- Salah happy wherever career ends after inspiring Liverpool rout
- Three and easy as Dortmund move into Bundesliga top six
- Liverpool hit Spurs for six, Man Utd embarrassed by Bournemouth
- Netanyahu vows to act with 'force, determination' against Yemen's Huthis
- Ali hat-trick helps champions Ahly crush Belouizdad
- Salah stars as rampant Liverpool hit Spurs for six
- Syria's new leader says all weapons to come under 'state control'
- 'Sonic 3' zips to top of N.America box office
- Rome's Trevi Fountain reopens to limited crowds
- Mbappe strikes as Real Madrid down Sevilla
- Pope again condemns 'cruelty' of Israeli strikes on Gaza
- Lonely this Christmas: Vendee skippers in low-key celebrations on high seas
- Troubled Man Utd humiliated by Bournemouth
- 2 US pilots shot down over Red Sea in 'friendly fire' incident: military
- Man Utd embarrassed by Bournemouth, Chelsea held at Everton
- France awaits fourth government of the year
- Death toll in Brazil bus crash rises to 41
- Odermatt stays hot to break Swiss World Cup wins record
- Neville says Rashford's career at Man Utd nearing 'inevitable ending'
- Syria's new leader vows not to negatively interfere in Lebanon
- Germany pledges security inquest after Christmas market attack
- Putin vows 'destruction' on Ukraine after Kazan drone attack
- Understated Usyk seeks recognition among boxing legends
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- Cyclone Chido death toll rises to 94 in Mozambique
- Stokes out of England's Champions Trophy squad
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- Sweet smell of success for niche perfumes
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UK says proposed pandemic treaty 'not acceptable'
A proposed World Health Organization treaty on preparing for future pandemics is currently "not acceptable" to Britain, a UK health minister said on Tuesday.
The WHO's 194 member states have spent two years trying to reach a landmark global agreement on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response following the devastation caused by Covid-19.
Despite showing a desire for commitments aimed at preventing another Covid-style disaster, big differences have emerged between country blocs on how to achieve them.
Nations decided to keep negotiating for another two weeks after their deadline passed on Friday without agreement.
"The current text is not acceptable to us, therefore unless the current text is changed and refined we will not be signing up," Conservative minister Andrew Stephenson told the UK parliament.
He said that Britain would only accept the accord "if they are firmly in the United Kingdom's national interest" and "respect our national sovereignty".
"Under no circumstances will we allow the WHO to have the power to mandate lockdowns, this would be unthinkable and has never been proposed.
"Protecting our sovereignty is a British red line," he added.
While general agreement has been found on some of the 37 articles -- without formally signing off on them -- the core aspects remain deadlocked.
They revolve around access to pathogens detected within countries and to pandemic-fighting products such as vaccines produced from that knowledge, and equitable distribution of counter-pandemic tests, treatments and jabs, along with the means to produce them.
Stephenson said it was "simply not true" that Britain would give away a fifth of its vaccines in a future pandemic under any deal.
"Of course we are a generous country. Companies may make their own choices to donate vaccines, but this would be and should be entirely their decision," he added.
A health spokesman for the main Labour opposition, tipped to win a general election due later this year, said his party "would not sign anything which would leave our population unprotected in the face of a novel disease".
Talks have been taking place behind closed doors in Geneva.
It is hoped that a deal can be sealed by the WHO's annual assembly, which opens on May 27.
C.Amaral--PC