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GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The Covax global vaccine-sharing program said Thursday it needs $2.0 billion in additional funding by the beginning of June in order to boost coronavirus inoculation programs in lower-income countries. “We need an additional $2 billion to lift coverage… up to nearly 30 percent, and we need it by June 2 to lock in supplies now so that doses can be delivered through 2021, and into early 2022,” the mechanism’s organizers — […]
DAMASCUS, Syria (AFP) — Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad has been re-elected with 95.1 percent of the votes cast, the parliamentary speaker announced Thursday, following an election criticised by the opposition and Western nations. The two other presidential candidates, former state minister Abdallah Salloum Abdallah and Mahmud Merhi, a member of the so-called “tolerated opposition”, received 1.5 percent and 3.3 percent of the vote respectively, according to the official results of Wednesday’s election. In a country […]
GOMA, DR Congo (AFP) — DR Congo authorities ordered the evacuation of part of the city of Goma on Thursday over the risk of further eruptions from volcano Nyiragongo, causing an immediate exodus of tens of thousands of people, an AFP correspondent said. “Right now we can’t rule out an eruption on land or under the lake (Kivu), which could happen very soon and without warning,” the local military governor General Constant Ndima told media. […]
MELBOURNE, Australia (AFP) — More than five million people in Australia’s second-biggest city of Melbourne were ordered into a snap week-long lockdown Thursday, as officials blamed a sluggish vaccine rollout and hotel quarantine failures for another virus outbreak. Stay-at-home orders will apply to Melbourne and surrounding Victoria state from midnight for seven days, acting state Premier James Merlino told residents, as the cluster doubled to 26 cases. “In the last day, we’ve seen more evidence […]
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AFP) — Johnson & Johnson’s single-jab vaccine against Covid-19 will be limited in Belgium to people aged 41 and over, authorities said on Wednesday following the death of a woman who received the jab. The country’s inter-ministerial health body focused on the pandemic said that restriction will be “provisionally” applied pending further guidance from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) on Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen vaccine. The move underlined the level of caution EU […]
SANTIAGO, Chile (AFP) — People in Chile who have been vaccinated and are fully immunized against the coronavirus could from Wednesday obtain a pass to move about more freely, a move criticized by health professionals. The pass, which can be downloaded on a person’s mobile phone two weeks after receiving their second shot, gives the bearer permission to move about freely in cities under lockdown to go to the supermarket, pharmacy, or for open air […]
TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday announced a four-month ban on all cryptocurrency mining, a day after his energy minister apologized for unplanned power cuts in major cities. Iranian officials have regularly blamed unlicensed cryptocurrency miners for using vast amounts of electricity. “Cryptocurrency activities and mining cryptocurrencies must be stopped” until September 22, Rouhani said in televised remarks. Power cuts in the peak summer months are not uncommon in Iran, but […]
by Giovanni GREZZI VERBANIA, Italy (AFP) — Italian police on Wednesday arrested three managers from the operator of a cable car that crashed into a mountain killing 14 people, accusing them of deliberately disabling the emergency brake. A five-year-old boy, the only survivor of Sunday’s tragedy on the Mottarone mountain overlooking Lake Maggiore in northwest Italy, remains in serious condition in hospital. The three suspects are accused of deliberately deactivating the brake that could have […]
by Amy Osborne with Andrew Marszal in Los Angeles SAN JOSE, United States (AFP) — A public transit worker shot dead eight people at a California rail yard Wednesday before turning his gun on himself as police arrived, officials said, in the latest mass shooting to hit the United States. Multiple victims were also wounded in the attack at the train maintenance compound in San Jose, just south of San Francisco, which has once again […]
by Serge Daniel and Malick Konate BAMAKO, Mali (AFP) — Mali’s interim president and prime minister resigned on Wednesday, a top junta aide said, two days after they were detained and stripped of their powers in what appeared to amount to the country’s second coup in nine months. President Bah Ndaw and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane, tasked with steering the return to civilian rule after a coup last August, resigned in the presence of mediators […]
by Matthieu DEMEESTERE BRUSSELS, Belgium (AFP) — The European Union on Wednesday asked a Belgian court to impose penalties running to millions of euros per day on AstraZeneca for Covid-19 vaccine doses it has failed to deliver to the bloc. The request came as EU countries and their executive, the European Commission, began legal action against the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company for “flagrant violation” of its contract with Brussels. AstraZeneca’s lawyer Hakim Boularbah rejected the EU […]
GOMA, DR Congo (AFP) — Aftershocks from the Mount Nyiragongo volcano in eastern DR Congo rattled the nearby city of Goma on Wednesday, four days after its eruption, badly damaging several buildings and prompting hundreds of residents to flee and the UN to relocate some of its staff. The tremors were felt throughout the night. Two powerful shocks from Africa’s most active volcano caused terrified people to run out of their homes. The seismic monitoring […]
