
More than half of Europe likely to catch Omicron COVID infection within 2 months, WHO says
CBSN
Copenhagen — More than half of the people in Europe are on track to contract the Omicron coronavirus variant in the next two months if infections continue at current rates, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday. Speaking at a press conference, regional director Hans Kluge warned that the Omicron variant represented a "new west-to-east tidal wave sweeping across" the European region.
"At this rate, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) forecasts that more than 50% of the population in the region will be infected with Omicron in the next six to eight weeks," Kluge told reporters.
The WHO's European region comprises 53 countries and territories including several in Central Asia, and Kluge noted that 50 of them had confirmed cases of the Omicron variant.

Paris — French cinema icon Gérard Depardieu was convicted Tuesday of sexually assaulting two women on a film set in Paris in 2021 and handed an 18-month suspended sentence. The 76-year-old actor had denied the charges that he forcefully groped a set decorator and an assistant producer on the set of "Les Volets Verts" ("The Green Shutters").

Turkey's PKK Kurdish insurgents to lay down arms after deadly, decades-long fight against government
The Kurdish group PKK announced on Monday that it will fully disarm and disband, ending its decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state, according to the Firat News Agency, an outlet linked closely with the group. The PKK has long been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S., Turkey, the European Union, NATO, and many other nations and entities.

India's military strikes into Pakistan-administered Kashmir and Pakistan earlier this week killed more than 100 militants, including their prominent leadership, India's director general of military operations said on Sunday. His comments came just one day after India and Pakistan reached a ceasefire agreement following U.S.-led mediation talks.