Breaking News, Latest Philippines Headlines, World, Entertainment, Politics, Weather & Video News
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) – Japan’s Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi urged his US counterpart Thursday to consider restricting American troop movement in the country after a surge in Covid cases on bases and surrounding communities. The request to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken comes as virus cases surge in Okinawa, which hosts most of the US forces in Japan and is now seeing a rise in community infections. The region’s governor has blamed the rise […]
ROME, Italy (AFP) — Italy’s government said Wednesday that it would make vaccination against Covid-19 compulsory from February 15 for everyone over the age of 50, in a bid to battle surging infections. “We want to slow down the curve of contagion and encourage Italians who have not yet been vaccinated to do so,” Prime Minister Mario Draghi said during a cabinet meeting at which the measure was adopted, according to a statement. “We are […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — The city of Zhengzhou ordered its 12 million residents to take Covid-19 tests Wednesday after a handful of cases were detected, as China fights to stamp out virus clusters ahead of the Winter Olympics. Everyone in Zhengzhou, which has been placed under a partial lockdown, must be tested to “thoroughly uncover infections hidden among the public”, the city’s government said in a statement Wednesday. Zhengzhou has detected 11 cases in recent […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — Covid cases in the locked-down Chinese city of Xi’an fell to their lowest in weeks on Wednesday, as officials said an outbreak there had been largely “brought under control” after two weeks of a stay-at-home order. But other urban hubs where clusters have been detected face restrictions including a new partial lockdown in the city of Zhengzhou. China has stuck to a rigid approach of stamping out Covid cases when they […]
HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Markets struggled in Asia on Wednesday following a tepid lead from Wall Street, with inflation and expected interest rate hikes returning to the key focus of concerns as Omicron fears fade for now. While the new Covid variant continues to spread rapidly around the world, forcing governments to maintain containment measures, its apparently milder symptoms have allowed traders to focus more on future economic policies and plans to rein in […]
The snow storm is over but the travel misery lingered: drivers on a major highway outside Washington reported Tuesday they were stuck in their cars in freezing weather for 24 hours or more. As families tried to return home from the long New Year weekend, I-95 in Virginia was dangerously icy, gas tanks were running low and for hours there was no help in sight, drivers said. Aerial footage showed seemingly endless lines of cars […]
by Isabelle TOURNÉ PARIS, France (AFP) — With new versions forcing vaccine makers to re-test jabs, the virus that causes Covid-19 has proven highly unpredictable. But the latest variant to sweep the globe has persuaded some experts that long hoped-for collective immunity is in sight, and that the virus may be evolving into a relatively benign seasonal illness. Omicron has proven particularly contagious, infecting people thought to have immunity conferred by vaccines or a bout […]
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AFP) — Soaring Omicron cases around the globe could increase the risk of a newer, more dangerous variant emerging, the World Health Organization in Europe warned on Tuesday. While the variant is spreading like wildfire around the world, it appears to be far less severe than initially feared and has raised hopes that the pandemic could be overcome and life return to more normality. But WHO senior emergencies officer Catherine Smallwood sounded […]
by Daniel Lawler with AFP bureaus PARIS, France (AFP) — The US, Britain, France and Australia have all announced record numbers of daily Covid-19 cases as the WHO warned Tuesday that Omicron’s dizzying spread increased the risk of newer, more dangerous variants emerging. Britain breached 200,000 cases for the first time on Tuesday, Australia posted almost 50,000 and France registered more than 270,000, all three countries easily topping their previous records. But dwarfing even those […]
by James PHEBY LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Britain on Tuesday faced warnings of an impending hospital crisis due to staff shortages caused by a wave of Omicron infections, as the country returned to work after holiday Daily case numbers chalked up multiple records in the run-up to New Year, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson promising action to plug staffing gaps in the worst-hit areas. Hospital admissions have not hit anything like the peaks of […]
NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — India’s capital New Delhi will lock down over the weekend as authorities grapple with a fresh surge in coronavirus cases, partly fuelled by the fast-spreading Omicron variant. The country was battered by a devastating Covid outbreak last year that overwhelmed hospitals and crematoriums, but daily case numbers had since then stayed reasonably low until last week. Delhi’s new restrictions came the same day the sprawling megacity’s chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — A landslide at a construction site in southwest China’s Guizhou province has killed at least 14 people, state media reported Tuesday. Workers were reinforcing a hillside when the landslide happened on Monday evening, the official Xinhua news agency said. Rescuers have found 14 bodies, as well as three injured people, with the cause of the accident “still under investigation”, Xinhua reported. Rescue work is “completed”, with the three injured currently in […]
