Breaking News, Latest Philippines Headlines, World, Entertainment, Politics, Weather & Video News
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AFP) — The European Union and UK-based drugs giant AstraZeneca announced Friday that they had reached a settlement in a dispute over a shortfall in coronavirus vaccine deliveries. The agreement will see the firm deliver the rest of the 300 million doses it promised under contracts with the EU before the end of March 2022, and brings to an end a battle in the Belgian courts. Brussels was furious when the British-Swedish pharmaceutical […]
by David FOX Agence France Presse KABUL, Afghanistan (AFP) — The Taliban were expected to form a government as early as Friday with the new regime under intense international scrutiny over its vow to rule Afghanistan with greater tolerance, especially on women’s rights. The announcement of a new administration could be made after Friday afternoon prayers, two Taliban sources told AFP, as the Islamists shift gears from insurgent group to governing power, days after […]
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AFP) — An ISIS-inspired terrorist stabbed six people at an Auckland supermarket on Friday before police who had him under surveillance shot him dead, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. “What happened today was despicable, it was hateful, it was wrong,” she said, describing the attacker as a Sri Lankan national who arrived in New Zealand in 2011. © Agence France-Presse
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AFP) — New Zealand police shot dead a man who wounded six people in an attack at an Auckland supermarket on Friday as terrified crowds fled for the exits. Police said the attack occurred when the man entered the Countdown supermarket in the city’s New Lynn suburb as people were doing afternoon shopping. Authorities described that attack as “random” and not terror-related. “Police have located the man and he has been shot. […]
by Abhaya SRIVASTAVA JAIPUR, India (AFP) — Faizuddin is still traumatized from the lightning strike that killed his three friends as they took selfies atop a 400-year-old fort in India, where climate change is making lethal strikes more common. Scores of people have met similarly gruesome ends this year in the western desert state of Rajasthan, where deaths caused by thunderstorms used to be uncommon. “I was hit by three thunderbolts, one after the other,” […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Britain will send four million Covid-19 vaccine doses to Australia, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced Friday, as his country raced to halt a deadly virus outbreak. The Australian leader said the planes delivering Pfizer vaccine doses were “on the tarmac” in the UK and would deliver “four million doses of hope” within weeks. Several of Australia’s largest cities are in lockdown and case numbers and deaths are steadily rising, as the […]
HAGATNA, United States (AFP) — The US Pacific territory of Guam has suspended a program allowing international visitors to receive a Covid-19 vaccination while enjoying a tropical holiday due to a surge in virus cases. The Guam Visitors Bureau this week halted the “Air V&V” — vacation and vaccination — scheme, launched in July in a bid to restart the island’s pandemic-devastated tourism industry. Infection numbers that once made Guam an attractive destination have exploded […]
Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said Friday he will not run for re-election as party leader this month, effectively ending his tenure after just one year, his party’s secretary general said. Suga announced his intention to resign at an emergency meeting of senior members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Toshihiro Nikai told reporters. “Today at the executive meeting, (party) president Suga said he wants to focus his efforts on anti-coronavirus measures and will not […]
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP) — Haitian authorities announced Thursday they will delay the start of the school year in aftermath of last month’s devastating earthquake. Initially scheduled for September 6, schools will open September 21 for the majority of Haitian children in kindergarten through high school. In the three southern departments that were ravaged by the August 14 quake, classes will start on October 4. Prime Minister Ariel Henry said authorities need time to rebuild the […]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrLaT1wyLaE Climate change and increasingly extreme weather events, have caused a surge in natural disasters over the past 50 years disproportionately impacting poorer countries, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) said on Wednesday. According to the agencies’ Atlas of Mortality and Economic Losses from Weather, Climate and Water Extremes, from 1970 to 2019, these natural hazards accounted for 50 per cent of all disasters, 45 per cent […]
by Peter HUTCHISON and Nicolas REVISE NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — Flash flooding caused by the remnants of Hurricane Ida killed at least 41 people in the New York area overnight into Thursday, including several who perished in their basements during the “historic” weather event that officials blamed on climate change. Record rainfall, which prompted an unprecedented flash flood emergency warning for New York City, turned streets into rivers and shut down subway services […]
BOGOTA, Colombia (AFP) — A new coronavirus variant known as “Mu,” identified first in Colombia in January, is now the country’s predominant strain and behind its deadliest pandemic wave yet, a health official said Thursday. The variant was responsible for Colombia’s deadly third infection wave between April and June, health official Marcela Mercado told a local radio station. During this period, with about 700 deaths per day, nearly two-thirds of tests from people who died […]
