International

France daily coronavirus cases top record 30,000

PARIS, France (AFP) — The number of people who have tested positive for coronavirus in France over the past 24 hours has exceeded 30,000 for the first time, official data showed on Thursday. France’s public health agency said that a total 30,621 confirmed cases of Covid-19 had been detected in the past 24 hours, a record daily total. The number of people who have died from the novel coronavirus over the same 24-hour period stood […]

WHO warns Europe virus surge of ‘great concern’

  by Agence France Presse bureaus eausEuropean countries have unveiled tough new measures to try to curb a surge in coronavirus infections which the World Health Organization warned Thursday is of “great concern”. Underscoring the disruption wrought by Covid-19 even in the corridors of power, US presidential candidate Joe Biden’s running mate Kamala Harris suspended travel after a staffer contracted the disease and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen abruptly left a summit in Brussels […]

‘Corona chaos’ as Germans baffled by virus rules

by Femke COLBORNE Agence France Presse BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — When Covid-19 first struck Europe earlier this year, Germany’s federal system was credited with taking early and targeted measures that helped contain the virus better than many other countries. But as the second wave gathers momentum in Europe’s biggest economy, cracks in the federal system are starting to show. With different states implementing different travel restrictions, quarantine rules and test strategies, a confusing patchwork of […]

Russia registers new Covid vaccine, EpiVacCorona, as cases hit record high

MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — President Vladimir Putin announced on Wednesday that Russia has registered its second coronavirus vaccine, while the country reported a record number of new infections. “The Novosibirsk Vektor centre today registered the second Russian vaccine against coronavirus — EpiVacCorona,” Putin said during a video conference with cabinet members. Vektor, a top-secret laboratory in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, conducted biological weapons research in the Soviet era and stockpiles viruses ranging from Ebola […]

13 cases, 10 million tests: China swabs city after coronavirus outbreak

BEIJING, China (AFP) — Almost 10 million people in the Chinese city of Qingdao have now been screened for the coronavirus, officials said Thursday, as authorities rushed to quash an outbreak through an ambitious program of mass testing. Deputy mayor Luan Xin said more than 9.9 million samples had been collected and 7.6 million results returned, adding that no new cases had been found. The city has now confirmed 13 cases, Luan told a regular […]

Heavy rains kill 30 in southern India

HYDERABAD, India (AFP) —  least 30 people have been killed because of sudden torrential rains and flooding in southern India, officials said Thursday. In Hyderabad city, home to top IT companies, nine people were killed when a wall collapsed on them and 10 others died from electrocution and drowning, a local official told AFP. Dramatic images showed cars being washed away by swirling waters, bridges submerged by swollen rivers and trucks stranded on roads inundated […]

France says to re-impose state of health emergency

PARIS, France (AFP) — The French government said on Wednesday it was re-imposing a state of health emergency to contain the spread of Covid-19. The move, announced shortly before President Emmanuel Macron was to appear on national television to announce fresh coronavirus measures, will allow “measures proportional to the health risks to be taken”, and will enter into force on Saturday, according to minutes from a cabinet meeting Wednesday. France was facing “a health catastrophe”, […]

YouTube to remove Covid vaccine misinformation

SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — YouTube said Wednesday it would take down content which contradicts expert consensus about Covid-19 vaccines, updating its policies on misinformation about the pandemic. The move is the latest by online platforms struggling to contain the spread of hoaxes and false information about the coronavirus and treatments. YouTube, the Google-owned video-sharing service, said it was expanding its medical misinformation policy “to remove claims about Covid-19 vaccinations that contradict expert consensus from […]

Pompeo plays down North Korea ICBM risk

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday played down North Korea’s parading of a massive new long-range missile, saying that agreements reached by President Donald Trump had succeeded in reducing risks. At a military parade Saturday in Pyongyang, leader Kim Jong Un viewed an intercontinental ballistic missile that analysts say is the largest road-mobile, liquid-fueled missile anywhere in the world. But Pompeo, who arranged Trump’s landmark summit with Kim […]

WWII bomb goes off in Poland during defusal op

by Stanislaw WASZAK / Anna Maria JAKUBEK WARSAW, Poland (AFP) — A massive World War II bomb exploded during a delicate operation on Tuesday to defuse the five-tonne device in a channel near the Baltic Sea but no one was harmed, Polish officials said. The device — nicknamed “Tallboy” and also known as an “earthquake bomb” — was dropped by the Royal Air Force in an attack on a Nazi warship in 1945. It was […]

Biden, Trump duel in battleground states 21 days from election

  by Jerome Cartillier with Sebastian Smith in Washington Agence France Presse US President Donald Trump told a Pennsylvania crowd Tuesday that he’s fighting “Marxists” and “lunatics” while his Democratic challenger Joe Biden accused him in Florida, another key electoral state, of having treated Americans as “expendable” during the Covid-19 pandemic. With only 21 days until the November 3 election and badly down in the polls, Trump fired every lurid exaggeration about the Democrats and […]

Second Covid-19 trial paused within 24 hours over safety concerns

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Two late-stage Covid-19 medical trials have been paused in the space of 24 hours over potential safety concerns, the latest setbacks to scientists in the long fight against the pandemic. US pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly on Tuesday suspended its Phase 3 trial of its lab-produced antibody treatment in hospitalized patients over an unspecified incident. A day earlier, the American pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson temporarily halted its Phase 3 Covid-19 […]