Is omicron leading us closer to herd immunity against COVID-19?

Experts say it's not likely that the highly transmissible variant — or any other variant — will lead to herd immunity.

Russia began evacuating its embassy in Kyiv, and Ukraine urged its citizens to leave Russia on Wednesday as the region braced for further confrontation after President Vladimir Putin received authorization to use military force outside his country and the West responded with sanctions.

Hopes for a diplomatic way out of a new, potentially devastating war in Europe appeared all but sunk as the U.S. and key European allies accused Moscow on Tuesday of crossing a red line in rolling over Ukraine's border into separatist regions — with some calling it an invasion.

While the world's attention has been focused on Ukraine, the Biden administration also has been racing with world powers toward restoring the 2015 international nuclear deal with Iran.

After months of negotiations in Vienna, the various sides have indicated a new deal is close, perhaps in the coming days. But instead of the "longer, stronger" agreement originally promised by the U.S., the deal is expected to do little more than reinstate the original pact, whose key restrictions on Iranian nuclear activity expire in a few years.

A team of Jordanian and French archaeologists said that it had found a roughly 9,000-year-old shrine at a remote Neolithic site in Jordan's eastern desert.

The ritual complex was found in a Neolithic campsite near large structures known as "desert kites," or mass traps that are believed to have been used to corral wild gazelles for slaughter.

The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Tuesday to end Iraq's requirement to compensate victims of its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, with Baghdad having paid out more than $50 billion to 1.5 million claimants.

Michael Gaffey, Ireland's ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva and president of the governing board of the U.N. Compensation Commission, whose fund decided on the claims, told the council after the vote that the body's work was a "historic achievement for the United Nations and for effective multilateralism."

After keeping a low profile in the military and diplomatic standoff between Moscow and Kyiv due to its close ties with both, Israel says it supports the territorial integrity and the sovereignty of Ukraine.

A statement Wednesday from Israel's foreign ministry expressed concern about the "serious escalation" in eastern Ukraine, where Moscow is formally recognizing the independence of two pro-Russian breakaway regions.

Oman's foreign minister arrived in Tehran on Wednesday for talks with his Iranian counterpart, state media reported, as nuclear talks between Iran and world powers continue in Vienna.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian welcomed Sayyid Badr Albusaidi upon his arrival, with the visit scheduled to focus on bilateral and international affairs, the IRNA news agency said.

World leaders sought Wednesday to back up their tough words over Russia's aggression against Ukraine, announcing financial sanctions, trade and travel bans and other measures meant to pressure Moscow to pull back from the brink of war.

Even as they ramped up penalties, however, nations in Asia and the Pacific also prepared for the possibility of both economic pain, in the form of cuts to traditional energy and grain supply lines, and retaliation from Russian cyberattacks.

Israel fired several surface-to-surface missiles toward Syrian military positions in the country's south early Wednesday causing material damage, state media reported.

State TV quoted an unnamed Syrian military official as saying that the missiles were fired from Syria's Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, and struck areas around the nearby town of Quneitra.

Russian lawmakers on Tuesday authorized President Vladimir Putin to use military force outside the country -- a move that could presage a broader attack on Ukraine after the U.S. said an invasion was already underway there.

Several European leaders said Russian troops rolled into rebel-held areas in eastern Ukraine after Putin recognized their independence. But it was unclear how large the deployment was, and Ukraine and its Western allies have long said Russian troops were fighting in the region, allegations that Moscow always denied.