in the preceding 24 hours of 1,176 people in Russia, 571 in Poland, and 442 people in Ukraine.

Worldwide, there were slightly over 5.3 million fatalities since the outbreak of the pandemic nearly two years ago, according to the data-tracking website./aa

Grave rights abuses perpetrated recently in Myanmar represent an "alarming escalation of violence," the UN Human Rights Office said on Friday, citing reports that security forces killed and burned alive 11 people, including five minors, and rammed vehicles into protesters.

"We are appalled by the alarming escalation of grave human rights abuses in Myanmar," said spokesman Rupert Colville of the High Commissioner for Human Rights at a UN press conference.

"In the last week alone, security forces have killed and burned to death 11 people -- among them five minors -- and rammed vehicles into protesters exercising their fundamental right to peaceful assembly."

He said that more than 10 months since Myanmar's military overthrew the democratically elected government, the country's human rights situation was deepening "on an unprecedented scale."

The rights office praised Myanmar's "courageous and resilient people" for marking Human Rights Day and for their opposition to the coup with a universal silent protest on Friday.

Colville was asked whether the conflict in Myanmar was turning into a civil war.

"You already have, essentially, groups that oppose the government who seem to feel they have no option but to take up arms because nothing is happening in terms of dialogue, in terms of a political resolution to the situation," he said.

"And you've had the military build-ups in various parts of the country in the past few months, which we've already flagged."

Raiding village

On Tuesday, militia forces allegedly ambushed a Myanmar army unit with a remote-controlled explosive device in Salingyi township of Sagaing region, said the rights office.

Security personnel reportedly responded by raiding the village of Done Taw and arresting six men and five minors -- the youngest of whom was 14 years of age.

Villagers who said they saw fire coming from the area later found the burned remains of the 11 males, said Colville.

"The villagers indicated that human corpses were contorted into shapes that appeared as though they were trying to shelter one another and escape from burning huts."

In a separate incident on Sunday, security forces in Kyimyindaing township, Yangon, rammed a vehicle into unarmed protesters and then fired on them with live ammunition, leading to several casualties, said the UN office.

"These attacks are heinous, completely unacceptable, and disregard common values of humanity. They are also far from isolated," said Colville.

In recent weeks, the rights office had received multiple reports of villages being burned, including protected structures such as places of religious worship and residential buildings.

"Since the coup, Gen. Min Aung Hlaing's forces have repeatedly failed to respect their obligations under international law to protect the country's people," said Colville.

As a result, more than 1,300 people have lost their lives, and over 10,600 more have been detained.

"These latest grave violations demand a firm, unified and resolute international response that redoubles efforts to pursue accountability for the Myanmar military and the restoration of democracy in Myanmar," said the UN Rights Office spokesman.

The Burmese military, known locally as Tatmadaw, launched a military coup in February and jailed civilian authorities.

Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, leader of the military regime, has since named himself prime minister, promising multi-party elections and lifting the state of emergency by August 2023 – instead of the initial one-year timeline.

More than 1,000 people were killed while over 5,400 others were arrested by junta forces, many of whom have been since released./aa

Turkey’s new telecommunication satellite Turksat 5B will be launched by the US aerospace company SpaceX on Dec. 19, the Turkish transport and infrastructure minister said on Friday.

The satellite, produced by Airbus, was transferred from France to the US on Nov. 29, Adil Karaismailoglu said during a news conference in the capital Ankara.

The new satellite, he said, will be the most powerful satellite of the country that will increase the band capacity and it can serve not only Turkey but also neighboring countries.

The satellite was produced with contribution from Turkey’s domestic industry, Karaismailoglu stated.

The satellite, which is expected to serve for 35 years, has the new generation electric-powered impulsion system, he added./aa

The countries of a convention designed to protect the Mediterranean Sea from pollution ended their summit Thursday in the city of Antalya on the southern Turkish coast. 

Speaking at the closing of the 22nd meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention (COP22), Murat Kurum, Turkey's environment, urbanization and climate change minister, said the representatives discussed and adopted 17 resolutions this year.

Kurum said that “80% of the pollution in the sea is of terrestrial origin. One of the prominent decisions was the update of the protocol on land-based pollutants. Now with this decision, we will make revisions on pollutants and the best techniques for removing pollutants in the coming period.”

