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LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — The UK government on Monday announced £5.4 billion (6.3 billion euros, $7.5 billion) in extra funding for the state-funded healthcare system to treat virus cases and clear a massive backlog in routine operations. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and health minister Sajid Javid announced the extra cash, to be handed out over the next six months, saying it would help “manage the immediate pressures of the pandemic”. The state-funded National Health […]
HELSINKI, Finland (AFP) — Finland’s last coronavirus restrictions will be lifted once 80 percent of over-12s have been fully vaccinated, the government said Monday, a target it expects to reach by October. “Our aim is to open up society and keep it open,” Prime Minister Sanna Marin told reporters in Helsinki after a cabinet meeting on the country’s coronavirus strategy. “The advancing vaccination coverage is our key to achieving that,” Marin said, adding that restrictions […]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrLaT1wyLaE Climate change and increasingly extreme weather events, have caused a surge in natural disasters over the past 50 years disproportionately impacting poorer countries, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) said on Wednesday. According to the agencies’ Atlas of Mortality and Economic Losses from Weather, Climate and Water Extremes, from 1970 to 2019, these natural hazards accounted for 50 per cent of all disasters, 45 per cent […]
BARCELONA, Spain (AFP) — Hours of heavy rains triggered flooding in eastern Spain on Wednesday with some coastal areas overwhelmed by flash floods that washed away cars and trees. One of the worst-hit areas was Alcanar, a town 200 kilometers (160 miles) south of Barcelona, where huge torrents of fast-moving water surged through the streets, sweeping away everything in its path. Two major roads in the area were cut off and the local train service […]
MADRID, Spain (AFP) — One of the global frontrunners in vaccination against the coronavirus, Spain on Wednesday it had fully vaccinated just over 70 percent of its 47 million residents. According to the latest figures released by the Spanish health ministry, some 33,376,693 people have been completely vaccinated, or 70.3 percent of the population. “70 percent of Spain’s population is now fully vaccinated,” Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez tweeted as the figures were released, thanking the […]
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The World Health Organization has said it is monitoring a new coronavirus variant known as “Mu”, which was first identified in Colombia in January. Mu, known scientifically as B.1.621, has been classified as a “variant of interest”, the global health body said Tuesday in its weekly pandemic bulletin. The WHO said the variant has mutations that indicate a risk of resistance to vaccines and stressed that further studies were needed to […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Ireland on Tuesday announced that it will fully reopen on October 22 after 18 months of rolling lockdowns introduced to limit coronavirus infections. “The time is now right to begin the move from regulation and widespread restrictions on people’s personal freedom, to an approach primarily defined by public health advice, personal behaviour, judgement and responsibility,” prime minister Micheal Martin said in a televised broadcast. From September 6, there will be […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday said Britain owed “an immense debt” to Afghans who worked with NATO forces as he announced “vital support” for those resettling in the UK. But his government is coming under fire after thousands of Afghans who helped NATO and are eligible to move to Britain under the “Relocations and Assistance Policy” were believed to be have been left stranded in Afghanistan, where they are […]
MILAN, Italy (AFP) — Fire ripped through a 20-storey residential building in Milan, northern Italy, on Sunday, leaving rescue workers scrambling to make sure no one had been caught in the spectacular flames and thick smoke. The blaze started on the upper floors of the tower on the southern outskirts of the capital of the Lombardy region. “The flames then spread to the lower levels,” causing thick smoke, the fire services said on a Twitter […]
ATHENS, Greece (AFP) — Around 7,000 people protested in Athens on Sunday against a new rule obliging health workers to get vaccinated against Covid-19, said police who fired teargas to quell violence among the demonstrators. The rule change, which came into effect on Wednesday requires that all personnel working in hospitals be vaccinated. The demonstrators waved Greek flags and brandished placards declaring: “We are not against vaccines, but against fascism” and “Long live democracy”. “It’s […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — A total of 160,000 people protested across France on Saturday, the interior ministry said, angered at the country’s Covid health pass system which they say unfairly restricts the unvaccinated. By early evening the authorities had logged 222 separate protest actions, including 14,500 people who turned out in Paris. Sixteen people were arrested and three police officers slightly injured in what was the seventh consecutive weekend of Covid protests. “The vaccine isn’t […]
by Laurence Benhamou BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFP) — French President Emmanuel Macron is among leaders set to attend a regional summit Saturday in Iraq, with the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan and a deadly jihadist attack in Kabul overshadowing the meeting. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Jordan’s King Abdullah II are due at the Baghdad summit, while the foreign ministers of arch-foes Iran and Saudi Arabia will also be present. Organizers have been tight-lipped on the […]
