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TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said Monday he was considering declaring a state of emergency in the greater Tokyo area over a “very severe” third wave of coronavirus infections. Speaking at a regular new year press conference, Suga also said he hoped vaccinations would begin in Japan in late February, adding that he would be among the first to receive one. He urged people to avoid non-essential outings, and said the […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — The Moscow metro said Sunday it had hired female drivers for the first time in its recent history, following recent changes in controversial Russian legislation prohibiting women from many professions. The Russian capital’s transport system, which oversees the sprawling metro system, said in a statement that “the first female electric train drivers in modern history started working for the Moscow metro.” Built in the Soviet era as a Communist showpiece, the […]
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — At least 10 people were injured Sunday when an explosion rocked a warehouse storing gas canisters near Lebanon’s border with Syria, the Lebanese Red Cross and the army said. The Red Cross said it dispatched several teams of rescuers to the village of Al-Qasr in the eastern Hermel region where the explosion occurred and rushed the injured to hospitals. “We have responded to an explosion in a warehouse that stores gas […]
by James PHEBY LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Sunday warned the country to expect tougher restrictions to combat spiralling coronavirus cases, as a row flared over whether schools should reopen. “It may be that we need to do things in the next few weeks that will be tougher in many parts of the country,” Johnson told the BBC’s The Andrew Marr Show. “I’m fully, fully reconciled to that.” Britain […]
MONTREAL, Canada (AFP) — Canada surpassed the grim milestone of 600,000 coronavirus cases Sunday, two weeks after passing half a million, underscoring the pandemic’s persistence in the country during the end-of-year holiday period. On Sunday afternoon, Canada recorded 601,314 Covid-19 infections since the start of the pandemic and 15,860 deaths, according to data from provinces and territories reported by the public television station CBC. Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, recorded 2,964 new cases in 24 […]
OSLO, Norway (AFP) — Rescue workers have uncovered a seventh body from a landslide that buried homes in a village near Norway’s capital, police said Sunday, with a two-year-old girl and her father among the dead. The tragedy occurred early on Wednesday when houses were destroyed and shifted hundreds of meters under a torrent of mud in the village of Ask, 25 kilometres (15 miles) northeast of Oslo. Police spokesman Bjorn Christian Willersrud told journalists […]
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AFP) — Saudi Arabia on Sunday announced the reopening of borders and the resumption of international flights after a two-week suspension aimed to stem the spread of a new Covid-19 strain. The government ordered the lifting of “precautionary measures related to the spread of a new variant of coronavirus”, the Ministry of the Interior said, according to the official Saudi Press Agency. Saudi Arabia has recorded more than 363,000 cases, including […]
CAIRO, Egypt (AFP) — Egypt has approved the use of a Covid-19 vaccine developed by Chinese pharma giant Sinopharm with its rollout to start later in January, the health minister said. “The Egyptian pharmaceutical authority approved on Saturday the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine,” Hala Zayed said late Saturday, on the local MBC Masr channel. The first batch of the vaccine was delivered in December, with further doses expected this month. “The second shipment of this vaccine […]
NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — India has authorized the emergency use of two coronavirus vaccines developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University and by local pharmaceutical firm Bharat Biotech, the country’s drug regulator said Sunday. “The… vaccines of Serum Institute (AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine) and Bharat Biotech are being approved for restricted use in emergency situations,” the Drugs Controller General of India, V.G. Somani, said at a briefing. Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted that the fast-track approvals […]
FRANKFURT AM MAIN, Germany (AFP) — German firm BioNTech said Friday it was racing to ramp up production of its Covid-19 jab in Europe, to fill the “gap” left by the lack of other approved vaccines. The vaccine developed by BioNTech and its US partner Pfizer was the first to be approved in the European Union in late December. Countries including Britain, Canada and the United States okayed the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine earlier and have […]
NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — India on Saturday staged nationwide drills to start one of the world’s biggest coronavirus vaccination programmes as the drug regulator prepared to approve the first vaccine. A government panel on Friday recommended emergency use of the AstraZeneca-Oxford University shot and the first injections could be given in the coming week after the Drugs Control Authority of India gives final approval. India, which has the world’s second highest number of pandemic […]
by Chris Stein and Heather Scott WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Despite a drop in weekly jobless claims, the US economy is far from healed after a year in which tens of millions of people lost their jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic, many of whom remain out of work. New filings for unemployment benefits last week dropped below 800,000 for the first time in a month, the Labor Department reported Thursday, but experts say […]
