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HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Hong Kong will ban evening dining at restaurants and close fitness centres, the city’s leader said Tuesday, as part of new measures aimed at stemming a fourth wave of coronavirus infections. Chief Executive Carrie Lam said the rules aim to reduce the “number of people on the streets”, echoing moves taken by authorities when cases spiked earlier this year. Dining out will be banned after 6 pm, beauty and massage […]
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — Indonesia has received 1.2 million doses of a Covid-19 vaccine made by China’s Sinovac, officials said, as the world’s fourth most populous nation struggles to get soaring case rates under control. The doses arrived in Jakarta late Sunday on a flight from Beijing, with another 1.8 million expected to be sent again next month. Although Chinese regulators have yet to clear any of country’s vaccines for mass distribution, they have approved […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinovac Biotech has secured half a billion dollars in extra funding to produce its Covid-19 vaccine, it said Monday, as the country races to roll out a jab for general use. Beijing has largely brought the virus under control, with only 281 active cases still receiving treatment, according to official figures. But it has promised to make its vaccines available as a “global public good” as it seeks […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — Twenty-three miners have been confirmed dead after an accident at a coal mine in southern China, state media reported, with only one person rescued. A carbon monoxide leak on Friday evening at the Diaoshuidong mine in the city of Chongqing left 18 miners confirmed dead the next day as rescue efforts continued. But state media said Sunday that the toll had risen to 23 with only one survivor. The accident occurred […]
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AFP) — US and Chinese companies dominated the global arms market in 2019, while the Middle East made its first appearance among the 25 biggest weapons manufacturers, a report by the SIPRI research institute said Monday. The US arms industry accounted for 61 percent of sales by the world’s “Top 25” manufacturers last year, ahead of China’s 15.7 percent, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Total sales by the “Top 25” […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Moscow on Saturday began vaccinating workers at high risk of becoming infected with the coronavirus at newly opened clinics across the city. Health officials said they had opened 70 coronavirus vaccine centres in the Russian capital that would initially offer jabs for health, education and social workers. “Citizens from the main risk groups who in connection with their professional activities come into contact with a large number of people can get […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping sent condolences on Friday over the death of former French president Valery Giscard d’Estaing, state television reported, calling him a “remarkable French statesman”. The former president died on Wednesday from Covid-19 aged 94, at his family’s estate. Xi expressed “deep condolences” to his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, state media said, adding that the former president had “loved Chinese culture”. Giscard “actively encouraged friendly exchanges and cooperation […]
by Ahmad Parhizi TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — Iran said its novel coronavirus infections surpassed one million cases on Thursday, as the authorities consider easing restrictions in many parts of the Middle East’s hardest hit country. The Islamic republic has recorded 1,003,494 Covid-19 infections since announcing its first cases in February, ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said on state television. The novel coronavirus has killed 49,348 people in Iran over the same period of time, according […]
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AFP) — Sri Lanka and southern India battened down the hatches for the second time in a week on Wednesday ahead of the scheduled arrival of another cyclone from the Bay of Bengal. Burevi will pack gusts of up to 100 kilometres (60 miles) an hour when it makes landfall late on Wednesday in Sri Lanka before moving west and hitting India around 24 hours later, forecasters said. Warning of a storm […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan will give free coronavirus vaccines to all of its residents under a bill passed Wednesday, as the nation battles record numbers of daily cases. The bill, which says the government will cover all vaccine costs for Japan’s 126 million residents, was approved by the upper house of parliament, having cleared the powerful lower house. The country has secured Covid-19 vaccines for 60 million people from pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, and for […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — A Chinese court jailed 53 people on Monday after convicting them on charges including bribery and negligence over a massive chemical factory explosion in eastern China last year that killed 78 people. The blast in Jiangsu province in March 2019 was one of the worst industrial accidents in the country in recent years, and led to the closure of the plant. Executives and employees of Jiangsu Tianjiayi Chemical company received sentences […]
HANOI, Vietnam (AFP) — Vietnam reported its first local transmission of Covid-19 in nearly three months on Monday, with officials scrambling to prevent a wider outbreak in the country’s most populous city. The communist nation was applauded earlier this year for controlling the pandemic with strict restrictions on movement, extensive quarantine measures and a robust track-and-trace regime. But late on Monday the health ministry announced that that it had detected coronavirus in a 32-year-old man […]
