Latest Geneva News

FILE - In this Feb. 5, 2019 file photo, United Nations Special Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths, center, and President of the International Committee of the Red Cross Peter Maurer, speak during a new round of talks by Yemen's warring parties in Amman, Jordan. Yemen’s warring sides on Friday, Sept. 18, 2020, started U.N.-brokered peace consultations in Switzerland to exchange prisoners, the United Nations said, part of a long-delayed deal aiming to end a conflict that has killed thousands of civilians and set off the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. (AP Photo/Raad Adayleh)

Yemen's rival sides meet in Geneva for prisoner swap talks

Sep. 18, 2020 3:40 PM EDT

CAIRO (AP) — Yemen’s warring sides on Friday began long-awaited U.N.-brokered peace consultations in Switzerland on the exchange of prisoners, part of a deal aimed at ending a conflict that has killed thousands and set off the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Delegates from Yemen’s...

Yury Ambrazevich, Head of Belarus' delegation and Permanent Representative to the UN Office, listen to the speeches, during the opening of 45th session of the Human Rights Council, at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Monday, September 14, 2020. (Martial Trezzini/Keystone via AP)

After showdown, UN rights body OKs more scrutiny of Belarus

Sep. 18, 2020 11:12 AM EDT

GENEVA (AP) — The U.N.'s top human rights body on Friday passed a resolution backed by the European Union seeking quick and enhanced scrutiny of alleged violations in Belarus by authorities under President Alexander Lukashenko, after rejecting efforts to squelch speakers and water down the text. The Human...

This photo combo shows the candidates for the WTO Director-General selection process at the headquarters of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva, Switzerland, pictured from Wednesday to Friday, July 15 - 17, 2020. Top row form left, Abdel Hamid Mamdouh, of Egypt, Amina Mohamed, of Kenya, Mohammad Maziad Al-Tuwaijri, of Saudi Arabia, and Yoo Myung-hee, of Korea. Bottom row from left, Liam Fox, of United Kingdom, Tudor Ulianovschi, of Moldova, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala,of Nigeria and Jesus Seade Kuri, of Mexico. (Martial Trezzini, Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)

Egyptian, Mexican, Moldovan exit in race for top post at WTO

Sep. 18, 2020 6:33 AM EDT

GENEVA (AP) — World Trade Organization member countries on Friday trimmed a list of candidates vying to become the next director-general from eight to five. They ejected applicants from Egypt, Mexico and Moldova who had been hoping to lead a trade body that has become a lightning rod of criticism for the...

Medical staff prepare to take a COVID-19 tests at a drive through community based assessment centre in Christchurch, New Zealand, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2020. Health authorities in New Zealand are scrambling to trace the source of a new outbreak of the coronavirus as the nation's largest city, Auckland, goes back into lockdown. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

The Latest: First case-free day for New Zealand in 5 weeks

Sep. 17, 2020 11:15 PM EDT

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — New Zealand has reported no new confirmed cases of the coronavirus for the first time in more than five weeks as hopes rise that an outbreak discovered in Auckland last month has been stamped out. Friday’s report also marked the fourth consecutive day without any cases of...

World Health Organization regional director Dr. Hans Kluge speaks during an online news conference with Katie Smallwood, WHO Europe’s senior health emergency officer, in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Thursday Sept. 17, 2020. Kluge said his decision to wear a mask was “a clear signal that we are going into a worsening situation” with the coronavirus in WHO Europe’s 53-country region. (David Barrett/WHO via AP)

WHO Europe chief urges nations to keep up virus quarantines

Sep. 17, 2020 12:40 PM EDT

GENEVA (AP) — The World Health Organization’s European director warned national governments Thursday against reducing the quarantine period for people potentially exposed to the coronavirus, even as he acknowledged that COVID-19 “fatigue” was setting in with growing public resistance...

FILE - In this March 12, 2020 file photo, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro gives a press conference at Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela. Independent experts commissioned by the U.N.’s top human rights body have issued a scathing, in-depth report finding the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro responsible for crimes against humanity. The report commissioned last year by the 47-member-state Human Rights Council said the alleged crimes include extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions and torture. The findings issued Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2020 were based on nearly 3,000 cases, interviews and other evidence. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File)

Experts cite 'crimes against humanity' in Maduro's Venezuela

Sep. 16, 2020 4:18 PM EDT

GENEVA (AP) — Independent experts for the U.N.’s top human rights body accused the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Wednesday of crimes against humanity, highlighting grisly cases of torture and killings allegedly carried out by security forces who used techniques like electric...

United Nations General Assembly President-elect Volkan Bozkir gives a joint press conference with Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Monday, Aug. 10, 2020. Bozkir arrived in Islamabad on a two-day visit to discuss bilateral, international and regional issues with Pakistani leadership. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)

The Latest: UN assembly head warns of pandemic unilateralism

Sep. 15, 2020 10:19 PM EDT

UNITED NATIONS — The new president of the U.N. General Assembly is warning that unilateralism will only strengthen the COVID-19 pandemic and is calling for a new commitment to global cooperation including on the fair and equitable distribution of vaccines. Turkish diplomat and politician Volkan Bozkir, who...

FILE - In this Sept. 24, 2018 file photo, Claudia Patricia Diaz Guillen, the former nurse of late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, leaves the national court in Madrid, Spain, where she fought and won a case of extradition at Venezuela's request for alleged money laundering. It was 2014 when Diaz, then Venezuela's former treasurer, was looking for a safe haven to store the unexplained wealth she had accumulated over the years, and allegedly turned to one of the oldest ways of moving vast sums of money anonymously: buying gold. (AP Photo/Paul White, File)

Correction: Venezuela-Gold Ingots story

Sep. 9, 2020 12:19 PM EDT

MIAMI (AP) — In a story August 3, 2020, about a Venezuelan official allegedly hiding unexplained wealth by buying gold, The Associated Press erroneously reported some financial information about the Switzerland-based Compagnie Bancaire Helvetique SA. The bank’s assets under management for clients...

UN rights office seeks probe of reported Navalny poisoning

Sep. 8, 2020 6:05 AM EDT

GENEVA (AP) — The office of the U.N. human rights chief is calling on the Russian government to carry out or cooperate with an independent investigation of the reported poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Michelle Bachelet, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, welcomed the...

Marylou Ligier takes a to-go order to a patron at her family's restaurant and pastry shop Clafoutis on Monday, Aug. 24, 2020, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. An outdoor tent, seen in the reflection of a pastry case, was installed three weeks ago in the parking lot after indoor seating was banned due to COVID-19. Ligier says the tent rental costs thousands of dollars each month, nearly amounting to a second mortgage. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio)

The Latest: New Mexico sees lowest new case number in months

Sep. 7, 2020 11:35 PM EDT

SANTA FE, N.M. -- New Mexico health officials are reporting 46 new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus — the lowest daily number in the state since early April. The new cases announced Monday bring the state’s total to 26,144. State health officials also said four more people have died from...

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