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SAO PAULO, Brazil (AFP) — Sao Paulo will allow businesses and places of worship to reopen from Sunday, the government of Brazil’s most populous state announced, even as the coronavirus infection rate remains high. The state of 46 million people will enter a “transition phase” that will next see restaurants, beauty salons, cinemas and theaters reopen from April 24, it said on Friday. From Sunday, shops can open from 11.00 am to 7.00 pm, […]
by Shaun TANDON Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Joe Biden on Friday welcomed Japan’s prime minister as his first guest, pledging a united front faced with a rising China and greater cooperation on 5G technology and climate change. Waiting nearly three months for his first summit due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Biden told Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga that Japan had “our iron-clad support” on security issues and beyond. “We’re […]
by Anastasia CLARK Agence France Presse MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russia on Friday banned top officials from US President Joe Biden’s administration from entering the country and announced a wave of tit-for-tat sanctions and expulsions of diplomats, as tensions soar between the rivals. The wave of Russian action comes a day after the Washington announced sanctions against Moscow and the expulsion of 10 Russian diplomats, in retaliation for what it says was interference by the […]
TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — Iran said Friday it has begun producing uranium at 60 percent purity, in another breach of its commitments to the international community which is concerned about its nuclear programme. The Islamic republic had declared it would sharply ramp up its enrichment of uranium on Tuesday, two days after an attack on its Natanz nuclear facility that it blamed on arch-foe Israel. The incidents cast a shadow over talks in Vienna aimed […]
SANTIAGO, Chile (AFP) — China’s Coronavac vaccine was 67 percent effective at preventing symptomatic Covid-19 and 80 percent at preventing death, according to real-life results unveiled Friday from Chile’s inoculation campaign. “These figures should convey peace of mind to the country,” Health Minister Enrique Paris told journalists as he announced the outcome of two months’ of vaccination in Chile, in February and March. The results were obtained from a comparison between vaccinated and non-vaccinated people […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday called for a summit with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel to ease tensions with Moscow. “I want to get the four of us” together to discuss “the issue of the security situation in eastern Ukraine and the de-occupation of our territories,” Zelensky said after a meeting with Macron in Paris in which Merkel participated by video […]
BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday received her first dose of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine, more than two weeks after German authorities recommended use of the jab only for people aged 60 and over. “I am delighted to have received my first vaccination with AstraZeneca today. I thank everyone involved in the vaccination campaign and everyone who gets vaccinated. Vaccination is the key to getting out of the pandemic,” the 66-year-old said in […]
OTTAWA, Canada (AFP) — Canada continues to expect its first shipment of Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccines at month’s end despite US and EU pauses over blood clot fears, officials said Tuesday, while also announcing a first Canadian clotting case linked to the AstraZeneca jab. US health authorities earlier recommended pausing the Johnson & Johnson shot while the company said it would delay its European rollout, after six American women aged between 18 and […]
MUMBAI, India (AFP) — The head of the world’s largest vaccine maker directly tweeted US President Joe Biden on Friday urging him to lift an export ban on raw materials desperately needed to make more coronavirus shots. The unusual step by Serum Institute (SII) chief Adar Poonawalla underlined the crisis in providing vaccines to developing nations, many of which rely heavily on the firm for supplies. “Respected @POTUS, if we are to truly unite […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — At least eight people were killed in a shooting in the US city of Indianapolis by a gunman who is believed to have then killed himself, police said. The victims were all found at a Fedex facility near the international airport where the shooting took place late Thursday, police spokeswoman Genae Cook told a news conference, adding several others had been taken to hospital. One man who said he […]
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) — The UN said Thursday it will maintain its political and humanitarian mission to Afghanistan despite the departure of US and NATO troops later this year. Stephane Dujarric, spokesman to the UN secretary-general, said it was “clear and obvious” that the troops’ departure “will have an impact on the country as a whole,” in response to questions about the mission’s future. “We will continue to study the situation, but our work […]
BRASILIA, Brazil (AFP) — President Jair Bolsonaro wrote a letter to his US counterpart Joe Biden pledging to end illegal deforestation in Brazil by 2030 and seeking “considerable” financial assistance to get there, officials said Thursday. The letter comes a week before Biden hosts a virtual climate summit with 40 world leaders, including Bolsonaro — a far-right climate-change skeptic with whom he previously clashed on the issue of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. “In an […]
