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WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Americans filed 92,000 fewer applications for unemployment aid last week, the government reported Thursday, in the latest sign the widespread job losses caused by the Covid-19 pandemic was ebbing as businesses reopen. The Labor Department data showed there were 498,000 initial claims for jobless benefits made in the week ended May 1, seasonally adjusted, far fewer than expected and a new low since the pandemic began in March 2020 and […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Moderna said Thursday its Covid-19 vaccine is 96 percent effective among youths aged 12 to 17, according to the results of its first clinical trials. Two-thirds of the 3,235 participants in trials in the United States received the vaccine and one-third were given a placebo. The study “showed vaccine efficacy against COVID-19 of 96%; mRNA-1273 was generally well tolerated with no serious safety concerns identified to date,” the company said. […]
BRAZZAVILLE, Congo (AFP) — The World Health Organization on Thursday warned of a new wave of Covid-19 infections in Africa due to delayed vaccine supplies, a slow rollout and new variants. The African bureau of the UN agency said the continent had to catch up with the rest of the world in terms of vaccine rollouts. “The delay in the delivery of vaccine doses from the Serum Institute of India earmarked for Africa, the delay […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said he supported the idea of a waiver on patent protections for coronavirus vaccines as Russia registered its fourth virus jab called Sputnik Light. A campaign to lift patent protections on Covid-19 vaccines picked up steam on Thursday, with French, German and EU leadership saying they were ready to discuss a proposal by US President Joe Biden, before Putin added his support. “We are […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — A remote Japanese fishing town has sparked debate after spending coronavirus relief funds on a giant squid statue that cost nearly $250,000 in a controversial bid to boost post-pandemic tourism. The huge pink monument with its tentacles outstretched was unveiled in March by the coastal town of Noto in central Japan as a proud nod to its local delicacy. It cost around 27 million yen ($247,000) and was mostly paid for […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Sydney’s first local Covid-19 cases in more than a month left health authorities scrambling to trace their origins on Thursday, but they stopped short of ordering Australia’s most populous city into lockdown. A man in his 50s and his wife have tested positive for the virus, triggering warnings for a string of locations around the city that they visited while believed to be contagious. They are Sydney’s first recorded cases of […]
NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — India saw almost 4,000 Covid-19 deaths and more than 412,000 new cases in the past 24 hours, both new records, official data showed Thursday. Health ministry numbers showed 3,980 deaths, taking the national total to 230,168, and 412,262 new cases, bringing India’s caseload since the pandemic began to 21.1 million. The renewed rise follows several days of falling case numbers that had raised government hopes that the catastrophic recent surge […]
LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — One of California’s iconic giant sequoia trees was recently found to be still smoldering and smoking in an area of the state devastated by massive wildfires last summer, National Park authorities said Wednesday. “Scientists and fire crews were surveying the effects from the 2020 Castle Fire in Sequoia National Park, when they observed a still smoldering and smoking giant sequoia tree that appears to be caused from last year’s […]
by Kamal Taha GHOR AL-HADITHA, Jordan (AFP) — Ahmad Daoud surveyed his shrivelled tomato plants near the Dead Sea in Jordan, where severe drought in what is already one of the world’s most water-deficient countries is hitting hard. “Look at how the land thirsts,” he said, walking on cracked earth stained with white salt patches, waving at the five hectares (12 acres) of his farm. “Everything I planted… is dead.” He inspected a tomato the […]
HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Jailed Hong Kong dissident Joshua Wong was handed an additional 10-month sentence on Thursday after he pleaded guilty to taking part in an “unlawful” Tiananmen Square protest last year. Wong was sentenced alongside three other prominent young activists — Lester Shum, Tiffany Yuen and Janelle Leung — over the 4 June vigil, which was banned by police for the first time last year. © Agence France-Presse
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US biotech firm Moderna on Wednesday announced initial data from a small clinical trial that showed its booster shots improved people’s immune responses against key coronavirus variants of concern. “We are encouraged by these new data, which reinforce our confidence that our booster strategy should be protective against these newly detected variants,” said the company’s CEO Stephane Bancel. Forty participants were tested for their levels of neutralizing antibodies six to […]
by Alexandria SAGE ROME, Italy (AFP) — An Italian court convicted two young Americans Wednesday for the murder of a police officer while they were on a summer holiday in Rome, with both handed life sentences. Finnegan Lee Elder, 21, had admitted stabbing Mario Cerciello Rega during a late-night encounter in July 2019, while out with his friend Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, 20. Prosecutors claimed it was a brutal, unprovoked attack in which Elder, then 19, stabbed […]
