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by Hélène COLLIOPOULOU with Raziye AKKOC in Ankara ATHENS, Greece (AFP) — Greece and its EU allies held war games in the Mediterranean Wednesday while Turkey conducted drills with the US navy nearby, as the row between the two neighbours over gas and maritime borders ratcheted up another notch. The convergence of a growing number of warships on an energy-rich but disputed patch of sea between Cyprus and Crete came as NATO and a host […]
LIMA, Peru (AFP) — Peru on Wednesday began registering volunteers for clinical trials of a Chinese vaccine against the coronavirus. Six thousand volunteers, who must be aged between 18 and 75 and not have contracted the virus, will be recruited by Cayetano Heredia and San Marcos universities via a dedicated website. “The universities will select 3,000 volunteers each,” San Marcos rector Orestes Cachay told reporters. The vaccine, being developed by Chinese company Sinopharm, will be […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The United States on Wednesday announced sanctions and restrictions on two dozen Chinese companies and associated officials for taking part in building artificial islands in disputed waters in the South China Sea. The 24 state-owned firms include subsidiaries of construction giant China Communications Construction Co., telecommunications firms and a unit of the China Shipbuilding Group. The move was the latest step in Washington’s efforts to pressure Beijing over its military […]
by Elise Blanchard with Emal Haidary in Kabul KABUL, Afghanistan (AFP) — Rescue workers in Afghanistan searched Wednesday for survivors of flash floods that killed more than 70 people and destroyed hundreds of houses in a city north of the capital, officials said. Troops pulled dozens from the rubble of collapsed buildings in Charikar, capital of Parwan province, after it was hit by heavy rain overnight, but officials and witnesses said many children were among […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korean state media on Wednesday showed leader Kim Jong Un at a meeting of a top committee issuing warnings about the coronavirus and a looming typhoon, following international speculation over his state of health. Kim’s comments come amid conjecture over his condition after South Korea’s spy agency said he had delegated some authority to his sister Kim Yo Jong to relieve his “governance stress”. A former aide to late […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Pharma giant AstraZeneca said Tuesday it had begun a clinical trial of a drug designed to both prevent infection and treat people with COVID-19, with the first volunteers receiving doses. The drug, known as AZD7442, is a combination of two antibodies and is being tested on 48 healthy people aged between 18 and 55, the company said. “This trial is an important milestone in the development of our monoclonal antibody […]
KINSHASA, DR Congo (AFP) — The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Tuesday declared the end of a 25-month outbreak of measles that claimed the lives of more than 7,000 children aged under five. The outbreak was countered by vaccination on a massive scale, in which millions of children and infants were immunized. “For the past month, we are able to say that this epidemic has been eliminated from across our territory,” Health Minister Eteni […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Hillary Clinton, who lost to Donald Trump in 2016, said Tuesday that this year’s Democratic challenger Joe Biden should refuse to concede until all votes are counted in a tight and possibly drawn-out contest. Clinton said that possible delays in tallying ballots — with mail-in voting set to reach unprecedented levels — mean Biden must hold back from accepting defeat initially. “Joe Biden should not concede under any circumstances because […]
by Gianrigo MARLETTA NEW ORLEANS, United States (AFP) — Storm Laura was upgraded to a destructive hurricane on Tuesday and is forecast to make landfall along the Texas or Louisiana coasts on Wednesday night, after earlier causing 24 deaths in the Caribbean. Maximum sustained winds are near 75 mph (120 km/h) with higher gusts, the US National Hurricane Center reported, with the storm expected to strengthen over the next day. “Laura is forecast to reach […]
by Moises Avila, with Amelie Baron in Port-aux-Princes HAVANA, Cuba (AFP) — Tropical Storm Laura pounded Cuba with heavy rains Monday as it barrelled toward the US, where forecasters predicted it would strengthen to a hurricane after leaving 24 people dead and a swath of destruction in the Caribbean. “Strengthening is expected when the storm moves over the Gulf of Mexico, and Laura is forecast to become a hurricane by late Tuesday,” the US National […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — South Korea on Tuesday ordered all schools and kindergartens in the greater Seoul region to switch to online classes as authorities battle multiple coronavirus clusters. The country’s “trace, test and treat” approach to curbing the virus has been held up as a global model, but it is now trying to contain several outbreaks, mostly linked to Protestant churches. South Korea reported 280 new infections on Tuesday, taking the country’s total […]
KINSHASA, DR Congo (AFP) — One hundred cases of Ebola have been recorded in DR Congo’s northwest in less than three months, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Thursday as it warned the response to the epidemic is underfunded. The outbreak was reported in Equateur province on June 1, just as the country was preparing to declare an end to a separate Ebola epidemic in the east that claimed over 2,000 lives. The latest outbreak […]
