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NINGBO, China (AFP) — Typhoon In-Fa lashed eastern China with high winds and heavy rain on Sunday as other parts of the country were still cleaning up following historic flooding. Sea, air and rail traffic was shut down across a swathe of China’s east coast with In-Fa expected to make landfall near the major shipping port of Ningbo sometime late Sunday afternoon or early evening. The typhoon’s effects were felt Sunday morning in the […]
By Ivan Stewart Saldajeno Philippine News Agency Nesthy Petecio’s quest for a Tokyo Olympics gold got off to a good start on Saturday after she beat Marcelat Sakobi Matshu of Congo in the first round of the women’s featherweight boxing event at the Kokugikan Arena in the Japanese capital. After a tight first round, Petecio showed her dominant form in the final six minutes to edge Matshu. In the unanimous decision favoring Petecio, one of […]
Chinese shooter Yang Qian won the first gold medal of the Tokyo Olympics on Saturday as the coronavirus-hit Games braced for a potentially disruptive tropical storm heading towards the Japanese capital. Yang snatched a dramatic last-shot victory from Russia’s Anastasiia Galashina in the women’s 10-metre air rifle as attention switched from the troubled build-up to the event to the sporting action. Elsewhere on the first full day of competition, Japanese gymnastics star Kohei Uchimura crashed […]
HANOI, Vietnam (AFP) — Vietnam locked down eight million people in Hanoi on Saturday, the latest attempt to curb a serious coronavirus outbreak that has already forced a third of the country to stay home. Authorities reported more than 7,000 new infections across the nation on Friday — the third record number of daily infections in a week. The centre of the normally bustling capital was empty and shops were shuttered as the lockdown […]
by Marie Giffard with Rosa Sulleiro in Barcelona Agence France Presse MADRID, Spain (AFP) — It’s over 35 degrees Celsius and although masks are no longer obligatory in the streets of Spain, masks are everywhere in Madrid as people fear soaring Covid cases. Unlike people in many other European countries who have dropped their masks, Spaniards have largely opted to hang onto the face coverings that have become part of the daily lives of […]
by Issam AHMED Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — With the Delta variant pushing US Covid cases back up, fully vaccinated people are wondering whether they need to start masking indoors again. Covid vaccines remain extremely effective against the worst outcomes of the disease — hospitalization and death — and breakthrough infections remain uncommon. But experts told AFP that one size doesn’t fit all, and people should consider factors like community transmission, […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japanese tennis star Naomi Osaka lit the Olympic cauldron as the Tokyo Games opened on Friday after a year’s delay due to the pandemic and with the threat of coronavirus hanging over the competition. Osaka lifted the torch to the gleaming cauldron, which had unfurled at the top of a ramp representing Mount Fuji, in the highlight of a ceremony that was stripped back over virus fears. Japan’s Emperor Naruhito officially […]
Hundreds of drones form the Tokyo 2020 emblem and then a globe during the Olympics opening ceremony. © Agence France-Presse
The Tokyo Olympics were declared open in an eerily empty stadium on Friday after defying a year’s pandemic delay and lingering coronavirus threats that will make them perhaps the most unusual Games in history. Japan’s Emperor Naruhito made the announcement against the backdrop of thousands of vacant seats at Tokyo’s 68,000-capacity Olympic Stadium, after Covid-19 forced organisers to ban spectators at all but a handful of venues. “I declare open the Games of Tokyo,” said […]
Fireworks light up the sky above the Japan National Stadium at the end of the Olympics opening ceremony. SOURCE: AFPTV
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AFP) — Increased free testing, contact tracing and other steps are needed to fight the Covid-19 Delta variant, now dominant in much of Europe, the World Health Organization and the EU’s disease agency warned Friday. WHO Europe and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) issued a joint appeal for “reinforced efforts” by European countries to check the spread of the highly transmissible Delta variant, first detected in India. “WHO recommends […]
Fireworks are released at the Japan National Stadium as the Opening Ceremony for the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games gets under way. SOURCE: AFPTV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlLZ4Gd4Ccs
