A nurse administers a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to a man in Prague, Czech Republic on July 18, 2022. (DANA KESNEROVA/XINHUA) MEXICO CITY / NICOSIA / LJUBLJANA / HARARE / MOSCOW – Slovenia has authorized the second COVID-19 vaccination booster shot to all adults after the number of new daily infections reached the highest level since spring, the National Institute of Public Health said Tuesday. The …
Russia returns bodies of 45 soldiers to Ukraine
Ukrainian servicemen clean mortar shells during training in Kharkiv region, Ukraine, July 19, 2022. (EVGENIY MALOLETKA / AP) KYIV/ISTANBUL – Forty-five more bodies of dead soldiers have been returned to Ukraine as part of another exchange with Russia, Ukraine's Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories said on Tuesday. The operation to exchange the bodies of the soldiers killed in the Russia-Ukraine conflict was …
Sunak sets pace as 3 left in UK leadership race
The four Conservative Party candidates that went into the latest round of voting on Tuesday are (from left) Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss, Kemi Badenoch and Penny Mordaunt. Badenoch was eliminated in the race to become the UK's next prime minister. (PHOTO / AFP) The race for the Conservative Party leadership that will also decide the next prime minister of the United Kingdom was whittled down …
WMO: Extreme heat waves ‘here to stay’
A man uses cool morning hours for a run on a small road on the outskirts of Frankfurt, Germany on July 18, 2022. (MICHAEL PROBST / AP PHOTO) GENEVA – The World Meteorological Organization warned on Tuesday that Europe's heat wave could persist into the middle of next week, whereas the negative impacts of climate change are bound to continue at least until 2060s. At …
EU tops up Ukraine military aid with 500 million euros
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell speaks with the media as he arrives for a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on on July 18, 2022. (VIRGINIA MAYO / AP) BRUSSELS－European Union foreign ministers on Monday agreed to grant Ukraine an additional 500 million euros ($507.7 million) in military aid from the bloc. Josep Borrell, the EU's foreign affairs and security chief, told …
US CDC recommends Novavax COVID-19 vaccine for adults
This file photo taken on Nov 17, 2020 shows vials with COVID-19 Vaccine stickers attached and syringes with the logo of US biotech company Novavax. (JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP) MEXICO CITY / NICOSIA – The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday recommended use of Novavax Inc's COVID-19 vaccine for individuals aged 18 and above. CDC director Rochelle Walensky said the decision "expanded …
Italy faces parliamentary showdown on govt survival
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi speaks during the inauguration of the Business Forum at the International Conference Center in Algiers on July 18, 2022. (AFP) ROME – Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi will address the upper house Senate on Wednesday on a political crisis that could bring down his government and trigger early elections at a time of international tumult and economic upset. Senators have …
UN meeting urges bold, effective solutions to global food crisis
In this file photo dated July 3, 2022, UN Secretary-General António Guterres addresses the 43rd Heads of Government Meeting of the Caribbean Community, at Assuria High Rise in Paramaribo, Suriname. (RANU ABHELAKH / AFP) UNITED NATIONS – Participants in a high-level event held at the United Nations headquarters in New York on Monday called for bold, coordinated and effective actions to tackle the global food …
After warmest night, Britain braces for record temperature
A road sign reads "Extreme Heat, Plan your journey, Carry water", warning motorists about the heatwave forecast for July 18 and 19, on the M11 motorway north of London on July 17, 2022. (DAMIEN MEYER / AFP) LONDON – Britain was bracing for temperatures to hit 40C for the first time on Tuesday after it recorded its warmest night on record, forcing train services to …
US reports over 6m child COVID-19 cases in 2022
A healthcare worker prepares a vial of the COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination site in Times Square, New York, the United States on June 22, 2022. (MICHAEL NAGLE/XINHUA) FRANKFURT / HELSINKI / BRUSSELS / LA PAZ / LOS ANGELES – Over 6 million child COVID-19 cases have been reported in the United States in 2022, with nearly 287,000 cases added in the past four weeks, according to …
UK braces for record temperatures as heatwave ripples across Europe
