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by AFP bureaus BEIJING, China (AFP) — China on Sunday announced it had administered its one-billionth shot in the world’s biggest coronavirus inoculation drive as Brazil’s death toll from the pandemic passed 500,000. The global death toll from Covid-19 is now more than 3.8 million and many nations are still battling outbreaks, but vaccine drives in some countries are allowing activities that were unthinkable a few months ago. China’s vaccine milestone comes after the number […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Moscow has been hit by a historic heat wave this week, with temperatures reaching a 120-year record due to the effects of climate change, Russia’s weather service said Tuesday. On Monday the Russian capital sweated under 34.7 degrees Celsius (94.5 degrees Fahrenheit), according to Roshydromet, matching the record for a June day from in 1901. The weather service, which has kept records since 1881, is forecasting temperatures above 35 degrees Celsius […]
TEL AVIV, Israel (AFP) — Prime Minister Naftali Bennett warned Tuesday of a “new outbreak” of coronavirus in Israel after a rise in infections he said was likely due to returning travellers carrying the Delta variant. “Our goal is to end it, to take a bucket of water and pour it on the fire when the fire is still small,” Bennett said at Ben Gurion airport, where the government announced an expanded testing facility would […]
by Agnes ANYA JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — Indonesia passed two million coronavirus cases Monday as infection rates soar and hospitals are flooded with new patients, prompting warnings that the Southeast Asian nation’s health crisis could spiral out of control. The unwanted milestone comes after daily case rates more than doubled in recent weeks and authorities identified the presence of highly infectious Covid-19 variants. On Monday, official figures showed that Indonesia had recorded a daily record […]
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AFP) — The UAE has quietly launched vaccine tourism, with the emirate of Abu Dhabi offering visitors free jabs after approving the inoculation of all those with visas issued by its authorities. Abu Dhabi has not officially announced that it is vaccinating tourists, but authorities in the emirate said in a brief statement earlier this month that free Covid-19 vaccines were approved for everyone with an “entry visa”. The UAE […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — The US special representative for North Korea on Monday offered to meet with Pyongyang “anywhere, anytime, without preconditions”, with no public contact so far between the Biden administration and the nuclear-armed nation. Sung Kim’s remarks came after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un last week gave his first reaction to Washington’s recent review of its approach to his isolated country, saying Pyongyang must prepare for both “dialogue and confrontation”. The […]
by Sara HUSSEIN TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Tokyo Olympics organisers and Japanese officials meet Monday to decide whether fans will be allowed at the pandemic-postponed Games, just weeks before they open. With the opening ceremony looming on July 23, organisers are scrambling to finalise preparations, but the decision on spectators has been left as late as possible. Overseas spectators have already been banned, in an Olympic first that reflects the difficulties of staging the Games […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — The number of Covid-19 jabs administered in China has passed the one billion mark, health officials said Sunday, more than a third of the doses given worldwide. The announcement by the National Health Commission comes after the number of shots administered globally surpassed 2.5 billion on Friday, according to an AFP count from official sources. It is unclear what percentage of China’s population has now been inoculated but its vaccination […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russia’s capital Moscow on Friday registered 9,056 new coronavirus infections in 24 hours, a record since the start of the pandemic, according to government statistics. Some 9,056 new cases were recorded in the megapolis of 12 million in the past 24 hours, up from 3,000 two weeks ago and a new daily record since the Covid-19 pandemic began in early 2020, according to official statistics. Country-wide, 17,262 new cases were […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — Chinese police have detained eight suspects over a gas blast that killed 25 people and reduced several buildings to rubble in the central city of Shiyan, authorities said Friday. Over a hundred people were injured in the explosion, which struck a busy two-storey building packed with shoppers and people eating breakfast in the Hubei province city on Sunday morning. Eight suspects, including the general manager of the company that owned the […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has said his country needs to prepare for “both dialogue and confrontation” with the United States under President Joe Biden, state media reported Friday. At a plenary meeting of the central committee of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea on Thursday, Kim outlined his strategy for relations with Washington, and the “policy tendency of the newly emerged US administration”, the Korean Central News Agency […]
KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait (AFP) — Kuwait announced Thursday it would allow foreigners who have been fully vaccinated against the novel coronavirus to enter the country from August 1, after a months-long suspension. The Gulf country in February banned the entry of non-citizens in a bid to limit the spread of the virus, but has started to ease some of its Covid-19 restrictions in recent weeks. Government spokesman Tareq al-Mizrem said foreign travelers will need to […]
