Austria’s parliament voted Thursday to strip former chancellor Sebastian Kurz of his immunity as part of an investigation into corruption allegations.

The move against Kurz, the leader of the Austrian People’s Party (OVP), was made at the request of the Prosecutor’s Office of Economic Affairs and Corruption.

By lifting Kurz's immunity, the prosecution will further expand the scope of its investigation into the former chancellor.

On Oct. 9, Kurz stepped down as chancellor amid a corruption probe.

He is facing an investigation over charges of "bribery, corruption and breach of trust."

Kurz and some party associates are accused of transferring money to a newspaper and a think tank from the Finance Ministry’s budget between 2016 and 2018.

Investigators are also probing allegations that the beneficiaries manipulated the results of opinion polls in favor of Kurz and the OVP./agencies​​​​​​​

Two men convicted of assassinating Malcolm X were exonerated Thursday after doubts were raised in the killing of the civil rights icon. 

Manhattan judge Ellen Biben dismissed the convictions against Muhammad Aziz and the late Khalil Islam, after lawyers for the two men said new, exonerating evidence turned up in a renewed investigation.

The lawyers said evidence indicated the men were not involved in Malcolm X's death and prosecuting authorities withheld key information they knew about the case.

A third man, Mujahid Abdul Halim confessed to the killing and was convicted. He had long said the other two were not involved.

Aziz and Islam always insisted on their innocence after the shooting which happened while Malcolm X was giving a speech in a New York City ballroom in 1965. The two men were paroled in the 1980s and Islam died in 2009.

"I'm an 83-year-old man who was victimized by the court system," Aziz said in court on Thursday. "The event that has brought us to court today should never have occurred."

Malcolm X was a prominent leader of the Black Nationalist Movement and spokesman for the Nation of Islam, based in Chicago. He took a harder line in his approach to civil rights than his contemporary, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He urged his followers to pursue civil rights "by any means necessary."

Later, just before his death, he split from the Nation of Islam and took a softer tone. Some in that organization branded him a traitor.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr opened a new look into the case against Islam and Aziz and a 2020 Netflix documentary, "Who Killed Malcolm X?" raised more questions about the investigation.

Vance determined there were gaping holes in the investigation regarding the evidence and in court he apologized to Aziz, his family and Islam's family on behalf of law enforcement "for this decades-long injustice."/agencies

Germany’s federal and state governments agreed Thursday on new coronavirus measures, including tougher restrictions for those who are unvaccinated amid record cases.

Decisions were made during a videoconference meeting between Chancellor Angela Merkel, likely successor Olaf Scholz and premiers of 16 federal states.

Federal states will put in place tougher measures if COVID-19 hospitalization rates exceed agreed on benchmarks in their regions.

If the rate exceeds three per 100,000 people, the state will introduce the “2G rule” and allow only those who are vaccinated and those who have recovered to indoor public spaces, like restaurants, cafes and cultural facilities.

In the case of a hospitalization rate above nine per 100,000 people, federal states will apply tougher rules and restrict personal contact in public spaces.

Currently, in 12 federal states, including Bavaria, Saxony and Thuringia, the hospitalization rate exceeds three per 100,000.

The premiers also called for mandatory vaccinations for certain employees in the health sector, including staff at hospitals and nursing homes, who work with vulnerable populations.

Germany hit its highest daily number of coronavirus cases on Thursday since the pandemic began last year, as officials warned that hospitals were now at the limits of their capacity.

The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) reported 65,371 new infections in the last 24 hours and 264 additional virus-related deaths.

Active cases climbed to 532,600, reaching a new high in the current fourth wave of the pandemic, according to official data.

There were 3,376 seriously ill patients in intensive care units Wednesday, with 1,710 on mechanical ventilators.

Infections in Germany soared in recent weeks as people spend more time indoors during the colder months and a large part of the population remains unvaccinated.

The government's goal has been to vaccinate at least 75% of the population to prevent an exponential rise in new infections.

But as of Thursday, 56.4 million people, or 67.8% of the population, have been fully vaccinated for COVID-19.

