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NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — Heavy monsoon rains lashed New Delhi Wednesday, inundating roads and piling on misery for commuters in the chaotic Indian capital, as the death toll from the annual deluge across South Asia rose to nearly 1,300. The monsoon is vital to the densely populated region, revitalizing land and waterways amid scorching summers. But it also causes widespread death and destruction. In New Delhi, commuters battled through knee-deep waters and cars and […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — Floods in mountainous southwest China have washed away roads and forced tens of thousands from their homes, with authorities warning Wednesday the giant Three Gorges Dam was facing the largest flood peak in its history. Footage on state broadcaster CCTV showed murky water lapping at the feet of the Leshan Giant Buddha — a 71m-tall figure carved into a cliffside in Sichuan province. CCTV said floods had not reached the Buddha’s […]
MANILA, Philippines (AFP) — Coronavirus cases in Asia-Pacific countries are now being driven by people under the age of 50 who may not know they are infected, the World Health Organization said Tuesday, warning of a “new phase” in the pandemic. Many have mild or no COVID-19 symptoms and risk infecting the elderly and other vulnerable populations, the WHO’s Western Pacific regional director Takeshi Kasai told a virtual briefing. “The epidemic is changing. People […]
MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AFP) — Authorities in Mexico’s Baja California closed ports and beaches on Tuesday as Hurricane Genevieve barrelled towards the peninsula packing winds of nearly 195 kilometers (120 miles) per hour. At 0300 GMT Genevieve, a Category 3 hurricane, was located some 390 kilometers south of the southern tip of Baja California moving towards the northwest at around 17 kilometers per hour, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center reported. The storm — which had […]
REIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AFP) — Brazilian health regulators said Tuesday they had approved Johnson & Johnson’s experimental vaccine against the new coronavirus for the final stage of clinical trials, the fourth vaccine to receive widespread testing in the hard-hit country. The US pharmaceutical company’s subsidiary Janssen will test the vaccine on 7,000 volunteers across seven states in Brazil, part of a group of up to 60,000 worldwide, health regulator Anvisa said in a statement. […]
by Serge Daniel and Malick Konate BAMAKO, Mali (AFP) — Mali’s president said he was resigning to avoid “bloodshed” early Wednesday, hours after his arrest by troops in a sudden coup that followed a months-long political crisis in the fragile West African nation. Rebel soldiers detained Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and Prime Minister Boubou Cisse on Tuesday afternoon and drove the pair to a military base in the town of Kati, near the capital Bamako, which […]
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — Two large and shallow earthquakes struck off Indonesia’s Sumatra island early Wednesday, the US Geological Survey reported. The quakes, of magnitude 6.8 and 6.9, struck within six minutes of one another from 5:23 am (22:23 GMT Tuesday). The US agency said there was a “low likelihood of casualties and damage”. © Agence France-Presse
COBAN, Guatemala (AFP) — An indigenous community in Guatemala that suffered an arson attack on their village by an armed group has called for further help despite authorities sending police to protect them. Some 40 families were forcibly evicted from their homes, which were then set alight by armed raiders in the early hours of Sunday. “We ask for help for these families and also for ourselves (because) unfortunately they robbed us and left us […]
by Michel COMTE OTTAWA, Canada (AFP) — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tapped Chrystia Freeland to be Canada’s first female finance minister on Tuesday as an ethics scandal that clipped her predecessor’s wings reverberates through the government. Freeland received a standing ovation after being sworn in at a small ceremony in Ottawa. Guests socially distanced, wore face masks and Freeland greeted Trudeau with an elbow bump after taking the oath of office, telling reporters that it […]
BAMAKO, Mali (AFP) — Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and Prime Minister Boubou Cisse are both being held by rebel soldiers, a senior government official confirmed to AFP on Tuesday. “The prime minister and the president were driven by rebel soldiers to Kati in armored vehicles,” said Boubou Doucoure, who works as Cisse’s director of communications. He added that both men were now at Kati, a town near the capital Bamako which hosts an important […]
by Robin MILLARD GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The WHO wrote to every country on Tuesday urging them to quickly join its global shared vaccine program and spelled out who would get its eventual coronavirus jabs first. The World Health Organization’s director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that without vaccinating the highest-risk populations around the world all at the same time, it would be impossible to rebuild the global economy. And he said the most exposed 20 […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australia has secured access to a “promising” potential coronavirus vaccine, the prime minister announced Tuesday, saying the country would manufacture it and offer free doses to the entire population. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia had reached a deal with Swedish-British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca to receive the COVID-19 vaccine it is developing with Oxford University. “The Oxford vaccine is one of the most advanced and promising in the world, and under […]
