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PUEBLA, Mexico (AFP) — A giant sinkhole that was expanding by dozens of meters each day has alarmed residents in a rural area of central Mexico where it was threatening to swallow a house. When the Sanchez family heard a loud crash on Saturday they first thought that it was a lightning strike. But they soon discovered that the ground had collapsed just meters from their home in a field in Santa Maria Zacatepec in […]
JERUSALEM, Undefined (AFP) — Israel inched closer to lifting Covid restrictions Tuesday as its caseload remains tiny following a sweeping nationwide vaccination campaign. People are no longer required to show vaccination certificates to enter restaurants and entertainment venues, and capacity limits on businesses have been lifted. Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said his office would discuss ending an indoor mask requirement over the coming two weeks. “The Israeli economy and public may have some more breathing” […]
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AFP) — New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern toured flood-hit areas of the country’s South Island on Tuesday, expressing shock at the destruction left when three months’ worth of rain fell in three days. Swollen rivers swept away bridges and landslides blocked highways in the deluge, which finally began to ease on Tuesday after a 72-hour barrage that Ardern described as a once-in-a-century event. “It’s quite devastating, there’s a lot of work […]
by M. Jegathesan KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AFP) — Malaysia imposed a tough nationwide lockdown on Tuesday to battle a worsening coronavirus outbreak, as countries across Southeast Asia struggled with a resurgence in cases driven by infectious variants. Much of the region escaped the pandemic’s first wave last year relatively unscathed by rapidly closing borders and introducing curbs. But countries from Thailand to Vietnam are being hammered by fresh surges, with efforts to quell outbreaks hampered […]
YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Schools in Myanmar will open on Tuesday for the first time since the military seized power, but teachers and students are set to defy the junta’s calls for full classrooms in a show of resistance. Four months of national turmoil have followed the February ouster of civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, with more than 800 people killed by security forces and a nationwide strike crippling the economy. Public school teachers […]
REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AFP) — Iceland’s glaciers have lost around 750 square kilometers (290 square miles), or seven percent of their surface, since the turn of the millennium due to global warming, a study published on Monday showed. The glaciers, which cover more than 10 percent of the country’s land mass, shrank in 2019 to 10,400 square kilometers, the study in the Icelandic scientific journal Jokull said. Since 1890, the land covered by glaciers has decreased […]
LIMA, Peru (AFP) — Peru on Monday more than doubled its official coronavirus death toll, becoming the country with the highest Covid-19 mortality per capita anywhere in the world. The government said it had raised the count from 69,342 to 180,764 on the advice of a panel of health experts, which found there had been an undercount. With the adjustment, Peru now has the highest coronavirus mortality per capita of any country, with 5,484 […]
by Juliette COLLEN PARIS, France (AFP) — France on Monday opened up Covid-19 vaccines to all adults, a week before Germany, as Europe races to avoid another wave of infections caused by new virus variants. So far, 25.4 million people have received a first shot of a vaccine, representing about 38 percent of the population and nearly one in two adults. Until now, people over 50, workers in professions particularly exposed to the virus and […]
MADRID, Spain (AFP) — Myanmar correspondent Mratt Kyaw Thu will arrive in Madrid on Tuesday to ask for asylum after fleeing the military junta in Yangon, said the Spanish news agency EFE, which he worked for. The 30-year-old correspondent, who will travel to Spain after failing to obtain asylum in Germany, won AFP’s Kate Webb award in 2017 for his outstanding coverage of the ethnic and religious conflicts in Myanmar. “Tomorrow he will fly from […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — Chinese authorities imposed fresh travel limits, cancelled flights and tested thousands of residents in Guangdong Monday after the Indian variant of the coronavirus was reported in the country’s most populous province. Travellers leaving Guangzhou — the capital of the southern province home to 100 million people — must show negative Covid-19 test results from the past 72 hours, starting from 10:00 pm on Monday, the city said in an announcement late […]
by Robin MILLARD GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — Covid-19 variants are to be known by letters of the Greek alphabet to avoid stigmatizing nations where they were first detected, the World Health Organization announced Monday. The new system applies to variants of concern — the most troubling of which four are in circulation — and the second-level variants of interest being tracked. “They will not replace existing scientific names, but are aimed to help in public […]
HANOI, Vietnam (AFP) — The international airport of Vietnam’s capital will suspend inbound flights from abroad beginning Tuesday, the country’s aviation body announced, as it grapples with a fresh wave of virus outbreaks. A “temporary suspension of receiving international flights” will begin at Hanoi’s Noi Bai International Airport from June 1 at midnight until June 7, the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam said in a statement on Monday. Vietnam’s health minister said over the […]
