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BRUSSELS, Belgium (AFP) — The Belgian government said Monday it intends to make any coronavirus vaccine available to around 70 percent of the population, some eight million people, and free of charge. The jab will not be compulsory, added Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke as he and regional counterparts attended an interministerial health conference. “The objective is to vaccinate at least 70 percent of the population. Priority groups will be determined on the basis of scientific […]
BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday failed to push through additional curbs to combat the coronavirus, as she said ongoing restrictions have helped to halt a runaway rise in infection numbers. Speaking after talks with the leaders of Germany’s 16 states, Merkel said the country had managed to “break the dynamic of new infections” after restaurants, leisure facilities and cultural sites were ordered to close again from the start of November. But […]
by Pia OHLIN with AFP bureaus Agence France Presse STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AFP) — The European Union expressed hope Wednesday that it could start vaccinating people against the novel coronavirus as early as next year, as Italy recorded more than one million cases and Britain said its death toll has surpassed the 50,000 mark. The head of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Andrea Ammon, told AFP that a vaccination programme could […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine is 92 percent effective according to initial test results, its developers said on Wednesday, as Moscow races against its competitors in the West. The calculations were based on results from 16,000 individuals who received both doses of the vaccine, Russia’s health ministry, the state-run Gamaleya research center and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) said in a statement. “The Sputnik V vaccine had an efficacy rate […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine is 92 percent effective according to initial test results, its developers said on Wednesday, as Moscow races against its competitors in the West. The calculations were based on results from 16,000 individuals who received both doses of the vaccine, Russia’s health ministry, the state-run Gamaleya research centre and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) said in a statement. “The Sputnik V vaccine had an efficacy rate […]
MADRID, Spain (AFP) — Spain’s coronavirus death toll surged to over 40,000 on Wednesday with infections passing the 1.4 million mark, while the rate of new cases continued to grow, health ministry data showed. With 349 people dying in the past 24 hours, the death toll now stands at 40,105 in Spain, which has the fourth-highest death rate within the European Union after the United Kingdom, France and Italy. Spain passed the grim landmark a […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — Several people were wounded Wednesday in a bomb attack at a World War I commemoration ceremony attended by European diplomats at a non-Muslim cemetery in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, France’s foreign ministry said. “The annual ceremony commemorating the end of World War I at the non-Muslim cemetery in Jeddah, attended by several consulates, including that of France, was the target of an IED attack this morning, which injured several people,” the ministry […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — This year’s hurricane season has seen a record 29 named tropical storms wreak havoc across the southeastern United States, the Caribbean and Central America, experts said on Tuesday. The cyclonic storms, which are given named status in the Atlantic when their wind speeds exceed 62 kilometers per hour (39 miles per hour), have already displaced thousands and caused close to $20 billion of damage. The US National Hurricane Center tweeted that […]
by Catherine Marciano and Ella Ide VATICAN CITY (AFP) — The Vatican admitted Tuesday that late pope John Paul II ignored advice against promoting US clergyman Theodore McCarrick to cardinal given rumours of sexual misconduct against him that were later substantiated. The admission was made in the 450-page findings of a two-year investigation into who knew what about McCarrick’s abuse of at least one teenage boy and a number of male seminarians. The latest in […]
ROME, Italy (AFP) — The Italian government imposed tighter restrictions on another five regions on Tuesday as it tries to stem escalating new cases of coronavirus, while still resisting a nationwide lockdown. A total of seven out of Italy’s 20 regions are now so-called “orange” zones, signifying medium-high risk, after a new decree signed by Health Minister Roberto Speranza overnight. Abruzzo, Basilicata, Liguria, Tuscany and Umbria join Sicily and Puglia in closing bars and restaurants, […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — Pope Francis’s former envoy to France, Luigi Ventura, goes on trial in Paris on Tuesday for sexual assault following complaints by five men who accused him of groping them during public ceremonies. The allegations against the 75-year-old Italian-born archbishop caused deep embarrassment for the Vatican, coming in the midst of a slew of revelations about clerical sex abuse that have rocked the Catholic Church. Ventura was stripped of his diplomatic […]
by Agnès PEDRERO GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The World Health Organization’s chief called Monday on everyone to keep fighting Covid-19, warning that while we may be sick of battling the pandemic, the virus is “not tired of us”. Speaking to WHO’s main annual assembly, which resumed Monday after being cut short in May, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also hailed the election of Joe Biden as the next US president, voicing hope it could signal tighter global […]
