Heidi Huang, a Chinese businesswoman, said she was grateful for Thailand's reopening program Test and Go after she returned from a recent business trip to Dubai.

Instead of spending several days in quarantine, the 23-year-old from Zhejiang province said she could move about freely in Bangkok after she received her negative COVID-19 test result, the day after she arrived on Dec 6.

Huang is one of the fortunate ones. On Dec 21 Thailand announced it was suspending the approval of new applications for its quarantine exemption programs for foreign visitors from Dec 22 for at least two weeks. This was a day after the country reported the first locally transmitted case of the Omicron variant.

Thailand, one of the first countries in Asia to reopen for foreign travelers, began to allow quarantine-free entry of fully vaccinated tourists from 63 countries and regions, including China, on Nov 1.Eligible travelers need to prepare a number of documents, including a Thailand Pass that generates a QR code for entry to visit Thailand under the Test and Go program.

However, like Thailand, countries in the region that have been gradually moving toward reopening, albeit with strictures and protocols of varying stringency, are now facing uncertainties caused by Omicron, the new coronavirus variant. It appears to be more transmissible than Delta and has spread to 110 countries as of Dec 22, according to the WHO.

On Wednesday the World Health Organization warned that Omicron still poses "very high" risk and could overwhelm healthcare systems, as the highly transmissible variant fueled record outbreaks in many countries.

On Dec 18, Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said that his country would extend its ban on the arrival of all foreigners until at least early next year to prevent the spread of Omicron, Kyodo News reported.

Singapore's Ministry of Health said on Dec 22 that the city-state would freeze all new ticket sales for arrivals under the vaccinated travel lane program from Dec 23 to Jan 20.

Despite the uncertainties caused by the emergence of Omicron and other potential new variants, Christopher Khoo, managing director of MasterConsult Services, an international tourism consultancy, said reopening is not an option, but rather a question of when and how.

"Many (countries), in slowly and cautiously reopening, will do so at a pace they are comfortable with, bearing in mind the state of their healthcare and public health infrastructure," Khoo said, noting the travel and tourism industry has been severely hit by the pandemic.

Progress, though small, has been made toward an eventual recovery by the region's tourism industry. For example, the consumer confidence index of the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, according to the Bangkok Post on Dec 20, showed Thailand's reopening helped to boost people's sentiments, with a third consecutive monthly increase recorded in November, which was also a seven-month high.

The Straits Times reported that the number of passengers passing through Singapore Changi Airport crossed the 5 percent mark of pre-pandemic levels for the first time in November as the launch of vaccinated travel lanes, totaling 24 by Dec 16, had resulted in a gradual return of passengers since September.

Only 45 international tourists visited Bali between January and October, compared with more than 1 million last year and about 6 million in 2019, according to Bali province figures. The globally renowned Indonesian island province reopened to international travelers in mid-October after 80 percent of its population was fully vaccinated.

In general, the pace of recovery in the Asia-Pacific region remains slow as tourist arrivals fell 95 percent year-on-year in the third quarter of this year, as many destinations remained closed to nonessential travel, according to the World Tourism Organization of the UN. In comparison, there was a fall of 53 percent in Europe and 60 percent in the Americas.

Rajiv Biswas, Asia-Pacific chief economist at the global consultancy IHS Markit, said the region has been successful with its vaccination distribution, and a new wave of infections driven by the Delta variant has eased considerably in many countries in the past three months.

'Fresh uncertainties'

However, "the new Omicron variant has created fresh uncertainties about the outlook", Biswas said. GDP growth across the Asia-Pacific region is estimated at 6 percent because of the rebound in domestic private consumption amid an easing of pandemic-related measures, he said.

"Omicron is the new Delta that preoccupies us," said Lim Wee Kiat, associate director of the Centre for Management Practice at Singapore Management University, noting close monitoring and decisive actions will be needed for dealing with the new variant.

Lim, a disaster sociologist by training, said people must remember that Omicron is not the first variant of concern and will probably not be the last. "Governments still need to work with one another and within their societies to ensure all of us can balance the multiple priorities swiftly and wisely."

