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MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russia on Thursday reported its highest daily coronavirus death toll since the start of the pandemic, saying 808 people had died over the past 24 hours. The new figures bring Russia’s total fatalities from Covid-19 to 168,049 — the highest toll in Europe. © Agence France-Presse
BEIJING, China (AFP) — Authorities in China have suspended operations at a terminal in the world’s third busiest cargo port after a worker was infected with the coronavirus. The closure of a key terminal at the Ningbo-Zhoushan port on the east coast, which handled almost 1.2 billion tons in 2020, reflects China’s determination to squash its worst coronavirus outbreak in months no matter the economic costs. The worker at the port’s Meishan terminal tested positive […]
by David FOX KABUL, Afghanistan (AFP) — The Taliban have taken the strategic Afghan city of Ghazni just 150 kilometers (95 miles) from Kabul, a senior lawmaker and the insurgents said Thursday. The city — the 10th provincial capital to fall to the insurgents in a week — lies along the major Kabul-Kandahar highway, effectively serving as a gateway between the capital and militant strongholds in the south. “The Taliban took control of the key […]
by Diana SIMEONOVA / Rossen BOSSEV SOFIA, Bulgaria (AFP) — It’s getting close to lunchtime and a Covid-19 vaccination centre in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, is almost empty, a vivid example of the way the country’s immunisation effort is hamstrung by fake news and widespread mistrust. As a fourth coronavirus wave threatens, official data show that only 15 percent of the population of 6.9 million people has been fully vaccinated, far below the EU average […]
CANBERRA, Australia (AFP) — Australia’s capital Canberra was ordered into a seven-day lockdown Thursday, after a single Covid-19 case was detected in the city that has largely avoided virus restrictions. About 400,000 people in the nation’s political hub will be under stay-at-home orders from 5:00 pm local time, joining millions more already under lockdown in Australia’s southeast. “This is the most serious public health risk that we are faced in the territory this year. Really, […]
MADRID, Spain (AFP) — Spain’s medicines agency approved Tuesday a first round of clinical trials on humans for a Covid-19 vaccine developed by Spanish firm Hipra. “This is the first trial on humans of a vaccine made in Spain,” the agency said in a statement. Dozens of volunteers will be recruited from Spanish hospitals “as soon as possible” for the clinical trials, it added. Hipra, which is based in the northeastern city of Girona, said […]
ANKARA, Turkey (AFP) — Turkish rescuers evacuated a regional hospital on Wednesday and plucked stranded villagers off rooftops as flash floods and mudslides swept across the Black Sea coast. Officials said one person died of a heart attack in the mayhem and an elderly women was swept away by the rushing water and remained unaccounted for. The health ministry said eight people were also rushed to hospital when a bridge collapsed. “From a meteorological point […]
by Alexandros KOTTIS PAPPADES, Greece (AFP) — Stunned, Kostis Angelou wanders between the corpses of his goats, all 372 of them burnt by a fire that devoured forests on Evia island in Greece. “I’m lost,” he sighs, “I can’t take it anymore.” The goats lie on the two flanks of a hill blackened by the blaze that burnt for more than a week in the north of Greece’s second biggest island. Up there, in the […]
by Yacine Benrabia with Abdelhafid Daamache in Algiers TIZI OUZOU, Algeria (AFP) — The death toll climbed to at least 69 as firefighters, soldiers and civilian volunteers battled blazes in forests across northern Algeria on Wednesday, in the latest wildfires to sweep the Mediterranean. President Abdelmadjid Tebboune declared three days of national mourning starting from Thursday, and authorities say they suspect widespread arson after so many fires erupted in such a short space of time. […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — A helicopter with 16 people on board, including 13 tourists, crashed in Kamchatka in Russia’s far east on Thursday, the local government said in a statement. The helicopter came down in Lake Kuril in the Kronotsky nature reserve, the statement said. According to preliminary information, “there were three crew members and 13 passengers on board”, all tourists, it added. Rescuers and divers were dispatched to the scene. According to a local […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US health authorities urged pregnant women on Wednesday to get inoculated against Covid-19, arguing that the data demonstrates they do not increase the risk of miscarriage. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the agency “encourages all pregnant people or people who are thinking about becoming pregnant and those breastfeeding to get vaccinated to protect themselves from Covid-19.” “The vaccines are safe and effective, […]
by Huw GRIFFITH LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — All teachers in California will have to be vaccinated against Covid-19 or submit to weekly virus tests, the state’s governor announced Wednesday, as authorities grapple with exploding infection rates. The number of people testing positive for the disease has surged across the United States in recent weeks, with the highly infectious Delta variant blamed for the bulk of new cases. That has worried parents and educators […]
