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 […]
Category: Latest News
Draghi meets president as Italian govt faces collapse
President of the Italian Senate Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati (center) reads the results of the vote in the Senate hall after a vote of confidence to the prime minister at Palazzo Madama in Rome on July 14, 2022. (ANDREAS SOLARO / AFP) ROME – Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi's coalition government appeared on the brink […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Portugal, Spain scramble to put out wildfires amid heatwave
A firefighter works to extinguish a wildfire at Casais do Vento in Alvaiazere on July 10, 2022. Around 1.500 firefighters were mobilized to put out three wildfires raging for more than 48 hours in central and northern Portugal, as the country was hit by a heat wave that prompted the government to declare a "state […]
EU: Adapted, two-strain vaccines to lift COVID-19 protection
A woman receives a shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at a temporary inoculation center at the Tate Modern in central London on July 16, 2021. (TOLGA AKMEN / AFP) WASHINGTON / PRAGUE / LOS ANGELES / FRANKFURT – A European health emergency official on Wednesday said adapted versions of established mRNA COVID-19 vaccines that […]
Why world’s first malaria shot won’t reach millions of children
In this Oct 30, 2009 file photo, a mother holds her baby receiving a new malaria vaccine as part of a trial at the Walter Reed Project Research Center in Kombewa in Western Kenya. (KAREL PRINSLOO / FILE / AP) LONDON / KISUMU, Kenya – After decades of work, the World Health Organization endorsed the […]
Virus: BA.4 & BA.5 account for over 80% new infections in US
A boy gets tested for COVID-19 after vaccinated family members tested positive for the coronavirus, in North Miami, Florida on Aug 9, 2021. (MARTA LAVANDIER / AP) WASHINGTON / PRAGUE / LOS ANGELES – The newer and most contagious Omicron subvariants, known as BA.4 and BA.5, now make up over 80 percent of COVID-19 infections […]
Former US envoy to UN admits to planning foreign coups
In this Sept 30, 2019 file photo, former US national security adviser John Bolton gestures while speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. (PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS / AP) WASHINGTON – John Bolton, a former US ambassador to the United Nations and former White House national security adviser, said on Tuesday that […]
Ukraine joins NATO’s program of technological cooperation
Apartment buildings damaged during fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces stand in Severodonetsk, in the territory which is under control of the Government of the Luhansk People's Republic, in eastern Ukraine, July 12, 2022. (PHOTO / AP) KYIV – Ukraine has become an associate member of the Multilateral Interoperability Program (MIP), which coordinates technological cooperation […]
Trump incited Jan 6 attack after White House meeting, panel told
Former US President Donald Trump speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference 2022 in Orlando, Florida, on Feb 26, 2022. (CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP) WASHINGTON – US lawmakers on Tuesday accused Donald Trump of inciting a mob of followers to attack the US Capitol on Jan 6, 2021, in a last-ditch bid to remain in […]
Former senior US official admits to planning attempted foreign coups
In this Sept 30, 2019 file photo, former US national security adviser John Bolton gestures while speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. (PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS / AP) WASHINGTON – John Bolton, a former US ambassador to the United Nations and former White House national security adviser, said on Tuesday that […]
Eight candidates make cut in race to succeed UK PM Johnson
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, July 12 (Reuters) – Eight Conservatives will fight it out to succeed Boris Johnson as party leader and British prime minister after winning enough nominations from their […]
WHO: COVID-19 pandemic ‘nowhere near over’
This picture taken on April 15, 2020 shows a sign of the World Health Organization (WHO) at the entrance of their headquarters in Geneva amid the COVID-19 outbreak. (PHOTO / AFP) GENEVA – The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is "nowhere near over" as the number of new cases worldwide has risen by 30 percent in the […]
Pfizer, Moderna COVID-19 jabs ‘infringe new Alnylam patent’
A healthcare professional prepares a dose of COVID-19 vaccine for health and social care workers at the Life Science Centre at the International Centre for Life in Newcastle upon Tyne, northeast England, on Jan 9, 2021. (OWEN HUMPHREYS / POOL / AFP) WASHINGTON / PRAGUE – Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc escalated its patent fight with Pfizer […]