International

Six school kids among nine Hong Kongers arrested for ‘bomb plot’

HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Six secondary school children were among nine Hong Kongers arrested on terror charges for allegedly trying to manufacture a powerful explosive, police announced Tuesday. Five males and four females aged between 15 and 39 were arrested Monday on suspicion of “conspiracy to use explosives for terrorist activities”, police said. “The operation we conducted yesterday was against gangsters (who) tried to manufacture TATP explosive inside a homemade laboratory inside a hostel,” […]

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Florida condo death toll 36, Storm Elsa complicates search

by Eva Marie Uzcategui with Chris Lefkow in Washington SURFSIDE, United States (AFP) — Rescuers on Tuesday combed through the debris of a deadly condo tower collapse in Florida as Tropical Storm Elsa threatened to complicate the delicate search mission with strong winds and heavy rain. The death toll from the June 24 disaster in Surfside, a town north of Miami Beach, rose to 36 as search teams found four more bodies in the rubble, […]

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Israel, S. Korea agree Covid vaccine swap

JERUSALEM, Undefined (AFP) — Israel agreed on a Covid vaccine swap with South Korea Tuesday, sending 700,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech jab to Seoul “immediately” in return for the same number in coming months. A statement from Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s office said the deal, the first of its kind for Israel, would allow more effective use of the vaccine stocks of both countries. The statement added that Bennett had spoken to Pfizer chief executive […]

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US sends Vietnam 2 million Covid vaccine doses

by Sebastian Smith WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The United States began sending Vietnam two million doses of Covid-19 vaccine Tuesday, the White House said, in its latest assistance to countries struggling to tame the pandemic. The Moderna vaccine shipment — part of a first 80 million doses that President Joe Biden has pledged to allocate worldwide — should arrive in Vietnam this weekend, a White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told […]

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UK braced for 100,000 daily Covid cases

LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — The UK announced plans to further relax to its pandemic curbs on Tuesday despite warning that the number of daily new cases is set to more than treble to reach 100,000. From August 16, adults in England who have received both doses of a coronavirus vaccine will no longer need to self-isolate if they are in close contact with a positive case, Health Secretary Sajid Javid said. Instead they will […]

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India slams public’s ‘gross violations’ of Covid-19 measures

NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — The Indian government on Monday slammed huge crowds at popular northern tourist spots, saying such “gross violations” of Covid-19 health measures could spark a new surge in infections. The vast nation of 1.3 billion people was hit by a record-breaking wave in cases and deaths in April and May that pushed the healthcare system to its breaking point. The crisis has since eased, with numerous states removing restrictions and reopening […]

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Contact lost with plane in Russia’s Far East, 28 on board: reports

MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Contact has been lost with a passenger plane carrying 28 people in Russia’s Far East, news agencies cited emergency services as saying on Tuesday. The An-26 was flying from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to Palana in the Kamchatka Peninsula when it did not make a scheduled call-in, the Interfax, RIA Novosti and TASS agencies quoted local officials as saying. The report said the 28 on board included six crew members and that there were […]

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Survivor window closing in Japan landslide, 24 unaccounted for

TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — More than 1,000 soldiers and rescue workers joined an increasingly desperate search Tuesday for survivors in a Japanese resort town devastated by a landslide three days ago. Four people have been confirmed dead after the disaster in Atami in central Japan and officials said they were still unable to clarify the fate or whereabouts of 24 other residents. Helicopter images showed a bleak line of sludge and rubble snaking down a […]

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Rescuers struggle to locate dozens in landslide-hit Japan town

ATAMI, Japan (AFP) — Rescuers were holding out hope of finding at least 64 people buried under the mud and wreckage of a Japanese holiday town that was hit by a devastating landslide, with teams set to resume the desperate search for survivors Tuesday. Soldiers and emergency workers used hand-held poles and mechanical diggers to sift through the muddy debris, two days after a torrent of earth slammed down a mountainside and through part of […]

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Fears for future of Mexico City’s ‘green lung’

by Yussel Gonzalez MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AFP) — A major construction project in wetlands seen as one of the “green lungs” of smog-choked Mexico City has raised concerns for the future of the UNESCO World Heritage Site. A more than 1.7-kilometer (one mile) long reinforced concrete bridge is being built on a freshwater lake system that helps to regulate the temperature and prevent flooding in the city of nine million people. Hundreds of trees have […]

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Germany relaxes curbs on travelers from UK and India

BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — Germany’s health agency said on Monday it would lift a ban on most travellers from the UK, India and three other countries hit by the Delta variant of Covid-19. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) said India, Nepal, Russia, Portugal and the UK, currently listed as so-called virus variant countries, would be reclassified from Wednesday as “high-incidence areas”. The change eases a ban on entry for travellers who are not German residents […]

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Toll hits 28 as work resumes at collapsed Florida apartment

by Gianrigo MARLETTA SURFSIDE, United States (AFP) — The death toll climbed to 28 Monday in the collapse of a Florida condo tower, where search work resumed after the dangerously unstable remaining portion of the building was brought down with explosives ahead of a coming tropical storm, officials said. Some 117 people remained missing after the 12-story Champlain Towers South crumbled over a week ago in Surfside, but an Israeli search official put the chances […]

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