Famine remains a "terrifying prospect" for 45 million people living in 43 countries

Oil prices were also weighed down by a new coronavirus variant

Google announced that it will ban political advertising on its platform in the run-up to Philippine elections.

Industries awaiting details to determine how variant may affect operations, profits

Xiaomi said it would commit to investing $10 billion in a new electric car division

Delay of meeting in Geneva, concerns over Omicron variant complicate plans

Longer term implications of new variant for US assets unclear

More than 55,000 customers experienced power cuts

Varient has a spike protein that is dramatically different to original coronavirus that COVID-19 vaccines are based on

Numbers still remain far below norm; Thailand received 40 million arrivals in 2019