* Russia said on Wednesday it was ordering US Embassy staff who have been in Moscow for more than three years to fly home by Jan. 31, a retaliatory move for a US decision to limit the terms of Russian diplomats.
* The United States will delay its deal to remove tariffs on UK steel and aluminum because of concerns about post-Brexit trade rules affecting Northern Ireland, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.
* Iran has started producing enriched uranium with more efficient advanced centrifuges at its Fordow plant dug into a mountain, the U.N. atomic watchdog said on Wednesday, further eroding the 2015 Iran nuclear deal during talks with the West on saving it.
* Energy ministers from European Union countries meet on Thursday to debate their response to high gas and electricity prices, with countries still divided over whether the recent price spike should be met with an overhaul of energy market rules.
* The Mexican and US international development agencies will work together on a project in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador aimed at alleviating the root causes of migration, Mexico's foreign ministry said on Wednesday.
* Authorities in Indonesia have tightened border curbs, extended quarantine and limited movement on strategic toll roads, in a preemptive move to limit the spread of the Omicron COVID-19 variant should it reach Southeast Asia's largest country.
* The new Omicron variant of the coronavirus is likely to soon spread to other countries in North and South America after being detected in Canada and Brazil, the Pan American Health Organization said.
* Japan's transport ministry has cancelled its blanket ban on accepting new reservations for inbound flights and asked airlines to accommodate the needs of returning Japanese, the government spokesperson said on Thursday.
* France is stepping up its COVID-19 booster vaccination campaign and tightening entry rules for arrivals from outside the European Union in response to the spread of the Omicron variant, a government spokesman said.
* Germany reported the highest number of deaths since mid-February as hospitals warned the country could have 6,000 people in intensive care by Christmas.
* Mexico's health regulator Cofepris said it had approved US pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly and Co's antibody treatment against COVID-19 for emergency use with infected patients at risk from comorbidities.
* Australia's tally of people with the new Omicron variant of COVID-19 edged higher on Thursday, prompting state governments to bolster domestic border controls as health experts wait to learn more about the dangers posed by the strain.
* The Swedish Public Health Agency said on Thursday it could impose new restrictions as early as next week to fight the coronavirus pandemic and a rising tide of infections.
* The number of foreign tourists coming to Spain jumped five-fold in October from the same month a year ago to 5.13 million as reduced travel restrictions encouraged visitors, official statistics showed on Thursday.
* The United Arab Emirates reported its first case of the new COVID-19 variant Omicron for an African woman arriving from an African country through an Arab country, according to state news agency WAM.
* A senior Botswana health official said 16 of the total 19 cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant detected in the country were asymptomatic, while President Mokgweetsi Masisi said travel bans on its citizens were unfair and unjustified.
* The European Union-wide rollout of Pfizer and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine version for five- to 11-year-old children will begin Dec 13, one week earlier than previously planned, Germany's health ministry said.
* Britain said on Wednesday it had agreed deals to buy 114 million more Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccine shots, saying it had sped up signing the new contracts in light of the emergence of the new Omicron variant.
* Moderna Inc could have a COVID-19 booster shot targeting the Omicron variant tested and ready to file for US authorization as soon as March, the company's president said.
* Two NASA astronauts were set to embark on a spacewalk on Thursday to replace a faulty antenna on the International Space Station (ISS), after a 48-hour delay prompted by an orbital debris alert later deemed to be of no concern.
* Several thousand Haitian migrants have camped outside a stadium in the southern Mexican city of Tapachula, pleading to be transferred to other states and given authorization to travel freely through Mexico and seek employment.
