News in Brief
PARIS (Reuters) -- A French cabinet minister urged EU countries on Friday not to use the Russian or Chinese COVID-19 vaccines unless they are approved by the bloc’s medicines regulator, warning of a risk to the bloc’s unity and public health. After a fitful start to the European Union’s vaccination campaign which has left the bloc lagging other countries such as Britain, some member states in central Europe have already bought or are considering buying Russian or Chinese shots. Asked whether each EU member state was now simply doing "what they wish themselves”, European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune told RTL radio: "If they were to choose the Chinese and/or Russian vaccine, I think it would be quite serious.” "It would pose a problem in terms of our solidarity, and it would pose a health risk problem, because the Russian vaccine is not yet authorized in Europe,” he said. The EU has so far dealt with vaccine procurement centrally, through the executive European Commission. But Sputnik V has been approved or is being assessed for approval in Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
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TOKYO (Dispatches) -- A Japanese civil society group has lodged a protest with the government over repeated, irregular low-altitude flights by U.S. military helicopters, demanding thorough investigation and action. A petition was submitted to the Japanese government on Thursday by the citizens group Japan Peace Committee, urging action to put an end to such illegal flights. The petition states that the U.S. military flights cause noise pollution and carry the risk of death and destruction in the event of an accident. "We call for thorough investigation into the truth of what is going on, and strongly request that the U.S. government cease the flights immediately,” the group said in the petition submitted to the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Defense. Local media in Japan has on several occasions reported about U.S. military helicopters flying over densely populated areas of central Tokyo, much below the altitude set under Japan’s Civil Aeronautics Act.
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NAYPYITAW (Reuters) -- Police in Myanmar on Friday opened fire on protesters against last month’s military coup, killing one man, as international condemnation rained down on the junta ahead of a United Nations Security Council meeting to discuss the crisis. The violence took place as the military lost a tussle over leadership of its UN mission in New York and the United States announced new sanctions targeting military conglomerates after the deaths of dozens of civilian protesters. Activists demanding the restoration of the government of Aung San Suu Kyi held more demonstrations in several towns and cities, with a crowd of thousands marching peacefully through the second city of Mandalay. "The stone age is over, we’re not scared because you threaten us,” the crowd chanted. Police opened fire and one man was killed, witnesses and a doctor told Reuters by telephone.
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MOSCOW (Reuters) -- The Kremlin on Thursday urged France and Germany to use their influence with the Ukrainian government to make sure that events in the part of eastern Ukraine controlled by Russian-backed rebels did not "cross a dangerous line”. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Moscow was seriously concerned by a rise in violence on the contact line between the rebels and Ukrainian government forces. Ukraine pushed back against the remarks, saying Russia should instead order the forces it controls in Donbass to observe the ceasefire, and blamed Moscow for obstructing progress in new prisoner swaps and troop withdrawals. Russian-backed forces seized a swathe of eastern Ukraine in 2014, including the industrial cities of Donetsk and Luhansk.
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GENEVA (Reuters) -- World Health Organization officials said on Friday the risk of an Ebola outbreak spreading from Guinea to its neighbors was "very high” and that some neighboring countries were not prepared for outbreaks or for future vaccination campaigns. WHO’s Guinea representative, Georges Alfred Ki-Zerbo, told a virtual briefing that 18 cases had been identified and four of those people had died. So far, 1,604 people have been vaccinated against Ebola in the new outbreak in Guinea, the first resurgence of the virus there since a 2013-2016 outbreak - the world’s worst - which spread to several other West African countries and killed thousands of people. The Ebola virus causes severe vomiting and diarrhea and is spread through contact with body fluids.
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WELLINGTON (Reuters) -- A powerful series of undersea quakes struck north-east of New Zealand on Friday, but tsunami waves that forced many people on the country’s North Island to flee to high ground passed without causing substantial damage. Officials had warned that waves could reach three meters (10 feet) above high tide levels after the quakes - the strongest a magnitude 8.1 - but the threat had passed by the afternoon, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said. "It’s hard not to feel like our country is having a run of bad luck, when you have an earthquake, tsunami and pandemic to contend with all in one day,” New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. Video footage posted on social media showed surges of water entering a marina in Northland and on the North Island’s East Cape region.
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TOKYO (Dispatches) -- A Japanese civil society group has lodged a protest with the government over repeated, irregular low-altitude flights by U.S. military helicopters, demanding thorough investigation and action. A petition was submitted to the Japanese government on Thursday by the citizens group Japan Peace Committee, urging action to put an end to such illegal flights. The petition states that the U.S. military flights cause noise pollution and carry the risk of death and destruction in the event of an accident. "We call for thorough investigation into the truth of what is going on, and strongly request that the U.S. government cease the flights immediately,” the group said in the petition submitted to the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Defense. Local media in Japan has on several occasions reported about U.S. military helicopters flying over densely populated areas of central Tokyo, much below the altitude set under Japan’s Civil Aeronautics Act.
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NAYPYITAW (Reuters) -- Police in Myanmar on Friday opened fire on protesters against last month’s military coup, killing one man, as international condemnation rained down on the junta ahead of a United Nations Security Council meeting to discuss the crisis. The violence took place as the military lost a tussle over leadership of its UN mission in New York and the United States announced new sanctions targeting military conglomerates after the deaths of dozens of civilian protesters. Activists demanding the restoration of the government of Aung San Suu Kyi held more demonstrations in several towns and cities, with a crowd of thousands marching peacefully through the second city of Mandalay. "The stone age is over, we’re not scared because you threaten us,” the crowd chanted. Police opened fire and one man was killed, witnesses and a doctor told Reuters by telephone.
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MOSCOW (Reuters) -- The Kremlin on Thursday urged France and Germany to use their influence with the Ukrainian government to make sure that events in the part of eastern Ukraine controlled by Russian-backed rebels did not "cross a dangerous line”. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Moscow was seriously concerned by a rise in violence on the contact line between the rebels and Ukrainian government forces. Ukraine pushed back against the remarks, saying Russia should instead order the forces it controls in Donbass to observe the ceasefire, and blamed Moscow for obstructing progress in new prisoner swaps and troop withdrawals. Russian-backed forces seized a swathe of eastern Ukraine in 2014, including the industrial cities of Donetsk and Luhansk.
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GENEVA (Reuters) -- World Health Organization officials said on Friday the risk of an Ebola outbreak spreading from Guinea to its neighbors was "very high” and that some neighboring countries were not prepared for outbreaks or for future vaccination campaigns. WHO’s Guinea representative, Georges Alfred Ki-Zerbo, told a virtual briefing that 18 cases had been identified and four of those people had died. So far, 1,604 people have been vaccinated against Ebola in the new outbreak in Guinea, the first resurgence of the virus there since a 2013-2016 outbreak - the world’s worst - which spread to several other West African countries and killed thousands of people. The Ebola virus causes severe vomiting and diarrhea and is spread through contact with body fluids.
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WELLINGTON (Reuters) -- A powerful series of undersea quakes struck north-east of New Zealand on Friday, but tsunami waves that forced many people on the country’s North Island to flee to high ground passed without causing substantial damage. Officials had warned that waves could reach three meters (10 feet) above high tide levels after the quakes - the strongest a magnitude 8.1 - but the threat had passed by the afternoon, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said. "It’s hard not to feel like our country is having a run of bad luck, when you have an earthquake, tsunami and pandemic to contend with all in one day,” New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. Video footage posted on social media showed surges of water entering a marina in Northland and on the North Island’s East Cape region.