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LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson at next week’s G7 summit will urge leaders to commit to vaccinate the whole world against coronavirus by the end of 2022, Downing Street said Saturday. Britain will host the event in Cornwall in southwestern England starting June 11 with leaders of France, Italy, Japan, Germany, the United States and Canada attending. The British prime minister will call on fellow G7 leaders to make […]
LONDON, United States (AFP) — Britain’s medicines regulator said Friday the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is safe for adolescents aged 12 to 15 after a “rigorous review”, following similar assessments in the European Union and United States. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) approved the two-shot jab following clinical trials among younger age groups, saying the vaccine had met the “expected standards” of safety, quality and effectiveness. A government committee on vaccination will now decide […]
by Laurence BENHAMOU MARTEL, France (AFP) — French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that he planned to make “difficult” decisions this summer and again refused to confirm he will seek another five-year term in what is expected to be a hotly contested election next year. “I can’t manage this summer taking it easy,” Macron told a group of pensioners in the southern French village of Martel as part of a nationwide tour. “I’m going to […]
ROME, Italy (AFP) — Italy, one of the European nations hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic, on Thursday opened vaccinations for everybody over the age of 12. Each region can adapt the national rules but technically anyone registered with health authorities can sign up — including teenagers, after the European Medicines Agency approved the Pfizer/BioNTech jab for 12 to 15-year-olds last week. “It’s a beautiful day,” enthused Luigi de Magistris, the mayor of Naples, saying […]
by Robin MILLARD GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The Covax vaccine program secured another $2.4 billion from donors on Wednesday, but underlined it was still struggling to get enough doses to help poorer countries fight the Covid-19 pandemic. The scheme is trying to get enough vaccines for 30 percent of the population in 92 of the poorest participating territories — 20 percent in India — with donors covering the cost. But despite raising more than the […]
SAINT-CIRQ-LAPOPIE, France (AFP) — France will start offering Covid-19 vaccines to all young people aged 12-18 years starting on June 15, President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday. During a visit to the village of Saint-Cirq-Lapopie in southern France, Macron also noted that 50 percent of French adults have now received at least one Covid vaccine jab, calling it “truly a turning point” in the country’s inoculation drive. Vaccine supplies have increased sharply recently, prompting officials to […]
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — More than 90 percent of people in Ethiopia’s war-torn Tigray region need emergency food aid, the United Nations said Tuesday, as it appealed for over $200 million to scale up its response. The UN World Food Programme voiced alarm that the conflict had caused an increase in hunger levels which were already high in Tigray. “A total of 5.2 million people, equivalent to 91 percent of Tigray’s population, need emergency food […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — A Belarusian political activist stabbed himself in the neck on the first day of his trial Tuesday and was rushed to hospital, a rights group said. Viasna, an independent rights group monitoring the trial of Stepan Latypov, said it believed the activist had tried to commit suicide following pressure in detention. Thousands of opposition activists and protesters have been arrested and gone on trial in a harsh crackdown on anti-government demonstrations […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Britain on Tuesday reported zero daily deaths from Covid-19 for the first time since last July, despite a recent rise in cases linked to the Delta variant. According to the latest government figures, 127,782 people in the UK have died within 28 days of a positive test since the start of the pandemic — the worst death toll in any European country. The UK has had 4.49 million cases in […]
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The WHO said Tuesday that only one strain of the Covid-19 Delta variant first detected in India was now considered “of concern”, while two other strains had been downgraded. The B.1.617 variant of the virus, which has in part been blamed for India’s explosive outbreak, has been dubbed a triple mutant variant since it is split into three lineages. The UN health agency last month declared the entire strain a “variant […]
REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AFP) — Iceland’s glaciers have lost around 750 square kilometers (290 square miles), or seven percent of their surface, since the turn of the millennium due to global warming, a study published on Monday showed. The glaciers, which cover more than 10 percent of the country’s land mass, shrank in 2019 to 10,400 square kilometers, the study in the Icelandic scientific journal Jokull said. Since 1890, the land covered by glaciers has decreased […]
by Juliette COLLEN PARIS, France (AFP) — France on Monday opened up Covid-19 vaccines to all adults, a week before Germany, as Europe races to avoid another wave of infections caused by new virus variants. So far, 25.4 million people have received a first shot of a vaccine, representing about 38 percent of the population and nearly one in two adults. Until now, people over 50, workers in professions particularly exposed to the virus and […]
