Europe

New Zealand’s Ardern defends virus elimination policy

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AFP) — New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern defended her “Covid zero” elimination strategy Thursday amid fears an outbreak of the highly transmissible Delta variant has rendered the previously successful policy ineffective. A Delta case emerged in Auckland last week, ending a six-month run without local transmission in New Zealand, one of the world’s last Covid-free zones. That infection has since ballooned into the largest cluster the country has recorded throughout the […]

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France seeks to evacuate ‘several hundred’ more from Kabul: Macron

DUBLIN, Ireland (AFP) — France is still seeking to evacuate hundreds more people from Afghanistan ahead of a looming deadline, President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday, warning of an “extremely risky” situation in the wake of blasts around Kabul airport. “We will do everything we can” to bring to France Afghan citizens and dual nationals who had been in its embassy and are currently outside the perimeter of the airport in 20 buses, Macron said […]

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Spain working to evacuate ‘as many as possible’ from Afghanistan: PM

MADRID, Spain (AFP) — Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Thursday condemned the deadly attack outside Kabul airport and said Madrid was working to “evacuate as many people as possible” out of Afghanistan. “Spain strongly condemns the attack suffered today at the Kabul airport. Our heartfelt solidarity with the victims,” he said in a tweet. “The international community stands with the Afghan people, ensuring their rights and dignity. We are working to evacuate as many […]

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WHO experts say urgent search for Covid origins ‘stalled’

by Natalie HANDEL PARIS, France (AFP) — The search for the origins of the Covid pandemic that has killed millions and crippled economies is at a standstill even as time is running out, scientists charged with the task by the UN warned Wednesday. An initial report by the team of independent, international experts sent to China by the World Health Organization in January concluded that it was most likely that the SARS-CoV-2 virus jumped from […]

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G7 demands Taliban ‘guarantee’ safe passage from Kabul after Aug 31

LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — The Taliban must “guarantee” safe passage for those fleeing Afghanistan beyond the current August 31 evacuation deadline, the G7 agreed Tuesday, according to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Johnson, who convened the emergency meeting, said that he and his colleagues had agreed “a roadmap for the way in which we’re going to engage with the Taliban” in the future. But he added that the “number one condition” was “to guarantee… […]

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Kabul evacuation flight arrives in Belgium

MELSBROEK, Belgium (AFP) — A charter flight arrived at a Belgian air base outside Brussels on Monday carrying 193 people escaping the chaos in Kabul. The Air Belgium jet brought the escapees — including Belgians and Afghans who worked for international missions — from an Islamabad base acting as a staging post for Belgium’s military airlift from the Afghan capital. AFP and other media at the Belgian air base saw people disembarking from the plane […]

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People evacuated as new wildfire hits Greek island

ATHENS, Greece (AFP) — Scores of firefighters backed by water-dropping aircraft battled a forest fire that broke out early Monday on the southern part of Greece’s Evia island, less than two weeks after an inferno decimated its northern part. The fire was burning near the village of Fygia where two neighborhoods have been evacuated and was moving toward the coastal tourist village of Marmari, where authorities were preparing boats to evacuate people if needed, according […]

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Putin warns of influx of Afghan militants disguised as refugees

Russian President Vladimir Putin urged his country Sunday to prevent an influx of refugees from Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover, saying militants could enter under the guise of seeking asylum. “Our Western partners are persistently raising the question of placing refugees in Central Asian countries before obtaining visas to the United States or other countries,” he told a meeting of officials of the ruling United Russia party. “But who is among these refugees? How can […]

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Russian rocket launches 34 new UK satellites

A Russian Soyuz rocket has blasted into space carrying 34 new satellites from British operator Oneweb, which aims to provide broadband internet everywhere in the world. The rocket operated by Europe’s Arianespace took off successfully at 2213 GMT Saturday from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the Roscosmos space agency said in a statement. It was the fifth launch of OneWeb satellites this year, with the last one on July 1. OneWeb is working to complete […]

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Swedish PM Stefan Lofven to step down in November

Sweden’s beleaguered Social Democratic Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said Sunday he would step down in November to allow a successor time to prepare for the country’s September 2022 general election. Lofven was reinstated as prime minister by parliament in early July just weeks after being ousted in a historic vote of no confidence. He told a political rally on Sunday he would “leave my position as party chairman at the party’s congress in November and […]

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People dying in wait outside Kabul airport: report

The bodies of at least three people were seen in the sweltering crush outside Kabul airport, television news footage showed on Saturday, as thousands try desperately to flee Taliban rule in a chaotic evacuation. The footage from Britain’s Sky News showed soldiers covering three bodies in white tarpaulins. It was not clear how they died. Sky reporter Stuart Ramsay, who was at the airport, said that people at the front of the crowd were being “crushed” […]

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US tells citizens to avoid Kabul airport due to ‘security threats’

The United States on Saturday urged its citizens in Afghanistan to avoid traveling to the Kabul airport, citing “potential security threats” near its gates. The warning from the US embassy in Kabul provided no detail on the danger, but a White House official later confirmed that aides had briefed President Joe Biden on “counterterrorism operations” in Afghanistan, including against the Islamic State group. Conditions outside Hamid Karzai International Airport have been chaotic amid the crush […]

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