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It’s official: From Saturday, Austrians over the age of 18 must be vaccinated against Covid-19 or face the possibility of a heavy fine, an unprecedented measure in the European Union. The new measure, adopted on January 20 by Parliament, was signed into law by President Alexander Van der Bellen on Friday, the culmination of a process that began in November in the face of the rapid spread of the Omicron variant. The government decided to […]
MADRID, Spain (AFP) — Spain will end the mandatory use of face masks outdoors on February 8, a minister said Friday, ending a measure reimposed in late December to tackle a surge in Omicron cases. The measure will be approved at Tuesday’s cabinet meeting, Health Minister Carolina Darias told Cadena Ser radio. Spain first imposed obligatory mask-wearing outdoors in May 2020, but lifted it in June last year, although wearing a face covering was still […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — French pharmaceutical group Sanofi posted strong 2021 sales on Friday and expects another good performance in 2022, as the popularity of its asthma therapy offset setbacks in developing a Covid vaccine. While Sanofi has yet to produce a jab against Covid, its Dupixent drug, which also treats eczema, has been a huge success, with the drug recording double-digit sales growth. The company posted overall sales of 37.8 billion euros ($43.3 billion) […]
NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — India’s official death toll from Covid-19 crossed 500,000 on Friday, even as many experts flag underreporting of cases across the country. The daily update from the country’s federal health ministry showed the number of fatalities reaching 500,055, up 1,072 in the previous 24 hours. Total infections stood at 41.9 million, according to the statistics, second only to the United States. Case numbers have jumped in recent weeks due to […]
KABUL, Afghanistan (AFP) – The United Nations has demanded the Taliban provide information on two more women activists allegedly detained by the group this week — bringing to four the number missing this year. Since returning to power in August the Taliban have cracked down on dissent by forcefully dispersing women’s rallies, detaining critics and beating local journalists covering protests. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said late on Thursday it had sought […]
SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) – Athletics giant Nike filed a lawsuit in New York on Thursday against shopping platform StockX for creating and marketing NFTs — the tamper-proof digital property certificates — based on the brand’s products without permission. The company’s lawyers accused US-based StockX of “minting” NFTs using Nike trademarks and trading on the brand’s “goodwill” to market them. StockX is “selling those NFTs at heavily inflated prices to unsuspecting consumers who believe […]
WASHINGTON, D.C., United States (AFP) – Authorities in the US city of Minneapolis, where George Floyd was murdered in 2020, published body-cam video Thursday showing the police shooting of a 22-year-old African American man. According to the police, Amir Locke was shot on Wednesday by officers who were executing a search warrant on the apartment he was in, after Locke pulled a gun from beneath a blanket. The total time between the officers’ entrance and […]
BAB BERRED, Morocco (AFP) – Moroccan rescuers raced against the clock on Friday to save a young boy trapped in a deep well for almost three days, in an operation that has gripped the kingdom with hundreds of thousands anxiously glued to live broadcasts. Relief operations intensified for five-year-old Rayan, who fell down a 32-metre (100-foot) deep well on Tuesday, as darkness fell with diggers clawing out dirt under floodlights to create a hole next […]
PANAMA CITY, Panama (AFP) – Panamanian authorities announced Thursday that as part of an operation to disrupt a sex trafficking ring, 10 children were rescued and three people in Panama and Costa Rica were arrested. “The victims in this case range between the ages of four and 16 and the people involved are close relatives” of the minors, said Emeldo Marquez, a senior Panamanian prosecutor. He explained that the relatives “facilitated” the shipment of the […]
BRAZZAVILLE, Congo (AFP) — Africa must boost the vaccination rate against Covid-19 “six times” to reach the target of 70 percent vaccine coverage set for the end of the first half of 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Thursday. Africa has received “more than 587 million vaccine doses” but it “is still struggling to expand rollout, with only 11 percent of the population fully vaccinated”, explained the WHO regional office for Africa. “The world […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — China’s President Xi Jinping is poised for his first face-to-face meeting with a world leader in nearly two years on Friday when he hosts Russia’s Vladimir Putin, with the pair drawing closer as tensions grow with the West. Xi has not left China since January 2020, when the country was grappling with its initial Covid-19 outbreak and locked down the central city of Wuhan where the virus was first detected. He […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President Joe Biden said Thursday that the leader of the Islamic State group had been “taken off the battlefield” during a raid by US forces in Syria. “Last night at my direction, US military forces in northwest Syria successfully undertook a counterterrorism operation to protect the American people and our allies, and make the world a safer place,” Biden said in a statement. “Thanks to the skill and bravery of […]
