Tag: World - Page 28 - FAMOUS REPORTERS

Dec

2020

Niger stages historic elections despite jihadist attacks

Voters went to the polls in Niger on Sunday for an election that could seal a first peaceful handover between elected presidents, against the backdrop of a bloody jihadist insurgency. The West African country, unstable since gaining independence from France 60 years ago, is ranked the world’s poorest country according to the UN’s Human Development Index. Around 7.4 million people were registered to vote in the presidential ballot, which coincided with legislative polls. “I expect the Nigerien president to put security, health, progress and democracy first,” Aboubakar Saleh, a 37-year-old launderer, told AFP in the capital Niamey without revealing his…

Dec

2020

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Thousands without power, planes delayed as storm Bella lashes France

NEWS, WORLD NEWSWorld

Thousands were left without electricity and planes were delayed or forced to re-route Sunday as storm Bella caused torrential rain and heavy winds in much of northern France. Some 12,000 households suffered power cuts in Brittany and Normandy in northern France and up to 6,000 around the Calais region. Over a third of flights from France’s main airport of Charles de Gaulle in northern Paris suffered delays of an average of 50 minutes due to the storm, the airport operator said. Three flights heading to the airport were re-routed to Paris Orly airport in the south of Paris while an…

Dec

2020

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Three killed, three wounded in Illinois shooting

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Three people were killed and another three wounded Saturday in the US state of Illinois when a shooter opened fire at a bowling alley, police said. A suspect in his 30s was in police custody. Rockford city police urged people on Twitter to stay away from the area near the Don Carter Lanes bowling alley, as it was an “active situation” and officers were clearing the site. The force posted on Twitter shortly after midnight: “37-year-old white male suspect is in custody. There are no others being sought at this time.” “It’s still an ongoing investigation. We do have three…

Dec

2020

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EU begins vaccinations to defeat pandemic

NEWS, WORLD NEWSWorld

EU countries on Sunday embarked on a vaccination campaign hailed as the “key” to defeating Covid-19, as the growing spread of a new coronavirus variant intensified fears the pandemic could wreak further devastation. The jab is a glimmer of hope for a continent still battling the pandemic in earnest, with infection rates again on the rise, lockdowns imposed and Christmas and New Year plans left in tatters for many. The numbers vaccinated in the initial days with the Pfizer-BioNTech jab are largely symbolic and it will be months before enough are protected to envisage a return to normal from the…

Dec

2020

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Biden warns of ‘devastating consequences’ of Trump block on pandemic relief

WORLD NEWSWorld

[FILE]President-elect Joe Biden speaks prior to the holiday at the Queen theatre on December 22, 2020 in Wilmington, Delaware. Biden spoke ahead of the Christmas holiday and called the $900 billion coronavirus aid bill passed by Congress on Monday a start, insisting on more economic relief after the inauguration. Joshua Roberts/Getty Images/AFPUS President-elect Joe Biden warned Saturday of “devastating consequences” if President Donald Trump continues to delay signing a Covid-19 economic relief bill passed by Congress. Biden spoke out as millions of Americans saw their jobless benefits expire after Trump threw a long-awaited pandemic aid package into doubt demanding lawmakers…

Dec

2020

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Germany starts coronavirus vaccines a day early

WORLD NEWSWorld

Edith Kwoizalla, 101 years old, receives the first vaccination against the novel coronavirus COVID-19 by Pfizer and BioNTech from Doctor Bernhard Ellendt (R) in a senior care facility in Halberstadt (Seniorenzentrum Krueger), central northern Germany, on December 26, 2020. – The European Union began a vaccine rollout, even as countries in the bloc were forced back into lockdown by a new strain of the virus, believed to be more infectious, that continues to spread from Britain. The pandemic has claimed more than 1.7 million lives and is still running rampant in much of the world, but the recent launching of…

Dec

2020

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Egypt hospital fire kills 7 coronavirus patients

NEWS, WORLD NEWSWorld

A fire at a hospital north of Cairo on Saturday killed seven coronavirus patients, security and judicial sources said. The blaze in the intensive care unit of the hospital in Obour district, on the outskirts of Cairo, also injured five other people, the sources said. It was not immediately clear what caused the fire, the sources said, adding prosecutors had launched an investigation into the incident. Firefighters were dispatched to the facility and stopped the blaze from spreading, local media reported. Egypt has so far registered 130,126 Covid-19 cases, including 7,309 fatalities. Health facilities in the North African country, like elsewhere,…

Dec

2020

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207 killed in Wednesday Ethiopia attack

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A total of 207 people were killed in a Wednesday attack by gunmen in western Ethiopia, the country’s Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said, more than doubling a previous count. The independent government body had on Wednesday said 100 people were killed in their sleep and crops burned in a pre-dawn assault in the Metekel area of the Benishangul-Gumuz region. “133 of the victims were adult men and 35 were adult women. Seventeen children, one of whom a six-month-old baby, and 20 elderly persons were killed,” the EHRC said in a statement posted to Twitter late Friday. Mostly inhabited by ethnic…

Dec

2020

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Russian historian sentenced to 12.5 years for butchering lover

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A Russian historian and Napoleon enthusiast was sentenced to 12-and-a-half-years in prison for murdering and dismembering his young lover last year. The Saint Petersburg trial, which spurred activists to voice growing anger over domestic abuse in Russia, began in June after delays due to the coronavirus pandemic. Oleg Sokolov, 64, had admitted murdering 24-year-old Anastasia Yeshchenko but said he committed the crime against his former student and lover in the heat of the moment during an argument. He was arrested in November last year after he was found drunk and carrying a backpack containing a woman’s arms. Judge Yulia Maximenko…

Dec

2020

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Christmas celebrated under pandemic’s shadow

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Hundreds of millions across the world celebrated pared-down Christmas festivities on Friday due to coronavirus restrictions, as Pope Francis called for vaccines for everyone, describing them as “glimmers of hope in this period of darkness and uncertainty”. The pandemic has claimed more than 1.7 million lives and is still running rampant in much of the world, but the recent launching of mass vaccine campaigns has boosted hopes that 2021 could bring a respite. Like so many across the globe, the pope was forced to break with normal Christmas tradition, holding his annual “Urbi et Orbi” speech by video from the…