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by Christophe VOGT Agence France Presse GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The head of the World Health Organization apologized Tuesday after independent investigators probing allegations of sexual abuse in the DR Congo by the UN agency’s staff issued a damning indictment citing “clear structural failures” and “individual negligence”. “The first thing I want to say to the victims and survivors… I am sorry,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference. “It is my top priority […]
by Claire LEE Agence France Presse SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — Nuclear-armed North Korea fired a presumed short-range missile into the sea on Tuesday, the South’s military said, as Pyongyang’s UN ambassador insisted it had an undeniable right to test its weapons. The projectile was fired from the northern province of Jagang into waters off the east coast, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, and a Japanese defence ministry spokesman told AFP […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russia on Tuesday recorded its highest daily coronavirus death toll yet, following an increase in cases linked to the Delta variant and a lacklustre vaccination drive. A government tally reported 852 fatalities over the past 24 hours, a record in Russia since the start of the pandemic. The new figure brings the country’s total deaths from Covid-19 to 205,531 — the highest in Europe. Authorities have been accused of downplaying […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — A coronavirus state of emergency targeting nightlife in Tokyo and other Japanese regions will end this week, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said Tuesday, as cases nosedive nationwide. The emergency measures, which largely limit alcohol sales, restaurant opening hours and crowd sizes at large events, have been in place for much of the year, including during the Olympics. They are due to expire at the end of September, and Suga said there […]
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AFP) — At least 16 people were injured, including four seriously, in an explosion that tore through an apartment building in Swedish city Gothenburg early Tuesday, authorities said. Emergency responders added that the blast did not look like an accident, in a country that has suffered dozens of actual or attempted bombings linked to violent criminal gangs in recent years. Ambulances, fire trucks and emergency crews swarmed the scene on Tuesday morning as […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi said Tuesday it was stopping work on an mRNA vaccine against Covid-19 despite positive test results as it lags behind rivals on producing a coronavirus shot. The company said it would focus instead on another type of jab it is developing with British drug maker GlaxoSmithKline and which is in the final phase of human trials. Sanofi’s mRNA vaccine — the ground-breaking technology used by rivals Pfizer/BioNTech […]
ZHUHAI, China (AFP) — China on Tuesday showed off its increasingly sophisticated air power including surveillance drones and jets able to jam hostile electronic equipment, with an eye on disputed territories from Taiwan to the South China Sea and rivalry with the United States. The country’s biggest airshow, in the southern coastal city of Zhuhai, comes as Beijing pushes to meet a 2035 deadline to retool its military for modern warfare. China still lags the […]
UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) — North Korea’s ambassador to the UN told the General Assembly on Monday that “nobody can deny” the nuclear-armed country the right to test weapons. Kim Song’s comments at the world body headquarters in New York came just moments after South Korea’s military said the North had fired an “unidentified projectile” into the sea off its east coast. “Nobody can deny the right to self-defense for the DPRK to develop, […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US pharmaceutical company Pfizer said Monday it had begun a clinical trial to test an influenza vaccine designed with the same mRNA technology behind its successful Covid-19 shot. The idea is to improve on the current generation of flu vaccines that have an efficacy of 40-60 percent against a disease that can cause up to 650,000 deaths a year. “The Covid-19 pandemic allowed us to deliver on the immense scientific […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Joe Biden received a Covid-19 vaccine booster on Monday and told Americans still resisting the shots that they are damaging the country. Biden rolled up his left sleeve in the White House and got a third Pfizer dose in line with the recently approved health guidance, which allows boosters for those 65 or older. “I know it doesn’t look like it, but I am over 65,” Biden, 78, […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — Nuclear-armed North Korea fired an ‘unidentified projectile’ into the sea off its east coast, the South’s military said Tuesday. No further details were immediately available from the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. The launch comes just days after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s influential sister Kim Yo Jong, a key adviser to her brother, dangled the prospect of an inter-Korean summit. But she insisted that “impartiality” and mutual respect […]
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AFP) — The International Criminal Court’s new chief prosecutor said Monday he wants to focus his investigation in Afghanistan on the Taliban and Islamic State-Khorasan, and to “deprioritise” alleged war crimes by US forces. Karim Khan said he had asked judges to allow him to relaunch the probe — put on hold last year at the request of Kabul’s then-government — because the Taliban takeover in August meant there was “no longer […]
