The U.N. envoy to Western Sahara is suggesting that dividing the territory between Morocco and the pro-independence Polisario Front could be one way to settle the decades-long conflict.

The World Trade Organization has raised its outlook for global goods trade this year slightly, but cautions that increasing geopolitical tensions and uncertainty over economic policy pose “substantial” risks to its forecast.

Winter sports are facing a long-time crisis because of climate change and the International Ski and Snowboard Federation has teamed up with the United Nations weather agency.

The World Health Organization says it has granted its first authorization for use of a vaccine against mpox in adults, calling it an important step toward fighting against the disease in Africa.

The head of the World Health Organization believes the ongoing mpox outbreaks in Africa might be stopped in the next six months.

The U.N. health agency has launched a six-month plan to help stanch outbreaks of mpox transmission.

A bus that was transporting a professional baseball team from Iowa to a game in Illinois caught fire.

U.N. officials say that Sudan’s warring parties have arrived in Geneva at the invitation of the United Nations to discuss the protection of civilians through possible local cease-fires.

Health authorities say a man in Mexico died from a type of bird flu called H5N2 that has never before been found in a human.

A global treaty to fight pandemics like COVID is going to have to wait: After more than two years of negotiations, rich and poor countries have failed to come up with a plan for how the world might respond to the next pandemic.

With an assist from Paul McCartney the Paralympic Games is starting its 100-day race to the opening ceremony in Paris on Aug. 28.

Top envoys from the U.S. and China huddled Tuesday in closed-door talks in Geneva to discuss ways to ensure that emerging artificial intelligence technologies don't become existential risks.

Leaders of top European soccer leagues say have no plans to take games to the United States.

The world’s top anti-doping regulator says after reviewing a documentary and other media reports that it stands by its decision to clear 23 Chinese swimmers to compete at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics despite testing positive for a banned heart medication.

Switzerland says it will host a high-level international conference in June to help chart a path toward peace in Ukraine after more than two years of war, in hopes that Russia might join in the peace process one day.

Representatives of two armed groups in Congo signed solemn pledges this week to both their violence-wracked country and the wider world: We will do better to respect and protect civilians.

Geneva-based commodities trading firm Gunvor said Friday that it has reached $661 million settlement with U.S. and Swiss prosecutors after a conviction for bribery of foreign officials in connection with the petroleum industry in Ecuador.

The head of the World Trade Organization says the body remains relevant and its leaders focus on reform “no matter who comes into power” as Donald Trump — who as U.S. president bypassed WTO rules by slapping tariffs on America’s friends and foes alike — makes another run at the White House.

A top U.N. official says that two generals in Sudan whose forces have been at war for the last 10 months assured him recently that they would attend a meeting in Switzerland to discuss humanitarian issues and Sudan’s beleaguered civilians.

The U.N. health agency says reported cases of dengue globally increased tenfold over the last generation.

Paris Saint-Germain and not Newcastle or AC Milan advanced to the Champions League round of 16 on Wednesday.

If Saudi Arabia could have designed a process for choosing future World Cup hosts, it might look similar to what FIFA has unveiled for the 2030 and 2034 men’s soccer tournaments.

The Ukraine soccer federation says it will boycott any European youth competition that includes Russia as UEFA works on easing a blanket ban imposed since the war started.

Swiss federal prosecutors say they have indicted a former employee of the Geneva-based commodities trading firm Gunvor over bribes paid to obtain access to the Republic of Congo’s petroleum market more than a decade ago.

The Swiss weather service says a heat wave has driven the zero-degree Celsius level to its highest altitude since recordings on it in Switzerland began nearly 70 years ago, a new ominous sign for the country’s vaunted glaciers.

The world’s top chess federation has ruled that transgender women cannot compete in its official events for women until an assessment of gender change is made by its officials.

