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GENEVA, July 22 (Reuters) - Former United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillay will head an international commission of inquiry into alleged crimes committed during the latest conflict between Israel and the Islamist group Hamas in Gaza, the U.N.'s Human Rights Council said in a statement on Thursday.

The council agreed in late May to open the investigation with a broad mandate to cover allegations not just in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, but also in Israel during hostilities that were halted by a May 21 ceasefire.

Tokyo, Jul 20 (PTI) Former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was on Tuesday re-elected as Chair of the IOC's Ethics Commission during the International Olympic Committee's session here.

The 77-year-old South Korean politician and diplomat, who held the role since 2017, will serve another four-year term.

Laura Chinchilla of Costa Rica, who joined the IOC as a member in 2019, was elected as a new member of the Ethics Commission.

China's Hanqin Xue was also re-elected as a member of the Commission for an additional four-year term.

GENEVA, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The list of human rights crimes committed by the United States at home and abroad is too long to draw, and the U.S. should face up to and address its own human rights abuses, said a statement issued on Friday by the Chinese Mission to UN at Geneva.

In response to an earlier statement issued by the U.S. Mission in Geneva which criticized China on human rights issues, the Chinese mission said that the U.S. is playing a game of being the thief crying "stop thief".

GENEVA, July 16 (Reuters) - Nearly 50 African countries are to receive 25 million COVID-19 vaccine doses donated by the United States, with the first shipments to Burkina Faso, Djibouti and Ethiopia in coming days, U.S. officials and the Gavi vaccine alliance said on Friday.

U.S. President Joe Biden has pledged to share 80 million U.S.-made vaccines with countries around the world to protect the most vulnerable and stem transmission of the coronavirus.

GENEVA, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Permanent representatives of 48 countries to the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG) on Thursday addressed to World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and voiced their support to advance the study of origins of SARS-CoV-2 globally and opposed the politicization of the origin-tracing.

The diplomats highlighted that COVID-19 is a common enemy of mankind, and it can only be defeated by solidarity and cooperation of the international community.

GENEVA, July 15 (NNN-TASS) — The world is currently in the early stages of a third wave, World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. 

  “We are now in the early stages of a third wave,” he said in his opening remarks at the 8th meeting of the IHR Emergency Committee on COVID-19.
 
  The WHO head said that in the past week cases of COVID-19 were increasing globally, and deaths have started to go up again. Moreover, “deaths are increasing again” after 10 weeks of declines, he added.

14 July 2021; MEMO: A surge of coronavirus cases in several Middle Eastern countries could have dire consequences, aggravated by the spread of the Delta variant and low vaccine availability, the World Health Organisation said on Wednesday, Reuters reports.

GENEVA, July 14. /TASS/: A resolution on Belarus, authored by European Union member states and containing demands to the Belarusian government, received no wide support during the 47th session of the UN Human Rights Council.

Less than a half of HRC members, or only 21 out of the 47 member states voted to support the document. Seven countries, including Russia, China, Cuba and Venezela, were against. 19 countries abstained.

GENEVA, July 12 (Xinhua) -- Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), on Monday warned of the "devastating outbreaks" caused by the Delta variant of COVID-19, saying that the new strain of the virus was infecting people "at a scorching pace."

"Last week marked the fourth consecutive week of increasing cases of COVID-19 globally," Tedros said at a virtual press conference from Geneva, adding that "after ten weeks of declines, deaths are increasing again."

GENEVA, July 9 (Reuters) - Israeli settlements in east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank amount to a war crime, a U.N. human rights investigator said on Friday, calling on countries to inflict a cost on Israel for its "illegal occupation".

Michael Lynk, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, was addressing a session of the U.N. Human Rights Council, boycotted by Israel which does not recognise his mandate or cooperate with him.

"Inmy report, I conclude that the Israeli settlements do amount to a war crime," Lynk said.