Paris, France | AFP | A rare case of rabies has been detected in a dog in the Paris region which had bitten several people, the French agriculture ministry announced Thursday. “The Pasteur Institute confirmed a case of rabies in a Husky-cross dog held in a shelter in Evry-Courcouronnes in Essonne,” south of the French capital, the statement said. Before being isolated, the infected dog had “bitten several people who were quickly taken care of […]
Life
EU drug watchdog expects new Covid-19 wave ‘in coming week’
The European Medicines Agency says it expects a new wave of Covid-19 infections “within a week”, adding the virus is evolving faster than the ability to supply adaptive vaccines. It said that introducing pan-Covid vaccines was important for the future but admitted these vaccines were still in “early phases” of development. EMA VIA EBS / © Agence France-Presse
Climate plans would allow up to 2.6C of global warming: UN
Paris, France | AFP | by Patrick GALEY Country climate pledges leave the world on track to heat by as much as 2.6 degrees Celsius this century, according to a United Nations assessment Wednesday warning that emissions must fall 45 percent this decade to limit disastrous heating. The United Nations Environment Programme, in its annual Emissions Gap report, found that updated national promises since last year’s COP26 summit in Glasgow would only shave less […]
China Covid curbs disrupt production at world’s biggest iPhone factory
Beijing, China | AFP | Wednesday Millions of people in China were under tight Covid restrictions on Wednesday as sporadic outbreaks across the country prompted business closures and disruption at the world’s largest iPhone factory. China is the last major economy welded to a zero-Covid strategy, persisting with snap lockdowns, mass testing and lengthy quarantines in a bid to keep infections to a minimum. But fast-spreading virus variants have challenged that approach in recent […]
Life imitates tart: Japanese shop mistakenly sells plastic pastries
Tokyo, Japan (AFP) — Japan’s plastic food samples are a multi-million-dollar industry, but one pastry shop’s fake egg tarts are so life-like that its staff unwittingly sold five to customers. Plastic food samples, known as “shokuhin sampuru”, are made in painstaking detail to look as realistic as possible, from moisture droplets on a chilled glass of beer to the glistening surface of a bowl of ramen. The plastic pastries at Osaka-based Andrew’s Egg Tart are […]
Partial solar eclipse begins in Iceland headed towards India
Paris, France | AFP | A partial solar eclipse began over Iceland on Tuesday as the rare celestial spectacle started to make its way east across a swathe of the Northern Hemisphere. The partial eclipse began at 0858 GMT and will end off the coast of India at 1302 GMT, crossing parts of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East on its way, according to the IMCCE institute of France’s Paris Observatory. Amateur astronomers must […]
Nine dead, million seek shelter as cyclone hits Bangladesh
KUAKATA, Bangladesh (AFP) — At least nine people have died after a cyclone slammed into Bangladesh, forcing the evacuation of around a million people from their homes, officials said Tuesday. Cyclones — the equivalent of hurricanes in the Atlantic or typhoons in the Pacific — are a regular menace but scientists say climate change is likely making them more intense and frequent. Cyclone Sitrang made landfall in southern Bangladesh late Monday but authorities managed to […]
Lost 17th-century warship found in Sweden
Stockholm, Sweden (AFP) — Swedish maritime archaeologists have discovered the long-lost sister vessel of the iconic 17th-century warship “Vasa”, which sank on its maiden voyage, the Swedish Museum of Wrecks said on Monday. Launched in 1629, “Applet” (The Apple) was built by the same shipbuilder as the famed 69-metre (225-foot) “Vasa”, which is now on display in Stockholm after being salvaged in the 1960s. “Our pulses raced when we saw how similar the wreck was […]
For blight-ridden American chestnut tree, rebirth may be in offing
by Robin LEGRAND Agence France Presse Meadowview, United States (AFP) — The American chestnut tree, once a regal pillar of forests across the eastern United States, is on life support, struggling to survive. “These look like death,” said Vasiliy Lakoba, research director for the American Chestnut Foundation (ACF), which has been working since the 1980s to resurrect the species. He pointed to a patch of stunted shrubs, chestnut trees that were a far cry from […]
For struggling Haiti, return of cholera is a ‘catastrophe’
by Jean Daniel SENAT with Lucie AUBOURG in Washington Agence France-Presse PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP) — When humanitarian officials in Haiti try to describe their concerns over a new, fast-spreading cholera epidemic, they struggle to find words strong enough: “alarming,” “chaotic,” even “a catastrophe.” A sizable part of the island’s population has been isolated — and unable to access health care — either by serious fuel shortages or by the brutal armed gangs that control vast […]
Israel to spend millions on Einstein museum
Jerusalem, Undefined (AFP) — The Israeli government decided on Sunday to allocate millions of dollars for a museum to house the world’s largest collection of Albert Einstein documents, the Hebrew University said. It will be built on the university’s Givat Ram campus in Jerusalem, with the government committing to approximately $6 million and the university raising another $12 million. Einstein, one of the founding fathers of the Hebrew University, was a non-resident governor of the […]
Displaced by flooding, Nigerians in desperate need of help
Ahoada, Nigeria | AFP | by Alexandre MARTINS LOPES It was pitch black when the waters came, forcing mother Fortune Lawrence and her eight children to jump on a makeshift boat and flee their house. For the past two weeks, they have been living in dire conditions near Ahoada, in Rivers state, in a school now crowded with more than a thousand people displaced by Nigeria’s worst floods in a decade. “I was afraid to die […]
