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MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday said the scale of natural disasters that have hit Russia this year has been “absolutely unprecedented”. Speaking at a video conference with officials on the effects of Siberia’s record-setting forest fires, he said it was “important” to work on the climate agenda “systematically.” While Siberia sees an annual wildfire season each summer, the fires have burned with an increasing intensity in recent years, which Russian […]
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP) — A 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti on Saturday, the United States Geological Survey said, prompting a tsunami alert and damaging buildings in the west of the disaster-plagued Caribbean nation. The epicenter of the quake was about 100 miles (160 kilometers) by road from central Port-au-Prince, the densely populated capital. The long shock was felt in neighboring countries. The quake damaged schools as well as homes on Haiti’s southwestern peninsula, according to […]
by Dmitry ZAKS ISTANBUL, Turkey (AFP) — The death toll from Turkey’s flash floods soared to at least 38 on Friday as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited one of the hardest-hit cities to lead a prayer for the victims and pledge government help. The devastation across Turkey’s northern Black Sea regions came just as the disaster-hit country was gaining control over hundreds of wildfires that killed eight people and destroyed swathes of forest along its […]
OTTAWA, Canada (AFP) — The Canadian government announced Friday it will require all federal workers and most commercial rail, air and ship passengers to get vaccinated against Covid-19, amid a surge in virus cases due to the Delta variant. “We know that vaccines are the best way to end this pandemic,” said Dominic LeBlanc, a government minister in charge of Canada’s federal bureaucracy. “We expect federal public servants to want to comply with this mandatory […]
GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala (AFP) — Guatemala has declared a new state of emergency and will impose an overnight curfew from Sunday to contain a surge in Covid infections due to the Delta variant, President Alejandro Giammattei said. The 30-day state of emergency is being implemented due to a rebound in cases attributed to the “more aggressive” Delta variant, Giammattei said in a televised address on Friday. “The Delta variant is highly contagious. It is causing […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russia on Saturday recorded its highest daily coronavirus death toll for a third day running, as the country continues to struggle with the Delta variant amid sluggish vaccination rates. A government tally showed 819 fatalities over the past 24 hours and 22,144 new cases. Russia, the fourth worst-hit country in the world in terms of cases, has since mid-June been hit by a new wave of infections driven by the aggressive […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — More than a million people were urged to seek shelter as torrential rain triggered floods and landslides in western Japan on Saturday, leaving at least one dead and two missing. Authorities in Hiroshima and the northern part of Kyushu issued their highest evacuation alert as the weather agency reported unprecedented levels of rain in the area. Under the non-compulsory alert, around 1.4 million residents have been asked to leave their […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The US Department of Homeland Security issued a new terrorism threat advisory on Friday ahead of the anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks and amid a resurgence of the coronavirus pandemic. The National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin said the United States faces a “heightened threat environment” from both domestic terrorists “and those inspired or motivated by foreign terrorists and other malign foreign influences.” It cited increased use of “online […]
by Elise BLANCHARD Agence France Presse KABUL, Afghanistan (AFP) — The Taliban seized more major cities on Friday as they raced to take full control of Afghanistan and inched closer to Kabul, with the United States and Britain deploying thousands of troops to evacuate their citizens from the capital. The evacuation orders came as the Taliban took control of Kandahar — the nation’s second-biggest city — in the insurgency’s heartland, leaving only […]
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AFP) — Masks will no longer be required on Danish public transport, the government said on Friday, as the Nordic country lifted the last of its compulsory face-covering regulations. “We are now in a situation… where a large part of the population has been vaccinated and we are returning to a more normal everyday life,” transport minister Benny Engelbrecht said in a statement. From Saturday, “We can say goodbye to masks on buses, […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russia on Friday recorded its highest daily coronavirus death toll for a second day running, as a third wave of infections persists despite efforts from authorities to boost vaccinations. A government tally showed 815 fatalities over the past 24 hours and 22,277 new cases. Russia, the fourth worst-hit country in the world in terms of cases, has since mid-June been hit by a new wave of infections driven by the highly […]
by Miodrag SOVILJ PIROT, Serbia (AFP) — Almost twenty years ago, Panta Petrovic made social distancing a lifestyle choice when he moved into a tiny Serbian mountain cave to avoid society. Last year, on one of his visits to town, the dreadlocked man with a long beard found out there was a pandemic raging. After vaccines against Covid-19 became available, he got jabbed and urges everyone to do the same. “It (the virus) does not […]
