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by Ana FERNANDEZ, Ed JONES and Eleonore SENS NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — Nine children were among at least 19 people killed and dozens injured when a fire tore through a high-rise apartment building in New York on Sunday in one of America’s worst residential fires in recent memory. Witnesses reported seeing trapped residents screaming for help from windows during the deadly inferno that the city’s fire chief said had been caused by a […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — The number of Covid-19 cases soared by nearly two thirds across the world this week, but pandemic-linked deaths continued to drop. Here is the global state of play from an AFP database: – Nearly two million daily cases – The average number of new daily coronavirus cases increased to 1.94 million, a 64 percent increase compared to the previous week, according to an AFP count to Thursday. The confirmed […]
More than 5,000 people have been arrested in Kazakhstan over the riots that have shaken Central Asia’s largest country in the last week, Kazakh authorities were quoted as saying Sunday. In total, 5,135 people have been detained for questioning as part of 125 separate investigations into the unrest, according to the interior ministry quoted by local media. The energy-rich country of around 19 million people has been rocked by a week of riots with dozens […]
by Nina Larson with Shaun Tandon in Washington Russia ruled out Sunday any concession at talks with the United States on soaring tensions over Ukraine as Moscow seeks a wide-ranging new security arrangement with the West but faces strong pressure to pull back troops. Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov told Russian news agencies ahead of his talks in Geneva the Kremlin was also “disappointed” with signals coming from both Washington and Brussels, where NATO […]
More than 150,000 people have died after catching coronavirus in the United Kingdom, the government said Saturday, in a tragic milestone for one of the worst affected countries in Europe. Prime Minister Boris Johnson posted a message on Twitter saying: “Coronavirus has taken a terrible toll on our country and today the number of deaths recorded has reached 150,000.” The government reported that deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid test had reached 150,057 […]
by Christopher RICKLETON As protesters armed with sticks and discarded police shields prepared to storm the mayor’s office in Kazakhstan’s largest city Almaty, they marched to chants of “old man out!” They were not referring to President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, 68, but Nursultan Nazarbayev, the octogenarian who after more than a quarter-century in office picked career diplomat Tokayev as his loyalist successor in 2019. Since Kazakhstan’s independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Nazarbayev has been […]
A 5.9-magnitude earthquake struck off eastern Papua New Guinea on Sunday, the United States Geological Survey said. The quake hit at a depth of 19 kilometres (12 miles) at 0205 GMT in the Solomon Sea, around 200 km off the southern coast of New Britain island, according to the USGS. There were no immediate reports of damage or tsunami warnings. Papua New Guinea sits on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, which is a hotspot […]
https://youtu.be/BgxmhTHnvbQ by Lucie AUBOURG The most powerful space telescope ever built completed a tricky two-week-long deployment phase Saturday, unfolding its final golden mirror panel, as it readies to study every phase of cosmic history. Engineering teams in the James Webb Space Telescope’s control room cheered as confirmation came back that its final wing was deployed and latched into place. “I’m emotional about it — what an amazing milestone,” Thomas Zurbuchen, a senior NASA engineer, said […]
At least seven people were killed and three were missing after a cliff collapsed onto boats carrying tourists on a lake in Brazil, authorities said Saturday. Rescue teams including a dive squad and members of the Brazilian Navy rushed to Furnas Lake in Minas Gerais state, where panicked tourists had watched helplessly as a large rock fragment broke off a ravine and plunged atop three boats. The latest official toll is “seven dead and three […]
World number one Novak Djokovic has languished in a Melbourne detention centre since Thursday morning after having his Australian visa cancelled over his Covid-19 vaccine status. The 34-year-old, who is hoping to defend his Australian Open title and win a record 21st Grand Slam title, faces being deported if he loses a court appeal scheduled for Monday. AFP looks at how the drama, which has reverberated around the world, has unfolded: Tuesday, January 4 — […]
A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 6.6 struck China’s remote northwestern Qinghai province early Saturday, the US Geological Survey said. The epicentre of the quake, which struck at about 1:45 am (1745 GMT) at a shallow depth of 10 kilometres (six miles), was located about 140 kilometres north-northwest of the city of Xining, US seismologists said. A 5.1-magnitude aftershock followed about 25 minutes later, USGS said. The China Earthquake Networks Center put the magnitude […]
by Matthew WALSH BEIJING, China (AFP) — At least three people died when an explosion caused a building to collapse Friday in the Chinese city of Chongqing, state media reported. The blast at 12:10pm (0410 GMT) was triggered by a suspected gas leak and brought down a neighbourhood committee building housing a canteen, trapping 27 people, state news agency Xinhua said. As of 6pm, 13 people had been pulled from the rubble, three of whom […]