Germany's overall vaccination rate lags behind many other EU members, including Portugal, Spain and Italy./agencies

If the US sells oil from emergency reserves to help alleviate high energy prices as President Joe Biden has insisted several times, around 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) of sweet crude will be sold by the end of the year, according to data from US-based digital oil analytics firm OilX on Thursday.

Biden is preparing to sell oil from his country’s Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR) after exhausting other solutions to tackle high fuel prices which he blames for the country's increasing inflation. Last week, he requested that his top economic advisers focus on the issue.

Biden has repeatedly asked the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, also known as OPEC+, to increase the group's output. However, the group did not relent to his demands and agreed to adhere to its production pact of 400,000 bpd in December.

The move has drawn widespread criticism, especially as it came on the heels of COP26, the United Nations climate conference in Scotland, where leaders are on course to reach an agreement to tackle global warming.

How much oil can US release?

The country is already selling oil from its emergency reserves on a scheduled basis and has planned to release 37 million barrels of crude in 2021 and 13 million barrels in 2022.

Around 28 million barrels of oil have already been released, and for November and December, the sale of 5 million barrels and 4 million barrels respectively is expected.

According to data compiled by OilX, in addition to the scheduled sale of 9 million barrels from the SPR, the country can only realize an incremental draw of 20 million barrels, or around 400,000 bpd, of oil, which the company predicts will have a limited effect on global crude balances.

“An additional SPR release with the aim of cooling prices would in our opinion have to be significant larger and furthermore will only result in a temporary relief,” it said, taking into account the forecast of a supply build in the first quarter of 2022 by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) and OPEC.

The analytics company also predicted that if there is any SRP oil sale, it would take place by the end of the year, given the predictions of a supply build at the beginning of 2022.

What type of oil can be released?

Sour crude accounted for 98% of crude drawdowns in 2021, while sweet crude accounted for only 2%. As of Nov. 5, the SPR composition will be about 41.4% sweet and 58.6% sour, the OilX research showed.

According to the Department of Energy, the SPR ratio reflects the needs of the US refining industry which will most likely take SPR crude in the event of a drawdown, particularly refiners in the Gulf Coast area.

The department also noted that sweet crude oil can be processed by nearly all refiners, however, “the same is not true for sour crude.”

OilX noted that the majority of SPR releases so far have been sour crude, however, the currently high desulphurization costs due to the rally in natural gas prices increased the demand for sweet crude from refiners on the Gulf Coast.

“Thus, if – and that is a big if – the US should decide to release barrels to the market then these should be sweet barrels in our opinion,” it said.

The US has the world's largest SPR of around 714 million barrels stored in huge underground salt caverns at four sites located on the Gulf of Mexico coast with access to refinery hubs, pipeline connections and marine terminals.

Under what conditions can reserves be used?

The US president can order a full or limited drawdown of SPR in the event of a significant increase in the price of petroleum products as a result of a major disruption in energy supplies.

However, this drawdown can never be in excess of an aggregate of 30 million barrels; for more than 60 days and should not be used if there are fewer than 340 million barrels stored in reserves./agencies

Bitcoin plummeted by almost 20% in just eight days, as the latest selloff wiped out half a trillion dollars from the crypto market as of Thursday.

The price of Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency, fell to $56,592 at 12 p.m. EDT (1700GMT), losing 18% of its value since hitting an all-time high of $69,000 on Nov. 10.

Bitcoin's market value decreased by more than $210 billion during that period to $1.08 trillion, according to data by digital asset price-tracking website CoinMarketCap.

Ethereum, the world's second largest cryptocurrency and biggest altcoin, also saw its price decline by 18.6% to $3,960 from $4,868 during the same period. Its market capitalization fell almost $100 billion to $474 billion.

The cryptocurrency market's total value stood at just over $2.46 trillion at the time -- wiping out more than $500 billion in just eight days.

Though some analysts believe that the latest decline is a correction in the crypto market, given its highly volatile nature, others argue that it could be the beginning of a bear market due to fear and uncertainty among investors.

