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by Michelle FITZPATRICK with Deborah COLE in Berlin Agence France Presse MAYEN, Germany (AFP) — Heavy rains and floods lashing western Europe have killed at least 59 people in Germany and nine in Belgium, and many more people are missing as rising waters caused several houses to collapse on Thursday. In Germany, which is experiencing one of the worst weather disasters since World War II, desperate residents sought refuge on the roofs of their homes […]
LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — Wearing a face mask at an indoor public establishments will once again be mandatory in Los Angeles starting this weekend due to a steady increase in Covid-19 infections and hospitalizations, health authorities said Thursday. Los Angeles is the first large US metropolis to reimpose the use of face masks — regardless of vaccination status — in shops, grocery stores, restaurants and workplaces to help contain the pandemic. The […]
by Deborah COLE Agence France Presse BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — Heavy rains and floods lashing western Germany have killed at least nine people and left around 50 missing, as rising waters led several houses to collapse, police said on Thursday. Four of the people reported dead were in the municipality of Schuld where a number houses were swept away by floods, a police spokesman in the city of Koblenz told AFP. Rhineland-Palatinate and North […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — At least eight staff at a Japanese hotel hosting Brazil’s Olympic judo team have tested positive for coronavirus, local officials said Thursday. Health and sports officials at Hamamatsu city, west of Tokyo, said virus screenings were done before the judo delegation of around 30 members arrived there on Saturday. None of the infected individuals came in contact with the athletes, they said. The news comes as Tokyo prepares to host […]
LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — More than a million acres of the western US and Canada were in flames on Wednesday as multiple blazes raged across the region, fueled by soaring temperatures and drought, and with little sign of letting up. Large areas of California were placed on red alert as several conflagrations continued to burn. The so-called River Fire had still not been brought under control as it burned near Yosemite National […]
by Susan NJANJI Agence France Presse JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AFP) — Stores and warehouses in South Africa were hit by looters Tuesday for a fifth day running despite the troops President Cyril Ramaphosa deployed to try to quell unrest that has claimed 72 lives. As pillaging erupted in the economic capital of Johannesburg and the southeastern province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa’s main opposition accused radicals of stoking the unrest. The armed forces were sending […]
SINGAPORE, Singapore (AFP) — Singapore Wednesday unveiled one of the world’s biggest floating solar power farms, covering an area the size of 45 football pitches, as part of the city-state’s push to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The project is the country’s most ambitious yet, comprising 122,000 panels on Tengeh Reservoir that will produce enough electricity to run its five water treatment plants. Singapore is among the biggest per capita carbon dioxide emitters in Asia and […]
TEL AVIV, Israel (AFP) — The United Arab Emirates opened an embassy in Israel Wednesday, housed in Tel Aviv’s new stock exchange building, in the latest normalization move under a deal brokered by Washington last year. The venue in the heart of Israel’s financial district highlighted the central role economic cooperation has played since the UAE became only the third majority-Arab country to recognize the Jewish state. At the ceremony, attended by new Israeli President […]
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) — Nine Chinese workers were among 13 people killed on Wednesday when a blast on a bus sent it careering down a ravine in north-western Pakistan, officials said. The bus was carrying Chinese engineers, surveyors and mechanical staff to the Dasu dam site in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which is under construction. “The blast sparked a fire in the engine plunging the vehicle into a ravine, a local government official told AFP, requesting […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The US has “deep concerns” about the situation in Myanmar following February’s coup, urging the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to take action, the State Department said Tuesday. Myanmar has been in chaos and its economy paralyzed since the military ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s government earlier this year, accusing it of fraud during 2020 elections. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken “called on ASEAN to take joint action to […]
SINGAPORE, Singapore (AFP) — An ocean liner on a “cruise to nowhere” was forced to make an earlier-than-scheduled return to Singapore Wednesday after a coronavirus case was detected on board, reports said. The cruises — starting and ending in Singapore, with no stops — were launched last year as part of the travel industry’s attempt to bounce back from a pandemic-induced crunch. They have proved popular among those seeking an escape from the tiny city-state, […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — Coronavirus is surging in Africa with a record average number of new cases according to an AFP tally based on official sources on Tuesday at 1815 GMT. It said 6,009,854 cases have been officially counted in Africa’s 54 nations and territories since the virus was first discovered in December 2019 in China. The number of new cases is growing at more than 41,400 per day — a 13 percent increase over […]
