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MIAMI, United States (AFP) — The US Coast Guard announced Thursday it had seized about $1.4 billion worth of cocaine and cannabis during several operations. “This is the largest illicit drug offload in Coast Guard history,” said Commander Steve Poulin during a press conference in Port Everglades, Florida regarding the nearly 27 tons of cocaine and 1,430 pounds (650 kilograms) of cannabis seized. The seizures were conducted by multiple Coast Guard units, with assistance from […]
by Jonah Mandel JERUSALEM, Undefined (AFP) — Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Thursday that Israel was doing the world a “great service” by administering Covid vaccine booster shots, despite the World Health Organization’s plea for a moratorium. Nearly 60 percent of Israel’s 9.3 million people have had two jabs, mostly of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, with the government recently rolling out a third shot for the over-60s. The WHO has called for a moratorium on booster […]
ROME, Italy (AFP) — More than 70 percent of fires that have swept Italy this summer are caused by human action, aided by climate change, a government minister said Thursday. Firefighting planes were deployed again overnight to tackle forest fires in the southern region of Calabria and on the island of Sicily, where flames threatened a nature reserve in the north. They are the latest in hundreds of blazes that have broken out across the […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — China will “strive to provide” two billion Covid-19 vaccine doses to the world this year and donate $100 million to the international vaccine distribution system known as Covax, President Xi Jinping said Thursday. The pledge came in a written message by Xi to a video forum on vaccine cooperation as China battles a fresh outbreak fuelled by the highly contagious Delta variant. Delta has now been detected in parts of China, […]
by Karim Abou Merhi / Amir HAVASI TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — New President Ebrahim Raisi takes the oath before parliament Thursday, with Iran facing an economy battered by US sanctions, a grinding health crisis and thorny negotiations on its nuclear programme. The ultraconservative former judiciary chief officially began his four-year mandate on Tuesday when he was inaugurated by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Raisi takes over from moderate Hassan Rouhani, whose landmark achievement during his […]
by Andrew BEATTY SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Almost two-thirds of Australia’s 25 million people were in lockdown Thursday, as the country’s faltering bid to bring a virulent Delta outbreak to heel prompted a new wave of restrictions. The country’s two largest cities received a double blow in their efforts to retain “Covid Zero” status, with authorities reporting a record number of new coronavirus infections in Sydney and imposing a sixth lockdown for virus-weary Melbourne. In […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Tokyo reported another large jump in virus cases on Thursday, again shattering records, as the government expanded restrictions to eight more regions just days before the Olympics ends. Tokyo is already under a virus state of emergency but is seeing an exponential growth in cases, driven by the more contagious Delta variant. On Thursday, the city reported 5,042 cases, up from 3,865 a week earlier, and 1,979 the week before that. […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — France will offer Covid booster shots to the elderly and vulnerable from September, joining a growing list of countries offering third vaccine shots to fight new virus variants, President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday. “Yes, we will probably need a third dose, not for everyone straight away but at any rate for the elderly and the most vulnerable,” Macron said in the latest in his series of explanatory videos on the government’s […]
by Nivrita GANGULY MUMBAI, India (AFP) — C.S. Satheesha spells out “A-P-P-L-E” into his phone as he teaches remotely from the only place he can get a signal — a treehouse in his back garden in southern India. In the Kodagu district of Karnataka state, eight-year-old Shreeshma listens to Satheesha’s WhatsApp voice notes on her mother’s phone on her porch and repeats sentences such as: “This is a cat.” But in a country where schools […]
by Shafiqul ALAM DHAKA, Bangladesh (AFP) — Mohammad Masud braves Dhaka’s sweltering summer heat to pedal across the Bangladeshi capital in his rickshaw and queue at one of the last charities still feeding those left destitute by the pandemic. Nearby are hundreds of out-of-work or struggling security guards, transport workers, domestic servants and homeless children finishing their plates of rice and lentils at Mehmankhana, or the “dining place for guests”. “I have been hungry all […]
by Marina RAFENBERG ATHENS, Greece (AFP) — At least 150 houses were destroyed by a raging fire that surrounded a monastery and a dozen villages on the Greek island of Evia Wednesday, one of over 100 blazes burning in the country. Firefighters were also battling a blaze near Athens, while the mayor of Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympic Games, pleaded for help as flames threatened the site. The blazes erupted as Greece is in […]
by Camille CAMDESSUS HURON, United States (AFP) — Crushed by a devastating drought and new water restrictions, Daniel Hartwig had no choice but to pull thousands of precious, fragrant almond trees from his California farm. “It breaks your heart,” he sighed as he surveyed the once vibrant landscape before him — curled, yellowed leaves covering the shrunken husks that would have been this year’s crop of almonds, had the water arrived. Their exposed roots are […]
