The head of the World Health Organization on Monday chastized high-income countries for undermining the international Covax initiative when trying to secure Covid-19 vaccines for their own populations.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison was among those at the front of the vaccination queue on Sunday, receiving a Covid-19 jab ahead of the start of the country’s national roll-out.

World leaders stepped up their commitments on Friday to fighting the pandemic by speeding up the roll-out of vaccinations across the globe amid the growing threat posed by new mutations of the deadly coronavirus.

US President Joe Biden has pledged up to four billion dollars to support the Covax programme to share Covid-19 vaccines fairly between richer and poorer countries.

A Lebanese court ordered the removal of the judge investigating the Beirut port blast and the case to be assigned to another judge, state-run media and a judicial source said on Thursday.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for “a global vaccination plan” against Covid-19 in an impassioned speech at a UN Security Council meeting on Wednesday, describing the rollout so far as “widely uneven and unfair.”

Leading US Democrat Nancy Pelosi has announced an “independent” investigation into the storming of the Capitol building in Washington on January 6.

Senior Nigerian economist Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was appointed head of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Monday in Geneva.