People write messages in memory of their beloved ones, on the National COVID-19 Memorial Wall, in London, on March 28, 2022. (TOLGA AKMEN / AFP) LONDON / NEW YORK / BERLIN / LOS ANGELES / PRAGUE / OTTAWA – An estimated 3.5 million people in Britain had COVID-19 in the latest week of available data, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said on Friday, up nearly 30 percent on the …
EU to ban Russian gold imports in new sanctions package
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks during a press conference on the EU membership applications by Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia at the European Commission headquarters in Brussels on June 17, 2022. (KENZO TRIBOUILLARD / AFP) BRUSSELS / MOSCOW / KYIV / TEHRAN – The European Commission on Friday adopted a proposal for a seventh package of measures that will ban the importation of Russian gold. The …
Five contenders to be next UK PM to face off in TV debate
This Jan 14, 2022 photo shows a police officer on duty at 10 Downing Street in London. (KIRSTY WIGGLESWORTH / AP) LONDON – The five remaining contenders to be Britain's next prime minister will go head to head in the first of three televised debates on Friday, hoping a good performance will boost their chances in a battle that so far has no clear frontrunner. …
25m kids ‘missed out on routine vaccinations due to pandemic’
A child has his thumb marked after receiving a polio vaccine during a door-to-door polio immunisation campaign in Mbezi Mwisho, Dar es Salaam on May 21, 2022. (ERICKY BONIPHACE / AFP) LONDON – Around 25 million children around the world missed out on routine vaccinations that protect against life-threatening diseases last year, as the knock-on effects of the pandemic continue to disrupt health care globally. …
France evacuates hundreds more from homes as wildfires spread
This photograph taken on July 15, 2022 shows a restaurant destroyed by flames due to a wildfire spreading in the area close to the beach of Cazaux lac, near La Teste-de-Buch, southwestern France. (THIBAUD MORITZ / AFP) PARIS – Hundreds more people were evacuated from their homes as wildfires continued to rage out of control in southwestern France, authorities said on Friday. The fires have now …
US House passes bill boosting Biden’s record defense budget
This handout photo courtesy of US Navy shows the United States Air Force Air Demonstration Squadron, "Thunderbirds" and the US Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, the Blue Angels, debut a F-16 Fighting Falcon and F/A-18 Super Hornet flight formation known as the "Super Delta" during a joint training evolution over Naval Air Facility (NAF) El Centro, California, March 2, 2021. (CODY HENDRIX / US NAVY / …
Buffalo shooting suspect faces federal hate, firearms charges
Cariol Horne, 54, holds up a sign as she stands outside the fenced-off parking lot outside Tops Friendly Market during a remembrance ceremony on July 14, 2022, in Buffalo, NY (JOSHUA BESSEX / AP PHOTO) The man accused of shooting dead 10 Black people at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, on May 14 has been indicted on 27 federal hate crimes and firearms …
European Commission cuts EU, eurozone growth forecasts
Flags of the European Union flutter in front of the headquarters of the European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, on March 10, 2021. (ARMANDO BABANI / AFP) BRUSSELS – The European Commission cut its economic growth forecasts for the European Union and the eurozone for 2022 and 2023 and revised up its inflation estimates on Thursday. According to the "Summer 2022 Economic …
UN: Pandemic behind major backslide in childhood vaccination
A child has his thumb marked after receiving a polio vaccine during a door-to-door polio immunisation campaign in Mbezi Mwisho, Dar es Salaam on May 21, 2022. (ERICKY BONIPHACE / AFP) LONDON – Around 25 million children around the world missed out on routine vaccinations that protect against life-threatening diseases last year, as the knock-on effects of the pandemic continue to disrupt health care globally. …
Virus: Canada clears Moderna vaccine for children under 5
This file photo taken on June 4, 2021 shows a vial of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at a pharmacy in Paris, France. (STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP) OTTAWA / COPENHAGEN / LOS ANGELES / PRAGUE – Canada on Thursday authorized Moderna Inc's COVID-19 vaccine for babies as young as 6 months old, making it the country's first vaccine against coronavirus for children under 5, Health Canada said. Canada had …
Draghi resignation turned down, told to address parliament