Switzerland’s main intelligence agency says Russia continues to have dozens of spies disguised as diplomats at its embassy in Bern and its mission to the United Nations in Geneva, making the Alpine nation a hotspot for Russian espionage activity in Europe.

Switzerland’s executive branch has thrown its weight behind a proposal to decommission 25 out-of-service Leopard 2 battle tanks that Germany’s government wants returned to the German manufacturer to help Berlin plug gaps in its arsenal after it shipped weapons to Ukraine.

The World Health Organization says it has fired one of its doctors who faced allegations that he had repeatedly engaged in sexual misconduct.

Russia's president and the deposed leader of Afghanistan were among the top gift givers to President Joe Biden and his family in 2021, according to federal documents.

The U.N.’s humanitarian aid and refugee agencies say they are seeking $5.6 billion to help millions of people in Ukraine and 10 countries that have taken in fleeing Ukrainians in the wake of Russia’s invasion of their country nearly a year ago.

The World Health Organization chief says the coronavirus remains a global health emergency.

The Red Cross says it has conducted rare visits with thousands of prisoners on both sides of Yemen’s eight-year-old civil war, a step that could pave the way for an exchange of detainees between the rival parties.

A U.N. body devoted to promoting broader and better access to the internet is about to hold its annual gathering in Ethiopia.

FIFA’s top doctor has highlighted brain injuries in soccer as his top priority ahead of a World Cup where teams can now use an extra substitute if a player has a suspected concussion.

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel has received the U.N. refugee agency’s top award.

Western countries are leading a simultaneous push at the U.N.’s top human rights body to scrutinize human rights in two of the world’s most influential countries: China and Russia.

A team of experts commissioned by the U.N.’s top human rights body to look into rights violations in Ukraine says its initial investigation has turned up evidence of war crimes in the country following Russia’s invasion nearly seven months ago.

Marijuana use is to stay banned at sports events.

An envoy from China’s Xinjiang province says Chinese authorities are ready for a “fight” with “anti-China” critics in the West and elsewhere over allegations of rights abuses in the anti-extremism campaign against Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic groups in the region.

A top Chinese diplomat says China can’t work with the U.N. human rights office after it released a report criticizing Beijing’s policies against Uyghurs and other ethnic groups in western Xinjiang.

Independent U.N. human rights experts are expressing concerns about the adverse impact on the rights of racial and ethnic minorities from the U.S. Supreme Court decision that stripped away constitutional protections for abortion in the United States.

The number of monkeypox cases reported globally dropped by 21% in the last week, reversing a month-long trend of rising infections in a possible sign the outbreak may be starting to decline in Europe, according to an report issued by the World Health Organization on Thursday.

The organizer of the Eurovision Song Contest says that it will start talks with the BBC on possibly holding next year’s event in the U.K. after concluding that it can’t be held in Ukraine.

After five weeks of declining coronavirus deaths, the number of fatalities reported globally increased by 4% last week, according to the World Health Organization.

A veteran Russian diplomat to the U.N. Office at Geneva says he handed in his resignation before sending out a scathing letter to foreign colleagues inveighing against the “aggressive war unleashed” by President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine.

The World Health Organization says the number of new coronavirus cases reported worldwide has continued to fall except in the Americas and Africa.

The World Health Organization says at least one death has been reported in connection with a mysterious liver disease outbreak affecting children in Europe and the United States.

The World Health Organization says the number of new coronavirus deaths reported worldwide fell by 17% in the last week even as COVID-19 infections rose.

An expert group convened by the World Health Organization said it “strongly supports urgent and broad access” to coronavirus vaccines, including booster doses.

The number of new coronavirus cases reported globally dropped by 16% last week, marking a month-long decline in COVID-19 infections, according to figures from the World Health Organization.

An 18th-century icon that a British officer spirited out of war-wracked Cyprus in 1974 has been returned to the island’s Orthodox Church by the officer’s son to reunite it with those “who really appreciate what it stands for.”.

