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HANOI, Vietnam (AFP) — Vietnam, one of Asia’s biggest consumers of wildlife products, has suspended all imports of wild animal species “dead or alive” and vowed to “eliminate” illegal markets across the country. The directive signed by the leader of the Communist country follows an international scandal over the sale of wildlife, which has been blamed as the origin of the coronavirus pandemic in neighbouring China. It is a major victory for conservation groups who […]
by Jonah Mandel Agence France-Presse MISGAV, Israel (AFP) — An Israeli company is developing a coronavirus breathalyser test that gives results in 30 seconds, billing it as a “front line” tool that can help restore a sense of normality during the pandemic. NanoScent, the firm making the test kits, said an extensive trial in Israel for the presence of live virus delivered results with 85 percent accuracy, and the product could receive regulatory approval within […]
by Maxime MAMET Agence France-Presse BOURGES, France (AFP) — At a museum in central France, researchers tenderly feed insects and kitten milk formula to tiny orphaned bats — creatures widely reviled for their role in human disease outbreaks, most recently COVID-19. The pandemic has triggered bat-killing sprees in communities from India and Peru to Cuba and Rwanda, but the mission of the team at the Bourges natural history museum is to protect the misunderstood winged mammals. […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Claims for government benefits by newly unemployed American workers rose to 1.42 million last week, the Labor Department said Thursday, reversing weeks of declines as coronavirus cases skyrocket nationwide. The increase defied analysts’ expectations of another weekly decrease in new claims, which spiked in March as US businesses shut down to stop the spread of coronavirus put have been dropping since. Adding to the toll were the 974,999 people in […]
by Deborah Claude and Marie-Pierre Ferey in Paris Agence France Presse Many workers’ lives have been abruptly upended by the coronavirus pandemic, as job losses in tourism, air travel, food and drink or other industries hit those both on fixed contracts and in the informal sector. From employees making a comfortable living, to others just scraping by, people around the world are confronting anxiety over how to feed their families and shame at being […]
UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) — Nearly three billion of the world’s poorest people should receive a temporary basic income to help slow the spread of the coronavirus, a United Nations body says. As infection numbers spike in developing countries, measures to protect vulnerable populations are “urgently needed”, according to a report released Wednesday by the UN Development Programme (UNDP). Funding of $199 billion per month would provide 2.7 billion people with a temporary basic […]
by Joshua Howat Berger, with AFP bureaus Agence France Presse RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AFP) — The number of novel coronavirus infections around the world passed 15 million Wednesday, with Latin America and the Caribbean, one of the hardest-hit regions, notching more than four million cases. In the United States, home to over a quarter of global infections, President Donald Trump warned that the pandemic was likely to get worse before it gets better. […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — South Korea’s economy recorded its worst performance in more than 20 years in the second quarter, the central bank said Thursday, as the coronavirus pandemic hammered its exports. Asia’s fourth-largest economy contracted 2.9 percent year-on-year in the April-June period, the Bank of Korea said. It was the fastest decline since a 3.8 percent drop in the fourth quarter of 1998, in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis. Quarter-on-quarter, it […]
BRASILIA, Brazil (AFP) — Brazil recorded a new daily record of coronavirus cases Wednesday with nearly 68,000 infections, a sign COVID-19 is still far from being brought under control in the hard-hit country. The health ministry said 67,860 new infections and 1,284 deaths had been reported in the past 24 hours in Brazil, which has the second-biggest outbreak in the world after the United States. The South American country of 212 million people has recorded […]
MELBOURNE, Australia (AFP) — Australia reported a record 502 new coronavirus infections Wednesday, nearly four months after the epidemic initially peaked, with authorities warning the country was entering a critical new phase. Most of the new cases were reported in the southeastern state of Victoria, where authorities have struggled to bring an outbreak in Melbourne under control despite an almost two-week lockdown in Australia’s second-biggest city. Australia’s new coronavirus infections previously peaked on March 28 […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The keenly-awaited full results from a UK trial of the steroid dexamethasone were published Friday, confirming its life-saving benefits for COVID-19 patients on ventilators but suggesting it may cause harm if given too early. A total of 2,104 hospitalized patients were assigned to receive six milligram daily doses of the medicine for up to 10 days, and 4,321 to receive usual care, with the rate of deaths compared after 28 […]
FRANKFURT AM MAIN, Germany (AFP) — The US government has agreed to pay almost $2 billion for 100 million doses of a potential coronavirus vaccine, German firm BioNTech said on Wednesday. BioNTech, which is developing the drug with US pharma giant Pfizer, said in a statement that American people would receive the future vaccine “for free” in line with the Trump administration’s “commitment for free access for COVID-19 vaccines”. Under the agreement, the US government […]