US President Joe Biden's infrastructure bill, which he signed into law on Monday, includes some new regulations on crypto assets as part of the administration's bid to create new revenues for investment.

The most striking aspect of the legislation requires cryptocurrency exchanges to notify the Internal Revenue Service directly about their users' transactions, which will cause tax reporting difficulties for many crypto investors.

The Chinese government, in addition, continues its intense pressure on the crypto industry. Beijing on Tuesday called crypto mining an "extremely harmful" practice, which threatens its efforts to reduce carbon emissions, adding that it would launch a "full-scale" crackdown on mining activities.

China's central bank announced on Sept. 24 that it would tighten regulations on cryptocurrency activities, including mining, prohibiting trade, token issuance, and banning overseas exchanges' services to Chinese residents./agencies

US President Joe Biden said Thursday that a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics in China set for February is "something we’re considering."

The US president was responding to a reporter who asked about a boycott of the Games at the start of a bilateral meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

When asked at a news conference on Thursday, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki did not comment on the nature of the boycott but said the Biden administration has "serious concerns" about human rights abuses in China.

"There are a range of factors where we look at what our presence will be," she said.

Biden's remarks came three days after a virtual meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, during which the US president raised human rights abuses and a host of strains on the US-Sino relationship.

Several US lawmakers and human rights advocates have repeatedly called for a boycott of the 2022 Games.

the two leaders did not discuss the Olympics during the conversation on Monday, according to a White House statement./aa

The worldwide market for halal products has reached $7 trillion, the head of the World Halal Union said on Thursday.

As world trade develops and the number of manufacturers entering the market increases, demand for certificates informing Muslim consumers that the products they buy are halal is also increasing, Ahmet Gelir told Anadolu Agency.

Underlining that Muslim countries had begun to be taken seriously in many fields, including food, cosmetics, chemicals and cleaning products, agricultural products, energy, tourism, and finance, Gelir noted that work on international halal standards started in the 2000s and accelerated as Turkey got involved.

Turkey spearheaded the establishment of the Standards and Metrology Institute for Islamic Countries (SMIIC) in Istanbul, he said, stressing that with the publication of halal product and service standards, "halal production and the halal market gained meaning in the world."

Some 1.86 billion Muslims in 57 Islamic countries and other parts of the world have tended to seek information on what they produce and consume, he added.

"The products and services produced in the Islamic world are inspected and documented, and these products circulate freely in our own geography.

"Organizations authorized by institutions like us give confidence to consumers with accurate and fast inspection, and become the choice of a new move in exports," said Gelir.

Western organizations

Halal certification, which would make sense to be given by Muslim countries, has also been attempted by major certification in the West, said the World Halal Union head.

He added: "This isn't something we prefer, because besides knowledge, skill, and experience, halal studies are a matter of faith.

"In other words, an inspector, certification organization, or accreditation body that does not have a sensitivity of faith couldn't be able to properly inspect and certify food, products, and services that will go to the tables of Muslims."

Turkey is sought a pioneering role, in this sense, and to be involved in the field with serious bodies like the Turkish Standards Institute, World Halal Union, and Association for the Inspection and Certification of Food and Supplies (GIMDES), he noted.

He added that Turkey also has an halal accreditation agency, which oversees and accredits certification bodies, and that this agency would be recognized and welcomed by the world more every day.

World Halal Summit

Yunus Ete, the head of the World Halal Summit council, said the needs of the world's rapidly rising Muslim population have also been increasing.

Turkey's share in the world halal market currently exceeds $100 billion, he said. "Unfortunately, Turkey and a few Muslim countries have a smaller share compared to other countries in the world, from halal food, Islamic finance, halal tourism, conservative fashion, halal cosmetics, and other related sectors."

The world halal market is expected to reach $8 trillion soon, he added and underlining that Turkey aimed expand its share to $400 billion.

Next week, Istanbul will host the World Halal Summit on Nov. 25-27.

The summit will discuss hot topics in the halal market with experts, top officials, and market representatives from Turkey and other countries.

Besides the summit, the eighth edition of the Halal Expo will also be held from Nov. 25 until Nov. 28./aa