He noted that the period of Turkey's presidency of the Bureau of the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention will be one in which young people will take the most active role in all decision-making processes and will take charge as international climate ambassadors.

Kurum noted that no matter how big the sea is, protection always starts from the shore.

“With people who are the inhabitants of the coasts, for the common life of all our creatures that own the seas, we are very happy that we put forward the goal of increasing the amount of protected areas in the Mediterranean again with a strong will,” he added.

Environment ministers and delegates from 21 Mediterranean countries as well as European Union and UN representatives attended the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention and its Protocols summit, which is held every other year.

The summit constitutes a multilateral legal framework for the protection of the marine and coastal environment and the sustainable use of resources in the Mediterranean.

The Mediterranean Action Plan of the UN Environment Program (UNEP/MAP) is a regional cooperation platform established as the first regional action plan under the UNEP Regional Seas Program.

Although the Mediterranean Sea constitutes just 1% of the world’s ocean area, it is home to 4%-18% of the world's known marine species.

In 1975, 16 Mediterranean countries and the European Community adopted MAP, and Turkey became a party to the convention in 1982.

The COP 22 logo features the loggerhead turtle – known to scientists as Caretta caretta – an iconic symbol of biological diversity in the Mediterranean.

Mediterranean loggerhead turtles are affected by marine litter and warming air and seawater. Their plight encapsulates the stark threats posed in the region by the triple crisis of pollution, climate change and biodiversity loss.

The loggerhead turtle can be found throughout the basin, but its nesting is concentrated in the Eastern Mediterranean, including in sites located in Antalya, the summit’s host city./aa

Fitch Ratings said Thursday it downgraded the rating of Chinese real estate developer Evergrande and its subsidiaries, Hengda and Tianji. 

The global rating agency said the downgrades to restricted default (RD) reflect the non-payment of the companies coupons.

"The non-payment is consistent with an 'RD' rating, signifying the uncured expiry of any applicable grace period, cure period or default forbearance period following a payment default on a material financial obligation, "it said in a statement.

"Failure to make coupon payments within the grace period is consistent with Fitch's definition of an 'RD' rating," it noted./aa

Global regulation of cryptocurrencies should be comprehensive, consistent and coordinated, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Thursday. 

Noting that crypto assets and associated products and services have grown rapidly in recent years, the international financial institution said interlinkages with the regulated financial system are increasing.

"Policymakers struggle to monitor risks from this evolving sector, in which many activities are unregulated. In fact, we think these financial stability risks could soon become systemic in some countries," it said. "Uncoordinated regulatory measures may facilitate potentially destabilizing capital flows.”

The IMF listed challenges in the crypto market, including identification, monitoring, operational and financial integrity risks, and inadequate reserves and inaccurate disclosure for some stable coins./aa

Two Turkish citizens who were abducted earlier this week in Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region were rescued through an operation conducted Thursday, an official said. 

The Turkish ambassador to the North African country, Irfan Neziroglu, told Anadolu Agency that Firat Can Baran and Omer Cunedioglu, who work at a power plant in the city of al-Fashir in North Darfur state, were rescued by Sudanese security forces.

Neziroglu said Baran, who is an engineer, and Cunedioglu, an administrative staff member, were abducted Tuesday as they were returning home from work along with their Sudanese taxi driver by unknown gunmen.

The driver was reportedly taken to another location and beaten by the gunmen but was later released.

Thanking Sudanese officials for their efforts and cooperation in the rescue operation, Neziroglu reported that the two men were good in health and were welcomed at a military facility in Kabkabiya district and will be brought to the capital Khartoum in the morning./aa

European stock markets closed lower on Thursday, except for Italy's stock exchange.

The STOXX Europe 600, which includes around 90% of the market capitalization of the European market in 17 countries, fell 0.37 point, or 0.08%, to 476.99.

London's FTSE 100 lost 15.79 points, or 0.22%, to end at 7,321.

Germany's DAX 30 was off 47 points, or 0.3%, to 15,639. France's CAC 40 fell 6 points, or 0.1%, to 7,008.

Spain's IBEX 35 decreased 78 points, or 0.93%, to close at 8,399.

Italy's FTSE MIB 30 was the only gainer of the day, rising 65 points, or 0.24%, to end the day at 26,817./aa