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by Mathieu GORSE MADRID, Spain (AFP) — Spain has lifted a state of emergency in place since October to fight the pandemic, allowing Spaniards to travel between regions for the first time in months. “It’s like New Year’s,” said 28-year-old Oriol Corbella in Barcelona, where the lifting of the curfew was met with shouts, applause and music. “We’re getting a bit of normality back, of freedom, but we have to keep in mind that the […]
by Nina LARSON GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — A Covid-19 variant spreading in India is more contagious and it is feared it could be dodging some vaccine protections, contributing to the country’s explosive outbreak, the World Health Organization’s chief scientist said Saturday. In an interview with AFP, Soumya Swaminathan warned that “the epidemiological features that we see in India today do indicate that it’s an extremely rapidly spreading variant”. India on Saturday for the first time […]
by Laurie Chen, with Qasim Nauman in Seoul BEIJING, China (AFP) — A large segment of a Chinese rocket re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere and disintegrated over the Indian Ocean on Sunday, China’s space agency said, following fevered speculation over where the 18-tonne object would come down. Officials in Beijing had said there was little risk from the freefalling segment of the Long March-5B rocket, which had launched the first module of China’s new space station […]
BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) — A Vietnamese woman died from Covid-19 in Laos on Sunday, according to state-run media, marking the first death from the disease in the impoverished communist country. Reclusive, landlocked Laos had appeared to escape the brunt of the pandemic in 2020, but a community outbreak uncovered last month has sent the number of cases soaring — from 49 in early April to 1,302 in less than a month. Authorities confirmed Sunday that […]
by Robin MILLARD Agence France Presse GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The WHO chief on Friday implored the G7 to prioritise equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines around the globe, branding the current imbalance morally inadmissible. World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the uneven distribution of vaccines among rich and poor nations would not help to end the coronavirus pandemic. “For the G7 now, the most important and the immediate support we need is […]
by Aishwarya KUMAR Agence France Presse NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — India recorded more than 4,000 coronavirus deaths in a day for the first time and more states imposed lockdowns Saturday in a desperate bid to halt the devastating new surge. The 4,187 new deaths took India’s overall toll to 238,270 since the pandemic started. It added another 401,078 new cases in 24 hours taking its caseload to nearly 21.9 million — second only […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — A large segment of a Chinese rocket is expected to make an uncontrolled re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere on the weekend, but Beijing has downplayed fears and said there is a very low risk of any damage. A Long March-5B rocket launched the first module of China’s new space station into Earth’s orbit on April 29. Its 18-tonne main segment is now in freefall and experts have said it is difficult […]
by Robin MILLARD GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The World Health Organization on Friday approved the Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use — the first Chinese jab to receive the WHO’s green light. The UN health agency signed off on the two-dose vaccine, which is already being deployed in dozens of countries around the world. The WHO has already given emergency use listing to the vaccines being made by Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Johnson and Johnson, and the […]
MEXICO, Mexico (AFP) — Mexican authorities announced Friday a further easing of pandemic lockdown measures in the capital and the resumption of earthquake simulation drills, reflecting a decline in new coronavirus cases and deaths. Mexico City will move next week to yellow status, the second lowest of four under the country’s traffic-light system, Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum announced. The move will ease restrictions on capacity or opening hours for businesses including shops, cinemas, casinos, amusement parks […]
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AFP) — Saudi Arabia and Pakistan signed agreements Saturday to improve ties, after months of strained relations between the close allies over the disputed region of Kashmir. Although the kingdom was the first foreign country Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan visited after his 2018 election, Riyadh appeared frustrated with Islamabad last year. And while the wealthy nation has supported Pakistan with billions of dollars in aid and loans in recent years, observers […]
by Aishwarya Kumar, with AFP Bureaus NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — New Covid-19 deaths surged past 4,000 for the first time in India on Saturday as it struggled with one of the world’s worst outbreaks, but the global immunization effort was boosted with WHO approval for Chinese firm Sinopharm’s vaccine. And while many Western countries have started easing restrictions thanks to rapid vaccinations, the head of the World Health Organization warned that more countries could […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australia will not extend a controversial ban on citizens returning from Covid-hit India, the prime minister said Friday following widespread public outrage. Scott Morrison this week barred all travel from India, fearing a large number of Covid-positive arrivals would overwhelm Australia’s already strained quarantine facilities. The move stranded an estimated 9,000 Australian citizens and threatened them with large fines and jail time if they tried to dodge the ban and return […]
