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by Charly TRIBALLEAU KURUME, Japan (AFP) — Torrential rain pounded the center of Japan on Wednesday as authorities said 55 people were feared dead in days of heavy downpours that have triggered devastating landslides and terrifying floods. Rains that began early Saturday on the island of Kyushu have already caused widespread damage across a swathe of the southwestern portion of the country, causing rivers to burst their banks and hillsides to collapse. The weather front […]
by Tania Lee MELBOURNE, Australia (AFP) — Shoppers in Australia’s second-biggest city stripped supermarket shelves Wednesday as millions in Melbourne prepared for a return to virus lockdown, with warnings the new restrictions will cost the economy Aus$1 billion a week. Five million residents were ordered back into a six-week lockdown beginning midnight Wednesday into Thursday as soaring community transmission of the coronavirus brings more than 100 new cases daily. A further 134 infections were detected […]
by Louis GENOT with AFP bureaus Agence France Presse Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who has consistently downplayed the risks of coronavirus, announced Tuesday he has tested positive, as the United States — the nation hardest hit by the pandemic — formally launched its withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO). The UN health agency meanwhile acknowledged that there was “emerging evidence” of airborne transmission of COVID-19, which has infected nearly 11.7 million people around […]
SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — Microsoft and Zoom on Tuesday joined other major internet firms that have stopped considering requests by Hong Kong’s government for information on users in the wake of China’s imposition of a sweeping new security law. Microsoft and Zoom said they are pausing consideration of data requests by officials or police in Hong Kong, a precaution also taken by Facebook, Google and Twitter. “As we would with any new legislation, […]
by Shaun TANDON WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday formally started the withdrawal of the United States from the World Health Organization, making good on threats to deprive the UN body of its top funding source over its response to the coronavirus. Public health advocates and Trump’s political opponents voiced outrage at the departure from the Geneva-based body, which leads the global fight on maladies from polio to measles to mental […]
KIEV, Ukraine (AFP) — Hundreds of firefighters and rescue workers rushed to deal with a forest fire that has killed six people in eastern Ukraine, the interior minister said on Tuesday. Water-bombing planes were also sent to the scene of the blaze in the Lugansk region, which is partially under the control of pro-Russia separatists, Arsen Avakov said. Firefighters initially battled back the flames but it spread again, helped by gusts of wind and soaring […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russian authorities have warned residents of regions near Mongolia against hunting marmots but stressed there was no risk of bubonic plague spreading across the country. Russian public health authorities appealed to residents of the mountainous Tuva and Altai regions following last week’s confirmation of two bubonic plague cases in Mongolia. The cases involve brothers who had eaten marmot meat. On Tuesday, the World Health Organization said it was also monitoring a […]
by Charly TRIBALLEAU TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan will deploy more troops to search for survivors of devastating floods and landslides that have killed at least 52 people in the southwest of the country, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged Tuesday. Even as rescue operations continued, with 80,000 personnel already involved and more expected to join, authorities warned that more torrential rain was expected. Japan’s Meteorological Agency issued its second-highest emergency warning for heavy rain and […]
by Louis GENOT RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AFP) — Brazil may be struggling in its battle against the coronavirus, but it is on the cutting edge of vaccine development with large-scale trials and the production of millions of doses on the horizon. COVID-19 is spreading rapidly across the Latin American nation — a situation underlined when President Jair Bolsonaro tested positive on Tuesday — creating the necessary conditions for testing a vaccine’s efficiency. Brazil, which […]
QUITO, Ecuador (AFP) — Ecuador’s Vice President Otto Sonnenholzner announced his resignation on Tuesday, just eight months away from the 2021 general election. “It’s not an easy decision, the easiest would have been to stay, but I’ve never done what’s most comfortable for me,” said Sonnenholzner in an official statement published on television and radio. “I’ve always said I’m not here for the position, nor for the salary, nor for the honors, and that the […]
by Robin MILLARD GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The WHO said Tuesday it would study fresh evidence on airborne transmission of the coronavirus, after an international group of scientists concluded it could spread far beyond two metres. The World Health Organization said it would put out a new scientific brief within days, rounding up the knowledge about how the virus can be transmitted and ensuring its guidance stays in line with the evidence. The two-metre (yard) […]
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AFP) — Dubai on Tuesday closed its only field hospital set up at a convention centre to treat coronavirus cases after the last patient, a Japanese national, walked out in good health. Doctors and nurses, still wearing protective gear, lined up clapping for Hiroaki Fujita as he left the Dubai World Trade Centre which was converted to a 3,000-bed field hospital in April to treat virus patients. “I ask everyone to […]
