Breaking News, Latest Philippines Headlines, World, Entertainment, Politics, Weather & Video News
by Neil SANDS WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AFP) — New Zealand’s economy plunged into recession for the first time in a decade on Thursday, posting a record contraction in the June quarter due to the coronavirus pandemic, as Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern heads into next month’s general election. “The 12.2-percent fall in quarterly GDP is by far the largest on record in New Zealand,” the national statistics agency said. The reporting period covers April to June, […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — More French schools have closed after multiple students tested positive for Covid-19 while a further 2,100 individual classes have also been called off, Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer said Wednesday. Early last week, just 28 schools were closed shortly after the school year resumed but that number has climbed to 81 over the past week. “We have around 1,200 new Covid cases among students compared with last week,” Blanquer told LCI television. […]
SAO, PAULO, Brazil (AFP) — At a warehouse on the west side of Sao Paulo, fruits and vegetables grow within a tower stacked 10 storeys high with plants, all bathed in an ethereal pink light. This is Pink Farms, the first vertical farm in the teeming Brazilian city of 12 million people, where land is scarce and produce usually has to be shipped in from afar. The farm consists of two towers, each about the […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Coronavirus could potentially cost one million jobs in Britain this year, with most losses anticipated during the current third quarter, according to a study published on Monday. Job losses could hit 450,000 between July and September, the Institute for Employment Studies forecast in a report, warning this could worsen to 690,000 positions under a worst-case scenario. Another 200,000 cuts could follow in the fourth quarter, or three months to December, […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — Britain has secured access to up to 190 million doses of a potential coronavirus vaccine from Valneva in deal worth as much as 1.37 billion euros, the French-Austrian vaccine firm said Monday. It had already been disclosed in July that the British government had reserved 60 million doses of Valneva’s inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine under development. The firm said it expects to begin trials of the two-dose vaccine in December and if […]
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AFP) — Saudi Arabia will partially lift its suspension on international flights from Tuesday, the interior ministry said, six months after travel curbs were imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The kingdom will end all restrictions on air, land and sea transport for Saudi citizens “after January 1” next year, the ministry added on Sunday, adding that an exact date will be announced in December. Gulf citizens and non-Saudis with valid […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — South Korea will temporarily ease coronavirus curbs in the greater Seoul area after a decline in cases, officials said Sunday. The country largely overcame an early Covid-19 surge with extensive tracing and testing, but has battled several spikes in recent weeks raising concerns of a second wave of infections. The new cases — mainly in the greater Seoul region, home to half the country’s 52 million population — prompted authorities […]
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AFP) — Latin America and the Caribbean on Thursday passed the milestone of eight million cases of Covid-19, days after logging more than 300,000 deaths from the virus, according to an AFP tally of official records. The region, which is the worst hit in the world, had 8,035,484 cases as of 2200 GMT on Thursday, out of a global total of 28.02 million people infected with the disease. The region made up of […]
SINGAPORE, Singapore (AFP) — Singapore Airlines said Thursday it was cutting about 4,300 jobs — around 20 percent of its workforce — due to the coronavirus, and warned any recovery would be “long and fraught with uncertainty”. SIA is the latest airline to announce massive layoffs as the global aviation industry faces its greatest-ever crisis due to travel restrictions to fight the spread of the pandemic. The city-state’s flag carrier said about 1,900 positions had […]
by Charlotte VAN OUWERKERK MIDDLEBURG, Netherlands (AFP) — A Dutch university is holding open-air classes in parks, public squares and parking lots to limit the number of lectures taking place online because of the coronavirus pandemic. At the foot of a majestic church in the historic center of the city of Middelburg, science professor Edward Nieuwenhuis demonstrates an experiment on a bench in front of 25 students bundled up in jackets. With a noisy street-cleaning […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Drugs giant AstraZeneca on Thursday said a Covid-19 vaccine could still be available by as early as the end of the year, despite a randomised clinical trial being paused. “We could still have a vaccine by the end of this year, early next year,” the UK-based company’s chief executive Pascal Soriot said in comments at a media event. AstraZeneca announced Wednesday it had “voluntarily paused” its trial of a drug […]
by Sammy Ketz KHARTOUM, Sudan (AFP) — It seemed little to worry about: Sudanese farmer Khadija Ahmad was planting onions when she stepped on a thorn that pierced her sandal and cut her foot. But the thorn brought with it a flesh-eating infection, a bacterial and fungal disease called mycetoma, which rips through the body causing severe deformities. For Ahmad, a 45-year-old from El-Fasher in western Sudan’s war-ravaged Darfur region, the first she knew something […]