An annual report from the United Nations labor agency has highlighted the work conditions of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in China’s western Xinjiang region.

The head of the World Health Organization says “COVID isn’t finished with us,” as he appealed for extra help to fight the pandemic after his agency reported case counts and deaths fell worldwide over the past week.

The World Health Organization chief says 90 million cases of coronavirus have been reported since the omicron variant was first identified 10 weeks ago, amounting to more than in all of 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Japan's government says it will watch the World Health Organization’s probe into staff complaints over racism and abuse by a top Japanese official but denied it inappropriately received sensitive vaccine information from him.

The World Health Organization says there were 21 million new coronavirus cases reported globally last week.

The head of the World Health Organization is warning that conditions remain ideal for more coronavirus variants to emerge and says it’s dangerous to assume omicron is the last one or that “we are in the endgame.”.

A U.N.-backed group says it has signed agreements with more than two dozen generic drug makers to produce versions of Merck’s coronavirus pill to supply 105 developing countries.

The World Health Organization says the number of new coronavirus cases globally rose by 20% last week to more than 18 million, marking a slowdown in the surge caused by the omicron variant.

The World Health Organization says the number of new coronavirus infections in the last week globally jumped by about 55% although the number of deaths remained stable.

Moscow and Washington both have taken uncompromising stands ahead of more talks amid a Russian troop buildup near Ukraine.

Russia and the U.S. remained far apart after talks aimed at defusing tensions over Ukraine, with Moscow insisting on guarantees to halt NATO’s eastward expansion and even roll back the military alliance’s deployments in Eastern Europe, and Washington firmly rejecting the demands as a nonstarter.

The World Health Organization’s Europe office says projections show its 53-country region could face another 700,000 deaths due to the coronavirus pandemic by next spring, topping 2 million in total.

A Fox News Channel report on comments made by President Joe Biden were edited to remove context to make it seem like he was being racially insensitive.

Two Swiss skiers that do not want to be vaccinated against the coronavirus will miss the first men’s downhill race of World Cup ski season in Canada because the country requires international visitors to have two doses to enter.

The World Health Organization says the number of coronavirus cases has risen in Europe for the fifth consecutive week, making it the only world region where COVID-19 is still increasing.

The U.S. and Russia have agreed to press ahead with arms control and related strategic security talks despite significant differences between the two sides.

The United States and Russia will hold their second round of strategic talks later this week as the two sides attempt to resolve myriad differences ranging from nuclear weapons to cyberspace.

The World Health Organization and its partners hope to provide Africa with about 30% of the COVID-19 vaccines the continent needs by February.

The Biden administration says senior diplomats from the United States and Russia have held “substantive and professional” talks on arms control and other strategic issues despite myriad other differences.

In their search for a new approach to arms control, Moscow and Washington are likely to soon encounter an old bugaboo: Russia’s demand that the U.S. stop resisting limits on its missile defenses.

President Joe Biden has marked his first presidential summit with Russia's Vladimir Putin by giving his counterpart a pair of custom aviator glasses.

U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet in the Swiss city of Geneva on Wednesday morning (EST).

With Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin heading to town, Geneva is returning to the international spotlight as a leading hub for diplomacy and multilateralism, things that were largely shunned by the Trump administration.

Fresh from supportive summits with allies, Joe Biden is declaring himself ready to take on Russia’s Vladimir Putin in far more confrontational talks.

The Kremlin is seeking to temper expectations for next month’s summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Joe Biden but noted the meeting’s significance amid soaring tensions between their countries.

President Joe Biden and Russia’s Vladimir Putin have agreed to meet next month in Geneva.

Bilbao and Dublin have been removed as host cities for this year's European Championship because they could not guarantee having enough fans in stadiums.

The president of the ethnically divided island nation of Cyprus has met with Greece’s prime minister before informal talks to be held in Switzerland next week.

