WHO chief urges countries to complete pandemic agreement

WHO member states meeting at the UN health agency's Geneva headquarters have until Saturday to thrash out the trickiest bit of the entire treaty -- the nuts and bolts of how a vital portion of the text will work in practice. "We must get this done. The next pandemic will not wait," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus insisted. He urged nations not to fall for the "dangerous temptation" to opt for yet more negotiating time, as the "increasingly unfavourable climate" would only mean "this will get harder, not easier".