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A major fire broke out at South Africa’s seat of parliament in Cape Town early Sunday, sending a thick column of smoke into the sky and threatening the National Assembly building. The fire was believed to have started in one of the older buildings in the parliament precinct, leading to a security cordon nearby the cathedral where anti-apartheid icon Archbishop Desmond Tutu was buried just hours before. “The roof has caught fire and the National […]
France will relax Covid isolation rules from Monday, the government announced, in a bid to ease their impact on society and the economy. Fully vaccinated people who test positive will only have to isolate for seven days regardless of the coronavirus variant they were infected with, but can leave quarantine after five days if they show an antigen or negative PCR test. There will be no quarantine for fully inoculated individuals who have a close […]
Children on French public transport will soon have to wear a face mask from the age of six upwards, the government decreed Saturday, as part of its latest measures against coronavirus. Masks had previously been compulsory from the age of 11, but Paris is tightening regulations given the rapid spread of the Omicron variant. Children aged six and older will have to don a mask on all means of public transport within national borders from […]
Europe has recorded over 100 million coronavirus cases, more than a third of all infections worldwide, since the start of the pandemic, an AFP tally Saturday showed. The continent has once again become the pandemic’s epicentre in recent months, and is battling an upsurge of cases spurred on by the highly transmissible Omicron strain of the virus. The European region, including 52 countries and territories from the Atlantic coast to Azerbaijan and Russia, has recorded […]
Three people are missing after a wildfire tore through several Colorado towns, quickly destroying nearly 1,000 homes as part of the latest in a string of US natural disasters. “We’re very fortunate that we don’t have a list of 100 missing. But unfortunately we do have three confirmed missing people,” Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle told a press conference. At least 991 homes are thought to have been destroyed as the blaze raced through the […]
Britain’s health minister insisted Saturday reimposing coronavirus restrictions in England would be “an absolute last resort” and that the country must “try to live with Covid”. The country is among those in Europe hardest hit by the pandemic, registering nearly 149,000 deaths. It counted almost 163,000 new cases Saturday, a slight dip after days of unprecedented daily tallies. The UK government, which has responsibility for health policies in England only, has so far refused to […]
Extreme weather in Alaska that has brought record high temperatures and torrential downpours has left authorities in the far northern US state warning of “Icemageddon”. Huge sheets of ice are blocking roads and choking traffic in Fairbanks, Alaska’s second largest city, reported the state’s transportation department, which has coined the neologism — a play on “Armageddon” — to describe the chilly impasse. “We’re experiencing an unprecedented series of winter storms,” the department tweeted. Scientists say […]
Air travel continued to be severely disrupted in the United States on Saturday, with bad weather in parts of the country adding to the impact of a massive spike in Covid-19 infections fuelled by the Omicron variant. The United States had 2,604 cancelled flights, more than half of the 4,529 cancelled worldwide, shortly after 4:30 pm (2130 GMT), according to tracking website FlightAware. In addition, 3,447 domestic flights were delayed on Saturday, out of a total […]
by Gildas LE ROUX / Alexandria SAGE ROME, Italy (AFP) — “We are inundated,” Antonino Marchese says wearily as his Rome Covid hospital fills up with patients, most of them unvaccinated despite tougher restrictions for Italians who are not jabbed. As daily coronavirus infections in Italy hit new highs, hospital admissions across the country are surging once again due to the new Omicron variant and the persisting reluctance among some to get vaccinated. At Rome’s […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — England is building temporary hospitals to help cope with rising coronavirus cases, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday issued a stark warning to those not fully vaccinated. The new “surge hubs” would deal with a potential overspill of inpatients as surging virus cases put the country’s health service on a “war footing”, according to officials. Fuelled by the highly contagious Omicron variant, daily cases have ballooned, standing at more […]
by Sebastian Smith with Anna Smolchenko in Moscow WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President Joe Biden on Thursday warned his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin of a tough US response to any invasion of Ukraine, while the Kremlin leader said anti-Moscow sanctions would be a “colossal mistake.” After a 50 minute phone call — their second in just over three weeks — both presidents indicated support for further diplomacy on the tense standoff between Russia and […]
LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — Thousands of people were told to flee fast-moving wildfires in the US state of Colorado on Thursday, as flames tore through areas desiccated by a historic drought. Powerlines toppled by gusting winds sparked a number of small blazes which took hold of the tinder-dry landscape in Boulder County. The 20,000-strong city of Louisville, along with the 13,000 residents of Superior have been told to get out, with the National […]