A Swiss project to lay the diplomatic groundwork for future scientific breakthroughs is gathering momentum ahead of a planned international summit.

Results from two experiments in the United States and Europe are shaking the world of particle physics.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, right, and World Trade Organisation (WTO) Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, left, elbow-bump after a joint news conference at WTO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, Thursday, April 1, 2021. (Denis Balibouse/Pool via AP)GENEVA – The head of the World Trade Organization called Thursday for expanded capability in developing countries to manufacture vaccines, saying the gaping imbalance in access to coronavirus vaccines that mostly favors rich, developed countries was unacceptable. “We are convinced that the WTO has a major role to play.”He said France supported “concrete reform” to help improve dispute resolution and ease trade tensions. Le Maire advocated “clear and respected trade rules,” notably on intellectual property, state aid and reciprocity agreements between countries. The United States over successive administrations has held up appointments to the WTO's appeals court, which helps adjudicate trade disputes across the world.

— Wyoming’s governor is rejecting a call by President Joe Biden for states to reimpose mask orders in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Coronavirus cases nationwide are on the rise, but infections in Wyoming have fallen off sharply since December. Tribal health officials said that the United Kingdom strain was confirmed in a sample obtained in the western part of the reservation. State health officials on Monday announced more than 1 million people in the state, about 17% of Wisconsin’s population, have completed their vaccination cycles. AdThe COVID-related hospitalizations dropped to 549 on Monday, far below the pandemic record of 5,082 on Jan. 11, according to the state’s pandemic dashboard.

The state health department said nearly 17,000 people had filled up four days of appointments for the speedway clinic being held Friday through Monday. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- California state prisons will soon resume limited in-person visits with inmates more than a year after they were halted because of the coronavirus pandemic. Museums, aquariums, retail businesses and shops, hair salons and personal care businesses can operate at 100% capacity indoors and outdoors. The three joined neighboring Santa Mateo County on Tuesday as the latest Bay Area counties to move into California’s “moderate” tier for coronavirus restrictions. Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady says the biggest driver behind the increase is young adults.

Gavin Newsom's vision of a uniform COVID-19 vaccine network despite widespread pushback from local health offices. The state has already identified a site in Mesa that will replace the vaccination clinic at Chandler-Gilbert Community College. Kate Brown announced she’ll accelerate Oregon’s COVID-19 vaccine eligibility timeline to allow vulnerable populations to receive shots ahead of May 1. Ron DeSantis says he’s opening COVID-19 vaccines to people age 50 and older on Monday. The governor’s announcement came a day after Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said he’s opening vaccination sites to anyone 40 and older.

CANBERRA, Australia — Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison says he is working with U.S., Indian and Japanese partners to provide emergency coronavirus vaccine to Papua New Guinea. Australia has provided 8,000 AstraZeneca doses from its own stockpile to its nearest neighbor after an explosion of infections in the South Pacific island nation in recent weeks. Morrison said Friday that the European Union has yet to respond to his recent request for 1 million AstraZeneca doses contracted by Australia to be sent to Papua New Guinea as soon as possible. It has an agreement with ImmunityBio, which has a COVID-19 vaccine in clinical trials, to produce the vaccine sometime next year. Biovac, based in Cape Town, has the capacity to produce between 20 million and 30 million vaccines in a year.

The IOC entered into a partnership with the Chinese Olympic committee to buy and provide vaccines for people taking part in the upcoming games in both Tokyo and Beijing. Bach said the IOC would “pay for extra doses” for Olympic and Paralympic participants. The Tokyo Olympics are set to open on July 23, and the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing are scheduled for February. Distribution will be through international agencies or existing vaccine agreements countries have with China, Bach said. China, where the COVID-19 outbreak emerged in late 2019, has actively engaged in vaccine diplomacy, using doses developed by Sinovac and Sinopharm.