Khoo of MasterConsult said it is important to avoid lifting and reintroducing anti-pandemic restrictions too frequently because it will be disruptive to society.

"Omicron may slow down the reopening but it won't entirely halt or derail it," Khoo said, adding that he hopes COVID-19 can become an endemic like the common cold by the end of next year or in mid-2023.

Biswas of IHS Markit said Omicron could create some near-term disruption to Asia-Pacific economies early next year but said he does not expect it to derail the gradual reopening of many economies.

Huang, the Chinese businesswoman, said she realized how serious the impact on Thailand's tourism industry was when sales representatives in a shop took more than an hour to give her a tax refund form on her purchase because they were unfamiliar with the process. "They told me I was the first foreign tourist in their shop in two years."

Thailand ranked eighth among top destinations globally in 2019, with nearly 40 million international tourist arrivals, the World Tourism Organization said. China was a key source market for the tourism-dependent country.

Unveiling the findings in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution on Dec 16, researchers warned that of the world's 7,000 recognized languages, around half are endangered.

Titled "Global predictors of language endangerment and the future of linguistic diversity" the study was led by the Australian National University in Canberra.

Felicity Meakins, a professor from the University of Queensland's School of Languages and Cultures and one of the co-authors of the study, described the diversity of world languages as "truly breathtaking" but said that many of them are now under great threat of being lost forever.

"Of the 7,000 languages still spoken, nearly half are at risk of disappearing completely," Meakins told China Daily.

Most of them are spoken and the language is passed on from generation to generation, she said. "Nothing is written down."

Meakins, whose research is focused on Australian aboriginal languages, said Australia "has the dubious distinction of having one of the highest rates of language loss worldwide".

Prior to colonization in 1788, more than 250 First Nations, or aboriginal, languages were spoken on the continent, and multilingualism was the norm, she said.

"Now, only 40 languages are still spoken and just 12 are being learnt by children."

Meakins said it is important to keep the languages alive as it helps in the well-being of people.

"Take away their language you are taking away a people's identity and their sense of who they are and where they belong."

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation estimates that of the nearly 7,000 languages spoken worldwide, at least 40 percent are in danger of disappearing.

In Australia, as in other countries that were colonized by the English — such as Canada and New Zealand — indigenous people were not allowed to speak their language. Children were taken from their families and raised by Christian groups speaking only English.

First Nations languages in Australia need funding and support, according to Meakins.

"Australia only spends A$20.89 ($15.08) annually per capita of the indigenous population on languages, which is abysmal compared with Canada's A$69.30 and New Zealand's A$296.44," she said.

Lindell Bromham, a professor at the ANU's Research School of Biology, said: "Without immediate intervention, language loss could triple in the next 40 years. And by the end of this century, 1,500 languages could cease to be spoken."

The study charts the wide range of factors putting endangered languages under pressure.

One finding is that more years of schooling increased the level of language endangerment. The researchers say it shows the need to build curricula that support bilingual education, fostering both indigenous language proficiency as well as use of regionally dominant languages.

"Across the 51 factors or predictors we investigated, we also found some really unexpected and surprising pressure points. This included road density," Bromham said.

"Contact with other local languages is not the problem. In fact, languages in contact with many other indigenous languages tend to be less endangered.

"But we found that the more roads there are, connecting country to city, and villages to towns, the higher the risk of languages being endangered. It's as if roads are helping dominant languages 'steamroll' smaller languages."

As the world enters the UNESCO Decade of Indigenous Languages in 2022, the study's findings are a vital reminder that more action is urgently needed to preserve "at-risk languages".

"When a language is lost or is 'sleeping' as we say for languages that are no longer spoken, we lose so much of our human cultural diversity. Every language is brilliant in its own way," Bromham said.

"Many of the languages predicted to be lost this century still have fluent speakers, so there is still the chance to invest in supporting communities to revitalize indigenous languages and keep them strong for future generations."