A road sign reads "Extreme Heat, Plan your journey, Carry water", warning motorists about the heatwave forecast for July 18 and 19, on the M11 motorway north of London on July 17, 2022. (DAMIEN MEYER / AFP) MADRID/LISBON – Britain was heading for its highest temperatures on record and firefighters battled blazes across southern Europe as a heatwave sent people hunting for shade and compounded …
UK govt wins confidence vote in parliament, dodges snap election
A handout photograph released by the UK Parliament shows Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaking during a debate ahead of a confidence vote in the ruling Conservative government, in the House of Commons in London on July 18, 2022. (ANDY BAILEY / UK PARLIAMENT / AFP) LONDON – Lawmakers in the House of Commons, the lower house of the British parliament, backed outgoing Prime Minister …
EU agrees additional 500m euros in military aid for Ukraine
High representative of the EU for foreign affairs and security policy, Josep Borrell, speaks to the media as he arrives for a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on, July 18, 2022. (VIRGINIA MAYO / AP) BRUSSELS – The foreign ministers of the European Union member states on Monday agreed to grant Ukraine an additional 500 million euros ($507.7 million) in EU military aid. …
Prisons agency: Thirteen killed in Ecuador prison riot
Handout photo released by the Ecuadorean Police of a police operation at the Bellavista prison in Santo Domingo de los Colorados, Ecuador, on May 11, 2022. (STAFF / AFP) QUITO – Thirteen prisoners were killed at a prison in the Ecuadorean city of on Monday, Ecuador's prison agency said, the latest incident of deadly jail violence in the Andean country. Unfortunately, personnel from the center …
EU reviews Pfizer COVID shot in children as young as 6 months
This file photo taken on June 11, 2021 shows the entrance of the European Medicines Agency headquarters in Amsterdam. (FRANCOIS WALSCHAERTS / AFP) FRANKFURT / HELSINKI / BRUSSELS / LA PAZ – The European Medicines Agency on Monday started reviewing a low-dose version of BioNTech and Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for use in children between the age of six months and four years. Last month the US Centers …
Pentagon: US successfully flight-tests Raytheon hypersonic arms
A flag flies in front of the facade of Raytheon's Integrated Defense Systems facility on June 10, 2019, in Woburn, Massachusetts. (ELISE AMENDOLA / AP) WASHINGTON – The United States has successfully tested a Raytheon Technologies Corp air-breathing hypersonic weapon capable of speeds faster than five times the speed of sound, making it the third successful test of that class of weapon since 2013, the …
Increasingly bitter UK PM race narrows to four
This combination of file pictures shows, from Left, Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak in Manchester, northwest England, on Oct 5, 2021; Foreign Minister Liz Truss in Prague on May 27, 2022; a handout photo of Conservative MP for Saffron Walden, Kemi Badenoch, posing for an official portrait photograph in London; and Secretary of State for Defense Penny Mordaunt in Singapore on May 31, …
Estonia’s new coalition government takes office
Estonia's Prime Minister Kaja Kallas addresses media representatives during a press conference at the NATO summit at the Ifema congress centre in Madrid, on June 30, 2022. (GABRIEL BOUYS / AFP) TALLINN – The members of Estonia's new government coalition of the Reform Party, the conservative Isamaa (Fatherland) Party and the Social Democratic Party (SDE) were sworn in in front of the Parliament (Riigikogu) on …
Putin: West cannot isolate Russia and send it back in time
Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting of the Presidential Council for Strategic Development and National Projects via a video link at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence, outside Moscow, on July 18, 2022. (MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV / SPUTNIK / AFP) MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that it was impossible to cut Russia off from the rest of the world, and that sanctions imposed …
Kremlin: Putin, Erdogan to discuss Ukrainian grain exports Tuesday
Farmer Andriy Zubko checks wheat ripeness on a field in Donetsk region, Ukraine, June 21, 2022. (EFREM LUKATSKY / AP) MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan will discuss the export of Ukrainian grain at their meeting in Tehran on Tuesday, a Kremlin aide has told reporters. Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations are expected to sign a deal …