It also declined to publicly call out countries — particularly China — for mistakes that senior WHO officials grumbled about privately. Only when WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared a “pandemic” six weeks later, on March 11, 2020, did most governments take action, experts said. Ad“If WHO’s recommendations are not strong enough, we could see the pandemic go on much longer,” he said. With several licensed vaccines, WHO is now working to ensure that people in the world’s poorest countries receive doses through the COVAX initiative, which is aimed at ensuring poor countries get COVID-19 vaccines. AdIrwin Redlener of Columbia University said WHO should be more aggressive in instructing countries what to do, given the extremely unequal way COVID-19 vaccines are being distributed.

(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)GENEVA – A senior World Health Organization official said Monday it was “premature” and “unrealistic” to think the pandemic might be stopped by the end of the year, but that the recent arrival of effective vaccines could at least help dramatically reduce hospitalizations and death. The world’s singular focus right now should be to keep transmission of COVID-19 as low as possible, said Dr. Michael Ryan, director of WHO's emergencies program. “If we’re smart, we can finish with the hospitalizations and the deaths and the tragedy associated with this pandemic” by the end of the year, he said at media briefing. Ryan said WHO was reassured by emerging data that many of the licensed vaccines appear to be helping curb the virus' explosive spread. Tedros also noted that for the first time in seven weeks, the number of COVID-19 cases increased last week, after six consecutive weeks of declining numbers.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas speaks at the foreign ministry in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2021 prior to his attendance of the virtual human rights council in Geneva, Switzerland. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn, pool)BERLIN – Germany's foreign minister on Wednesday urged Iran to accept diplomatic overtures coming from the West in order to preserve the 2015 nuclear accord. "In the end, Iran needs to understand that what’s important is to de-escalate and accept the offer of diplomacy that’s on the table, including from the United States,” Maas said. "But we still want to use these three months, together with other partners in the nuclear agreement, to discuss step by step how the U.S. can return to this accord,” Maas said. "With or without agreements – we will do everything so that you will not arm yourselves with nuclear weapons.”

FILE - In this Tuesday, May 26, 2020 photo released by Nucleus Network/ABC, clinical trial participants are monitored during Novavax COVID-19 vaccine testing in Melbourne, Australia. (Patrick Rocca/Nucleus Network/ABC via AP)MELBOURNE, Australia — Australia’s second-largest city will begin its third lockdown due to a rapidly spreading COVID-19 cluster centered on hotel quarantine. The first of Australia’s 20 million doses of German manufactured Pfizer vaccine is to be administered in late February. Ad___WELLINGTON, New Zealand — New Zealand’s first coronavirus vaccine doses are due to arrive in the country next week, with border workers getting inoculated from Feb. 20, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced on Friday. The state's Health Department said Thursday that wastewater testing in Burlington found the presence of two virus mutations associated with the variant.

A Chinese province grappling with a spike in coronavirus cases is reinstating tight restrictions on weddings, funerals and other family gatherings, threatening violators with criminal charges. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)BEIJING — China is now dealing with coronavirus outbreaks across its frigid northeast, prompting additional lockdowns and travel bans. ___WASHINGTON — President-elect Joe Biden’s incoming White House press secretary says his administration does not intend to lift coronavirus travel restrictions for Europe, the U.K., Ireland and Brazil. ___MADRID — Spain’s Health Ministry has confirmed 84,287 new known coronavirus cases since Friday amid a post-Christmas virus surge. He said 21 people had died from the virus in the past three days, bringing the colony's total virus deaths to 45 since the start of the pandemic.