Linguists say languages usually reach the point of crisis after being displaced by a socially, politically, and economically dominant one. In this scenario, the majority speaks another language such as English, Mandarin, French, German or Spanish, and speaking that language is key to accessing jobs, education, and opportunities. Minority languages tend to be pushed into the background and in many cases disappear altogether.

Speakers of minority languages have suffered a long history of persecution. Well into the 20th century, many Native American children in Canada and the United States were sent to boarding schools, where they were often forbidden to speak their native language.

Today, many English-speaking Americans are still hostile towards non-English speakers, especially Spanish ones.

In Canada and Australia there are moves to try and reverse the trend, but the vast majority of native languages have already disappeared.

China's ambassador to the United Nations on Wednesday called for countries to address Afghanistan's humanitarian situation and stabilize its economy as soon as possible.

"The current situation in Afghanistan is at a critical stage, facing multiple arduous and complex challenges," Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the UN, said in explaining China's vote for the Security Council draft resolution on humanitarian assistance to the war-torn country.

"The most important task is to help Afghanistan mitigate the humanitarian crisis the soonest and to stabilize and restore the economy," he said.

"As a friendly neighbor of Afghanistan, China has always been most concerned about its well-being and has been actively taking actions to help the Afghan people."

He noted that because of international sanctions, some international humanitarian agencies are not sure whether they can continue to provide assistance to Afghanistan.

"Such doubts are unnecessary because humanitarian aid should not be conditional, nor should it be politicized under any circumstances," Zhang said. "The sanctions by the Security Council only target certain individuals and entities, not the Afghan people at large.

"Nevertheless, as long as the appropriate actions of the Security Council help to clarify doubts and facilitate the timely, smooth and unhindered delivery of humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan, China will certainly look at them favorably."

However, Zhang pointed out that the original draft resolution deviated from the right track.

"Not only does it not facilitate humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan, it even adds to the obstacles," he said. "The original draft posits that only those aid activities carried out within a certain period will not violate the Security Council sanctions. It also sets up an onerous reporting mechanism for humanitarian aid agencies and incorporates many other irrelevant propositions that may restrict economic cooperation with Afghanistan."

Zhang said that any action of the Security Council should genuinely promote and facilitate humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan, instead of setting artificial restrictions and conditions.

The envoy emphasized that the provision that humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan will not violate the Security Council resolutions only if it falls within the time limits is legally, politically and logically problematic.

"It has been China's conviction that humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan should stick to the right track and direction. To this end, China has been constructively engaged in the consultations and put forward specific amendments," Zhang said.

"We are glad to see that the final draft has reflected the views of China and clarified the key issues."

The resolution notes in explicit terms that the intention is to provide clarity to ensure the continued provision of assistance in the future, that humanitarian assistance and other activities that support basic human needs in Afghanistan are not a violation of the sanctions resolution of the Security Council, Zhang said.

"With the adoption of this resolution, the confusion on and the obstacles to continuing the humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan can be cleared away once and for all," he said.

Zhang said the UN's appeal for humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan for next year has reached a historical high of $4.5 billion, but that there is great uncertainty about how much of that will materialize.

"We call on the international community, especially major donors, to step up assistance by actively providing financial support. The countries that caused the current crisis in Afghanistan are more obliged than others to take the lead and assume the primary responsibilities," he said.

He said Afghanistan's economy is seriously short of liquidity and on the verge of collapse.

"China will continue to promote the export of Afghanistan's agricultural products to China and play a greater role in helping Afghanistan's economic reconstruction with concrete actions," said Zhang.

The Security Council on Wednesday unanimously adopted the draft resolution on humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan.

Seventeen missionaries representing Christian Aid Ministries, including 16 Americans and one Canadian, were kidnapped by armed men on Oct 16 while driving through the suburb of Croix des Bouquets, just outside the capital Port-au-Prince. The hostages ranged in age from 8 months to 48.

The group's members had been returning from visiting an orphanage and were headed back to their home base when they were seized by the 400 Mawozo gang. 

