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by Santiago PIEDRA SILVA GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador (AFP) — Ecuador is “seriously threatened” by drug trafficking mafias who want to “take control of all the country’s prisons,” President Guillermo Lasso said Monday, after the heads of the armed forces and the prison service quit following jail riots that left 68 people dead. Lasso said a “massive operation” was underway by the police and the army in the overcrowded prison in Guayaquil, where two days of fighting […]
by Aurelia End and Sebastian Smith WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping opened a virtual summit Monday with an appeal for better communication between the superpowers and “guardrails” to avoid conflict. Speaking from the White House to Xi on a television screen, Biden said they must develop “guardrails” to “ensure that the competition between our countries does not veer into conflict, whether intended or unintended.” He said they […]
LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — An apparent drive-by shooting Monday near a Colorado high school left six teenagers in hospital, police said, as the specter of gun violence raised its head again in the United States. Witnesses spoke of around 30 shots being fired, and police said they had recovered multiple rounds of different calibers at a park in Aurora, a municipality in Denver’s suburbs. Aurora Police Chief Vanessa Wilson said there appeared to […]
by Issam AHMED WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The United States denounced Russia on Monday for conducting a “dangerous and irresponsible” missile strike that blew up one of its own satellites, creating a debris cloud that forced the International Space Station’s crew to take evasive action. Washington wasn’t informed in advance about the test, only the fourth ever to hit a spacecraft from the ground, and will talk to allies about how to respond, said […]
SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — Video gaming platform Roblox is using its massive popularity amongst younger players to support projects that weave educational video games into school programs, the company said Monday. With its Lego-like avatars and easy-to-learn coding for budding programmers, the online gaming app has become a thriving clubhouse for young gamers, most of them no older than 16. Roblox is already a venue where students learn computer coding skills while designing […]
OTTAWA, Canada (AFP) — Relentless rain battered Canada’s Pacific coast on Monday, forcing a town’s evacuation and trapping motorists as mudslides, rocks and debris were washed across major highways. “Heavy rains and subsequent mudslides/flooding have impacted various highways in the BC interior,” British Columbia’s transportation ministry said on Twitter. Rescuers were deployed to free people trapped for hours in 80-100 cars and trucks between two mudslides near the town of Agassiz, the province’s safety minister, […]
by Julia ZAPPEI and Blaise GAUQUELIN VIENNA, Austria (AFP) — Austria on Monday became the first country in the European Union to impose a lockdown on the unvaccinated and start inoculating children as young as five after coronavirus cases surged across the continent. Infection rates have surged, placing Western Europe once again at the heart of the global epidemic and governments are being forced to take action, with the Netherlands already announcing the region’s first […]
Austria will begin a lockdown for people not vaccinated against Covid-19, a first in the EU as the Alpine member fights a record surge in cases, Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg said on Sunday. About 65 percent of Austria’s almost nine million people are vaccinated, below the EU average of 67 percent, while daily increases in infections have hit records this week. Other European governments are also eyeing unpopular Covid curbs, with the Netherlands opting for Western […]
JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israel gave the green light Sunday to start vaccinating children aged between five and 11 against Covid-19 using Pfizer/BioNTech jabs, following the example of the United States. “The director general of the ministry of health… authorised the vaccination of children aged five to 11 years,” the health ministry said in a statement. Israel was one of the first countries to launch a vaccination campaign last year using the jabs thanks to a […]
DAMASCUS, Syria (AFP) — China donated 500,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccine on Sunday to war-torn Syria, which has one of the world’s lowest inoculation rates and what the UN called an alarming rise in cases. The latest shipment raises to almost two million the number of such deliveries to Syria in a week. Less than two percent of Syria’s population have been vaccinated and cases of infection are spiking, United Nations under secretary-general Martin Griffiths […]
TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — Two strong earthquakes struck southern Iran within 90 seconds Sunday, killing at least one person and sparking scenes of panic, official sources said. The 6.4 and 6.3 magnitude earthquakes hit at a depth of 15 kilometres (9.3 miles)in Hormozgan province, the Iranian seismological centre said. A 22-year-old man was killed by a falling electricity pole, Iranian Red Crescent chief Mehdi Valipour told state television. He said several teams have been deployed […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — British police announced the arrest of three men after a car exploded in front of Liverpool Women’s Hospital, in the city centre, killing one man and injuring another on Sunday morning. The three men, aged 29, 26 and 21, were arrested in Liverpool’s Kensington district under the anti-terrorism laws, Greater Manchester Police said in a tweet. The man killed in the blast has not yet been identified, the statement said. […]