FILE - April 3 2004, file, Israeli violinist Ivry Gitlis, ambassador to the UNESCO, plays in front of the coffin of late actor and writer Sir Peter Ustinov during the funeral service at St Pierre's Cathedral in Geneva, Switzerland. Ivry Gitlis, an acclaimed violinist who played with famed conductors, rock stars and jazz bands around the world and worked to make classical music accessible to the masses, has died in Paris at 98. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus, File)PARIS – Ivry Gitlis, an acclaimed violinist who played with famed conductors, rock stars and jazz bands around the world and worked to make classical music accessible to the masses, has died in Paris at 98. Gitlis performed with the Rolling Stones and jazz stars, appeared on French television shows and founded a French music festival in the 1970s where listeners ate and slept in a field while listening to music. Among his many worldwide appearances, Gitlis was the first Israeli musician to perform in Soviet Russia, in 1963, according to Le Monde.

FILE - In this June 11, 2009, file photo, the logo of the World Health Organization is seen at the WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The head of the World Health Organization says on Friday, Dec, 18, 2020 the U.N. health agencys program to help get COVID-19 vaccines to all countries in need, has gained access to nearly 2 billion doses of several promising vaccine candidates. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus, File)GENEVA – The World Health Organization program to help get COVID-19 vaccines to all countries in need has access to nearly 2 billion doses of “promising” vaccine candidates, officials said Friday. Of the approximately 12 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines the pharmaceutical industry is expected to produce next year, about 9 billion shots have already been reserved by rich countries. The U.N.-backed COVAX program needs $6.8 billion more to secure vaccine contracts and ensure delivery of allocated doses.

The Pentagon has authorized nearly 50 top civilian and military leaders to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in the coming weeks to prove to the shots are safe and effective. Indoor restaurant dining will continue to be barred under the new state health department order that takes effect Monday. Laura Kelly is expressing little concern over a smaller-than-expected second shipment of a coronavirus vaccine for the state. The state also reported total 2,341 COVID-19 deaths, adding 88 to the tally since Wednesday. ___BERN — The Swiss government is ordering the closure of restaurants, bars, cultural venues and sports facilities next week because of increasing coronavirus cases.

(Siphiwe Sibeko/Pool via AP)BEIJING — China has reported new coronavirus cases in the cities of Shanghai and Tianjin as it seeks to prevent small outbreaks from becoming larger ones. ___RENO, Nevada — The head of the Nevada agency promoting business growth has urged companies to embrace new restrictions as coronavirus cases soar. Kentucky continued setting records with 2,135 new confirmed coronavirus cases reported, the state’s highest daily number on a Monday since the pandemic again. Gary Herbert on Monday relaxed restrictions on social gatherings ahead of Thanksgiving weekend as coronavirus cases and hospitalizations continue to surge. Also on Monday, Spain’s 14-day cumulative number of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 population — a key metric in measuring the pandemic’s spread — has continued to fall.

WHO's confirmation Monday of the figures in the email was the first time it has publicly provided such a count. The email said about half of the infections recorded so far were in people who had been working from home. The revelation comes amid a surge of cases in Europe, host country Switzerland, and the city of Geneva, in particular. Last month, Thomas told WHO staffers the agency was restricting access to its Geneva headquarters to critical staffers, including senior directors, their assistants and management officers. In normal times, an estimated 2,400 people regularly work at WHO’s seven-story headquarters overlooking Geneva.

Yet in public, the U.N. health agency lauded governments for their responses. Instead, the health agency relies on behind-the-scenes talks and the cooperation of member states. Critics say WHO’s traditional aversion to confronting its member countries has come at a high price. WHO also complained in private about Western countries hoarding scarce pandemic supplies. Going forward, WHO’s role in the continued unfolding of the pandemic will depend in part on the panel review.

GENEVA – A senior U.S. government official complained Tuesday that the World Health Organization has not shared enough information about its planned mission to China to investigate the animal origins of the coronavirus. “The (terms of reference) were not negotiated in a transparent way with all WHO member states,” he said via video conference, referring to the mission's criteria. In recent months, a long-planned WHO-led team seeking to investigate the coronavirus’ animal origins in China has stalled. Clark has shied away from criticizing WHO or member states like China for their COVID-19 efforts. ___Follow AP’s coronavirus pandemic coverage at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak