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Kazakhstan unrest
Kazakhstan’s national security committee says former security chief Karim Massimov has been arrested on suspicion of treason. That comes as tensions run high in the central Asian nation following protests over a fuel price hike. The committee says several other officials were also arrested, without specifying. Massimov was sacked from his post this week after protesters in the main city of Almaty stormed government buildings. Security forces are now said to have taken over the streets of Almaty and other cities after days of violence. The Kazakh government says the unrest has left 44 people dead including security forces and “armed criminals”. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has spoken of an anti-terror operation and ordered law enforcement agencies to fire without warning. The whole country is still under a state of emergency. The unrest began over fuel price hikes but continued despite the government’s resignation.
US hiring slowdown
The US Labor Department says the country added almost 200,000 jobs in December. That is the United States’ worst month of job creation in 2021. Economists had forecast a job growth of double that number. The slump is attributed to a surge of covid-19 cases and re-imposition of restrictions, fueled by the highly contagious Omicron variant. The new strain has sickened millions of Americans and forced airlines to cancel thousands of flights. Many are also reluctant to go back to work. In 2021 the US economy bounced back from the pandemic, but payrolls remain well below their pre-pandemic levels. US employment is still more than 3-million jobs lower than it was in February 2020.
India COVID infections
India reports nearly 142-thousand new covid infections in the past 24 hours, setting another record in its daily case counts. The figure is the highest in India since the end of May. The country already saw its daily case count pass one-thousand mark on Friday for the first time in seven months. Covid cases have been steadily rising in India in recent days due to the Omicron variant. The new strain is overtaking Delta that caused a health crisis there last spring. Restrictions have already taken effect in some cities, including an overnight curfew in the capital New Delhi. India’s total covid infections are now above 35.37 million, one of the highest in the world.
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