The leader of the gang had threatened to kill the hostages unless his demands were met. Authorities had said the gang was demanding $1 million per person, although it wasn't immediately clear if that included the children in the group. 

The hostages' release followed weeks of negotiations with 400 Mazowo, police spokesman Gary Desrosiers told Agence France-Presse. It remained unclear Thursday whether any ransom was paid.

Two of the 17 missionaries were released on Nov 21. Two weeks later, three more were released. A source in Haiti's security forces said the remaining hostages were released early Thursday in the neighborhood of Morne Cabrit and were found by locals who alerted authorities. 

Carleton Horst, a member of the Hart Dunkard Brethren Church in Hart, Michigan, knows several of those who had been kidnapped because they are connected to the church. After church members learned of the hostages' release, Horst told National Public Radio he was "feeling great and relieved".

"Today is the day we have been hoping for, praying for, and working so hard to achieve," said Congressman Bill Huizenga, whose western Michigan congressional district includes Hart. "I want to thank members of the hostage-negotiation team for their diligence in securing the safe release of all the hostages. This is a great day for families in Michigan and across the nation who have been worried about the safety of their loved ones," Huizenga said.

In addition to Michigan, the hostages are from Wisconsin, Ohio, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Oregon and Ontario, Canada, according to the missionary group. 

Kidnappings for ransom in Haiti are widespread and often indiscriminate, targeting rich and poor, young and old. Rising crime has accompanied the country's political instability, with kidnappings spiking in the months after the July assassination of President Jovenel Moise, according to local human rights organization CARDH. 

Michèle Montas, a Haitian journalist and former UN spokesperson, told CBS News "the kidnapping of these American missionaries and their prolonged detention have brought the attention of the world on the deteriorating security situation in Haiti". 

Her husband,  Jean Dominique,  was killed in 2000 after the couple founded Radio Haiti, the country's leading news outlet.

"Kidnappings have become a daily occurrence. Gangs are controlling access to Port-au-Prince from the southern part of the country," Montas said. "The Mawozo gang that kept the foreign missionaries captive northeast of the capital has been attacking passenger buses, taking their belongings from them, with a police force unable to control the situation and a de facto government totally powerless in controlling the security situation."

"We approved the proposal of WestVac Biopharma Co., Ltd. to conduct third-phase trials for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate last month after it submitted all the necessary documents," Namita Ghimire from the Nepal Health Research Council (NHRC) told Xinhua on Saturday. "The trials will be conducted among people aged 18 and above."

It is the second China-made vaccine and the third COVID-19 vaccine overall to be authorized for late-stage clinical trials in Nepal.

In August, a messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine jointly developed by China's Suzhou Abogen Biosciences, the Institute of Military Medicine under the Academy of Military Sciences and Walvax Biotechnology Co., Ltd. was greenlighted for trials in the country.

"We have already given approval to WestVac Biopharma Co., Ltd. for the import of its vaccine candidate and conducting clinical trials in Nepal," said Santosh K.C from the Department of Drug Administration.

WestVac Biopharma applied for Nepali trials in August. Ghimire said it was informed that the Chinese company could start trials from January next year.

Bitcoin hit multiple new highs this year as more institutional buy ins gain strength. Along with this, people's interest has soared well beyond investors’ circles and into the larger culture. And it’s arguably just getting started. LA's iconic Staples Center is about to be renamed Crypto.com.

So what's in store for this breakthrough asset next year?

Join Steven Ehrlich, Forbes director of research for digital assets, and Michael del Castillo, Forbes senior editor, today at 2PM EST to learn what's next for crypto. In addition, they'll also discuss the breakthrough moments for the asset class this year. 

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• What are the issues and trends that defined crypto’s 2021?

• How was crypto impacted by inflation and the broader macroeconomic climate?

• Why did crypto stocks become so popular and how do they fit into a portfolio?

• Who were the biggest stars and disappointments over the last year?

• What were the biggest regulatory developments over the last year?

• What’s ahead for crypto in 2022?

At the end of the session you'll have the opportunity to ask Steven and Michael any questions you may have.