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SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australia recommended that AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 jab should not be given to people under 60 on Thursday, a fresh blow to the country’s glacial vaccine rollout. Health Minister Greg Hunt said concerns over possible links to blood clots meant Pfizer was now “the preferred vaccine” for everyone under 60 years old. Australian authorities had already restricted the AstraZeneca shot to those over 50 in April, after several cases of severe blood clots […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — France on Wednesday said it was ending the obligation to wear masks outside and would bring forward the lifting of a nighttime curfew, as Covid infections fall and the country’s vaccine drive picks up. Prime Minister Jean Castex said the requirement for people to wear masks outdoors in much of the country would be lifted from Thursday, with some exceptions, while an unpopular 11:00 pm Covid curfew will be scrapped on […]
COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh (AFP) — Animal activists in Bangladesh have warned of a growing crisis among horses used for tourism during the country’s coronavirus lockdown, after owners said Wednesday that five more had died of starvation in a popular resort town. Twenty-one horses that used to carry tourists along Cox’s Bazar beach in southeastern Bangladesh died in one month, their owners said, after a lockdown imposed from April 14 saw visitors to the scenic spot […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The United States has reached a deal to buy 200 million more doses of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine, with the option to purchase variant-specific boosters that are in the pipeline, the biotech company said Wednesday. The purchase brings Washington’s confirmed order to 500 million doses of the two-shot regimen. Moderna has so far supplied 217 million doses, with 110 million more to be delivered by the end of this year and […]
SINDHUPALCHOK, Nepal (AFP) — At least one person died and seven others were missing after houses and bridges were washed away when a river burst during heavy monsoon rains in Nepal, officials said Wednesday. The annual monsoon rains in the Himalayan nation revitalizes farms and waterways but also triggers deadly landslides and floods. Officials said a landslide caused by the monsoon deluge blocked a river, which then burst and sent a flood of water downstream […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan said on Thursday it will make a vaccine passport available from a next month for Japanese travellers, as governments around the world experiment with ways to relaunch tourism and business trips. “We are preparing to issue a certificate of vaccination for those who need one… when they visit foreign countries,” top government spokesman Katsunobu Kato told reporters. The certificate will be paper-based rather than digital and will be issued by […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan plans to lift Tokyo’s virus emergency on June 20, a month before the Olympics, the government announced Thursday as reports said only 10,000 spectators would be allowed at Games events. Tokyo and several other parts of the country have been under a virus emergency since April 25, with the measure forcing the early closure of bars and restaurants and banning them from selling alcohol. It is due to expire on […]
by Ludovic EHRET JIUQUAN, China (AFP) — The first astronauts for China’s new space station blasted off Thursday for the country’s longest crewed mission to date, a landmark step in establishing Beijing as a major space power. The trio launched on a Long March-2F rocket for the Tiangong station, where they will spend three months, in a much-anticipated blast-off broadcast live on state TV. Lift-off happened at 9:22 am (0122 GMT) from the Jiuquan launch […]
BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — A coronavirus vaccine being developed by Germany’s CureVac has shown disappointing results in an interim analysis of its effectiveness, the company said Wednesday. “In the unprecedented context of at least 13 variants circulating within the study population subset assessed at this interim analysis, CVnCoV demonstrated an interim vaccine efficacy of 47 percent against Covid-19 disease of any severity and did not meet prespecified statistical success criteria,” CureVac said in a statement. […]
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — Royal Caribbean is pushing back the maiden voyage of a new ship by a month after eight crew members tested positive for Covid-19, the company’s chief executive said. “Two steps forward and one step back!” Chief Executive Michael Bayley said in a Facebook post Tuesday night that announced the delay for the inaugural trip of “Odyssey of the Seas.” “During routine testing, eight crew members received a positive test […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Astronauts Thomas Pesquet of France and Shane Kimbrough of the United States spacewalked outside the International Space Station on Wednesday as they began the painstaking process of installing new solar panels to boost the orbital outpost’s deteriorating power systems. It was the first of several excursions to augment the ISS’s existing eight solar arrays, with the first pair operating continuously since December 2000. The spacewalking duo were installing the first […]
by Marc Jourdier and Frank Zeller TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — Iranian voters are to elect a new president Friday, with the ultraconservative Ebrahim Raisi expected to replace the moderate Hassan Rouhani after a host of candidates were disqualified. The vote comes at a time when the recession-hit country is in talks with world powers to revive a battered 2015 nuclear deal and at pains to end a punishing US sanctions regime. Buzz has been minimal […]
