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by Agence France Presse bureaus An overwhelming majority of California’s residents went into lockdown Monday, putting 33 million people under stay-at-home orders as the United States battles record Covid deaths and Britain readied to vaccinate the elderly and frontline staff. The lockdown in America’s most populous state forced most offices to close and banned gatherings among different households, while bars and services such as hair salons were shut and restaurants only allowed to serve […]
SAO PAULO, Brazil (AFP) — Sao Paulo state, Latin America’s coronavirus epicenter, will launch a Covid-19 vaccination campaign in January, the governor said Monday, though a political battle with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro could derail those plans. Governor Joao Doria said large-scale immunization using Chinese-developed vaccine CoronaVac would begin with health care workers, the elderly and other vulnerable groups on January 25. “The target public for this initial phase was chosen based on the incidence […]
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — Indonesia has received 1.2 million doses of a Covid-19 vaccine made by China’s Sinovac, officials said, as the world’s fourth most populous nation struggles to get soaring case rates under control. The doses arrived in Jakarta late Sunday on a flight from Beijing, with another 1.8 million expected to be sent again next month. Although Chinese regulators have yet to clear any of country’s vaccines for mass distribution, they have approved […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Joe Biden plans to nominate California attorney general Xavier Becerra for secretary of health and human services, which would add another Latino member to the president-elect’s increasingly diverse cabinet, US media reported Sunday. During Becerra’s 12 terms in the US Congress representing Los Angeles, he was an outspoken advocate of Latino rights and a vigorous defender of former president Barack Obama’s signature health care program — a policy that has […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinovac Biotech has secured half a billion dollars in extra funding to produce its Covid-19 vaccine, it said Monday, as the country races to roll out a jab for general use. Beijing has largely brought the virus under control, with only 281 active cases still receiving treatment, according to official figures. But it has promised to make its vaccines available as a “global public good” as it seeks […]
WASHINGTON, UNited States (AFP) — Allies of President Donald Trump have sought an emergency order from the US Supreme Court blocking the certification of election results in Pennsylvania, a key state won by President-elect Joe Biden. The move follows the Pennsylvania state supreme court’s rejection Saturday of a suit challenging expanded mail-in voting in the key northeastern state. In the motion filed Thursday the top US court is not asked to rule on the […]
BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — Nearly 13,000 residents were evacuated in Frankfurt on Sunday as experts defused an unexploded World War II bomb, local emergency services said. The 500-kilogram (1,100-pound) British bomb had been found on a construction site in Germany’s financial capital on Thursday, the emergency services said. It was successfully defused in less than two hours, the fire service announced on Twitter in the afternoon. Some 12,800 residents had been asked to leave their […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — Twenty-three miners have been confirmed dead after an accident at a coal mine in southern China, state media reported, with only one person rescued. A carbon monoxide leak on Friday evening at the Diaoshuidong mine in the city of Chongqing left 18 miners confirmed dead the next day as rescue efforts continued. But state media said Sunday that the toll had risen to 23 with only one survivor. The accident occurred […]
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AFP) — US and Chinese companies dominated the global arms market in 2019, while the Middle East made its first appearance among the 25 biggest weapons manufacturers, a report by the SIPRI research institute said Monday. The US arms industry accounted for 61 percent of sales by the world’s “Top 25” manufacturers last year, ahead of China’s 15.7 percent, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Total sales by the “Top 25” […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Donald Trump said Sunday his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani has tested positive for Covid-19, the latest member of the president’s inner circle — where mask wearing is rare — to contract the disease. The 76-year-old former New York City mayor’s age puts him in a high-risk group, and the New York Times and ABC reported he was hospitalized on Sunday in Washington as the US faces a record […]
by Chris Stein Agence France Presse Before the pandemic closed her middle school and US immigration agents deported her father to El Salvador, Kimberly Orellana did not fear going hungry. But with her mother now alone and cleaning houses for pay that isn’t enough to reliably feed Orellana and her two younger sisters, the 14-year-old is left to trek to a nearby school for a handout of groceries organized by a non-profit. “Everyone in our […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II will receive the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine within weeks, after UK regulators granted emergency approval and the world’s first roll-out begins next week, reports late Saturday said. The monarch, 94, and her 99-year-old husband Prince Philip are in line to get the jab early due to their age and will not receive preferential treatment, the Mail on Sunday reported. The newspaper said Britain’s most senior royals would […]
