Other News

US announces extra $165 million in Yemen aid

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AFP) — The United States on Monday announced an additional $165 million in humanitarian aid for Yemen, as the war-ravaged country continues to face what the UN calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Yemen’s conflict flared in 2014 when Iran-backed Huthi rebels seized the capital Sanaa, prompting a Saudi-led intervention to prop up the internationally recognized government the following year. The fighting has killed tens of thousands, displaced millions and left […]

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Putin orders reinforcements to fight Siberia wildfires

MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered officials Tuesday to send in reinforcements to fight forest fires that continue to tear through Siberia. Wildfires have ripped through Siberia’s forests with growing intensity in recent years, which Russian weather officials and environmentalists have linked to climate change and underfunded forestry management services. Putin ordered Russia’s emergencies ministry to “increase the group for extinguishing fires” and “raise the intensity of the work of aviation” in […]

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German train drivers call strike in escalating wage dispute

BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — German train drivers voted to go on strike from Tuesday over a wage dispute, their union said, in a blow for summer vacationers and adding to logistics and supply woes already plaguing the industry. The walkout will affect cargo trains from 7 pm (1700 GMT) on Tuesday, before extending to passenger traffic at 2 am on Wednesday, said the leader of the train drivers’ GDL union, Claus Weselsky. Some 95 percent […]

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Libya’s wildlife treasure island at risk of ruin

by Hamza Mekouar FARWA, Libya (AFP) — Once famed for its exceptional wildlife, Libya’s Farwa island risks becoming just another victim of lawlessness in the war-ravaged North African nation, activists struggling to save it warn. An uninhabited 13-kilometer-long (eight mile) sandbar cut off at high tide in far western Libya, Farwa appears picture-postcard idyllic, with scattered date palms on white sandy beaches and ringed by the sparkling Mediterranean Sea. The International Union for Conservation of […]

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Five dead as wildfires rage across Algeria

ALGIERS, Algeria (AFP) — At least five people have died in raging wildfires in Algeria as firefighters battle more than 31 blazes amid blistering temperatures and tinder-dry conditions, officials said Tuesday. Photographs posted on social media show huge walls of flame and billowing clouds of smoke towering over villages in the forested hills of the Kabylie region, east of the capital Algiers. Algeria is the latest Mediterranean country to be hit by wildfires, after blazes […]

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‘The Suicide Squad’ tops NAmerica box office with a tepid total

LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — With Covid-19 fears again depressing North American moviegoing, new Warner Bros./DC superhero film “The Suicide Squad” led the weekend box office but took in only $26.2 million, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations said Monday. The movie, dubbed a pseudo-sequel to 2016’s major hit “Suicide Squad,” again featured A-listers Margot Robbie and Viola Davis, but two big names from the earlier version — Will Smith and Jared Leto — sat this […]

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US warns citizens against travel to France over Covid concerns

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The US State Department has advised Americans to avoid all travel to France over rising coronavirus cases in the country. France is battling a fourth wave of the virus even though Covid-19 hospitalizations are still way off previous highs. The State Department issued a “Level 4: Do Not Travel” advisory for France on Monday, based on a parallel warning from the US Centers for Disease Control, the country’s top medical […]

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Bangladesh begins Covid-19 vaccinations for Rohingya refugees

KUTUPALONG Bangladesh (AFP) — Bangladesh on Tuesday began vaccinating Rohingya refugees living in congested camps as the impoverished South Asian nation battles a record surge in coronavirus cases, officials said. Health officials say 2,600 Covid-19 cases and 29 deaths have been recorded in the camps housing some 850,000 Rohingya but many experts say this is likely a gross underestimate. The initial inoculation phase will see around 48,000 refugees aged over 55 get Chinese-made Sinopharm shots […]

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China virus cases rise as Delta variant challenges Beijing

BEIJING, China (AFP) — China’s coronavirus cases hit a seven-month high on Tuesday, after a cluster at a test site drove up numbers as the Delta variant challenges Beijing’s grip on the pandemic. State media has described the current outbreak — which has sparked local lockdowns, mass testing and travel restrictions — as the most severe since the virus emerged in the central city of Wuhan. Authorities had brought domestic infections down to virtually zero, […]

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Pentagon to mandate Covid shots for military

by Paul HANDLEY WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The Pentagon said Monday it will make Covid-19 vaccinations mandatory for all members of the US military by mid-September, amid an alarming surge in infections by the Delta variant. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a memo he would ask President Joe Biden to approve the move in about five weeks, even if none of the current vaccines gains full approval from the US Food and Drug […]

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Resource-starved Singapore turns sewage into ultra-clean water

by Martin Abbugao Agence France Presse SINGAPORE (AFP) — Giant pumps whir deep underground at a plant in Singapore that helps transform sewage into water so clean it is fit for human consumption while reducing ocean pollution. The tiny island nation has little in the way of natural water sources and has long had to rely principally on supplies from neighbouring Malaysia. To boost self-sufficiency, the government has developed an advanced system for treating sewage […]

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Eleazar to cops: Observe maximum tolerance when dealing with quarantine violators

(Eagle News) — Philippine National Police Chief Guillermo Eleazar reminded policemen to follow protocols in dealing with civilians especially during the implementation of the enhanced community quarantine in Metro Manila. Eleazar issued the reminder after a Manila resident was shot dead for supposedly making noise during curfew hours. The PNP said barangay tanod Cesar Panlaqui fired the bullet that killed  Eduardo Geñoga in Tondo. Eleazar said Panlaqui was already in police custody and will be […]

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