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi gives a press conference at Canazei Fire Brigade on July 4, 2022. (PIERRE TEYSSOT / TEYSSOT / AFP) ROME – The Italian head of state on Thursday rejected the resignation of Prime Minister Mario Draghi and asked him to address parliament to get a clear picture of the political situation, a statement from President Sergio Mattarella's office said. Italian President …
Scorching heat wave sparks wildfires in Europe
A forest fire reaches olive trees in the village of Colmeias, near Leiria, central Portugal, July 13, 2022. (ARMANDO FRANCA / AP) LEIRIA, Portugal – Thousands of firefighters battled more than 20 blazes that raged on Wednesday across Portugal and western Spain, menacing villages and disrupting tourists' holidays amid a heat wave that pushed temperatures above 45 degrees Celsius in some parts of Europe. In …
Italian government could fall as 5-Star shuns confidence vote
President of the 5-Star Movement (M5S) and former Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte attends an anti-fascist rally called by Italian Labour unions CGIL, CISL and UIL at Piazza San Giovanni in Rome on October 16, 2021, a week after a demonstration against the so-called Green Pass degenerated into an assault on the CGIL trade union building, led by the neo-fascist Forza Nuova party. (ALBERTO PIZZOLI …
Gabon’s forest elephants test public patience with green agenda
A rare forest elephant is photographed in Gabon's Pongara National Park forest, March 12, 2020. (JEROME DELAY / AP) PONGARA NATIONAL PARK, Gabon – Forest elephants are smaller than their cousins on the African savannah, but in Gabon their destructive raids of farmers' fields are having an outsized impact on support for the government and its conservation agenda. With over 10 percent of its land …
Death toll from COVID-19 surpasses 200,000 in Britain
A man receives a dose of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine at Babington Hospital in Belper on Dece 16, 2021 as the UK steps up the country's booster drive to fight a "tidal wave" of Omicron. (OLI SCARFF / AFP) RIGA / PARIS / NAIROBI / LONDON – More than 200,000 COVID-19 deaths have been recorded across Britain, showed the latest data released Wednesday from the Office …
Kremlin hopes US-Saudi ties would not go “against Russia”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov waits to watch the Victory Day military parade at Red Square in central Moscow on May 9, 2022. (KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP) MOSCOW – Moscow highly values its relations with Riyadh and hopes US President Joe Biden's upcoming visit to Saudi Arabia would not be used to create hostility against Russia, the Kremlin said Wednesday. White House national security adviser Jake …
Omicron subvariants drive new infections in Americas
A health worker poses with a syringe with dose of a COVID-19 vaccine at the Museum of Tomorrow where adults and children between the ages of five and eleven are being vaccinated against the novel coronavirus in Rio de Janeiro on Jan 18, 2022. (Carl DE SOUZA / AFP) RIGA / PARIS / NAIROBI / LONDON – The Pan American Health Organization on Wednesday warned of …
Zelensky sees ‘progress’ in Ukraine-Russia grain export talks
In this handout photo provided by the Turkish Defence Ministry, Russian, top left, and Ukranian, right, delegations meet along with United Nation observers, left, and Turkish Defence Ministry members in Istanbul, Turkey on July 13, 2022, as they tried to reach an agreement on a UN plan to export Ukrainian grain to world markets through the Black Sea. (TURKISH DEFENSE MINISTRY VIA AP) KYIV/UNITED NATIONS …
Ex-finance minister Sunak tops first vote to be next UK PM
British Conservative Party Member of Parliament Rishi Sunak launches his campaign for the Conservative Party leadership, in London on July 12, 2022. (ALBERTO PEZZALI / AP PHOTO) LONDON – Former finance minister Rishi Sunak won the biggest backing from Conservative lawmakers on Wednesday in the first vote to choose who will succeed Boris Johnson as party leader and British prime minister, while two more rivals …
Severe drought displaces over 100,000 Somalis in June
Nunay Mohamed, 25, who fled the drought-stricken Lower Shabelle area, holds her one-year old malnourished child at a makeshift camp for the displaced on the outskirts of Mogadishu, Somalia, June 30, 2022. The crisis in Ukraine has abruptly drawn millions of dollars away from longer-running humanitarian crises and Somalia is perhaps the most vulnerable as thousands die of hunger amid the driest drought in decades. …