News in Brief

Date: 23 February 2021 - 22:13

News ID: ۸۷۹۵۰

BERLIN (Reuters) -- Germany is in a third wave of the coronavirus pandemic, Chancellor Angela Merkel told lawmakers in her conservative party, two sources at the meeting told Reuters on Tuesday. "We are now in the third wave,” they quoted her as saying and said she warned that any easing of lockdown measures introduced late last year and extended until March 7 would have to be done carefully and gradually. The closure of all non-essential businesses and border controls with Austria and the Czech Republic, where there have been outbreaks linked to a more infectious variant of the virus, have helped Germany bring down new daily COVID-19 infections. But a slow vaccination roll-out and the risk of major outbreaks of fast-spreading variants already identified in Germany could make any easing of restrictions more difficult. "We cannot afford ups and downs,” Merkel told participants, suggesting she wanted any return to normal life to be done carefully to avoid having to reintroduce lockdown measures if infections start to rise again. She added that making rapid tests more available and boosting testing capacity could make a return to normality more durable, said the sources.

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ANKARA/ATHENS (Reuters) -- Turkey said on Tuesday that four Greek jets harassed a Turkish research vessel in the Aegean Sea but Athens denied the accusation, which comes as the two NATO members seek to resume talks over maritime disputes. The Cesme research vessel started survey work last week in international waters between the two countries, prompting Greece to protest. The Turkish defense ministry said the four Greek F-16s approached the Cesme on Monday and one dropped a chaff flare two nautical miles from the vessel. Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said Turkey responded with the "necessary retaliation... in line with the rules”. "While we are carrying out scientific work, harassment is not appropriate, it is not befitting of good neighborly ties,” he told reporters in parliament. A Greek defense ministry official denied the accusations, saying "Greek jets never harassed the Turkish vessel.” After a five-year hiatus, Turkish and Greek officials met on Jan. 25 to discuss a decades-old dispute over the delimitation of maritime zones and rights to energy resources in the eastern Mediterranean. The allies have agreed to meet again in Athens.

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BEIJING (Reuters) -- China said on Tuesday that it condemned and rejected Canada’s parliament passing a non-binding motion saying China’s treatment of Uighurs is genocide. China have lodged stern representations with Canada, the foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a regular briefing. Canada’s parliament passed a non-binding motion on Monday saying China’s treatment of the Uighur Muslim minority in the Xinjiang region constitutes genocide, putting pressure on Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government to follow suit.

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DAKAR (Reuters) -- Niger’s ruling party candidate Mohamed Bazoum has solidified his lead in a presidential election runoff meant to usher in the first democratic transition of power in the West African nation, election commission data showed on Tuesday. With about 97% of the ballots counted, Bazoum led his challenger, former president Mahamane Ousmane, with 55.5% of the vote, according to provisional results published by the electoral commission. The data showed complete returns from four regions with three outstanding, and 259 out of 266 constituencies reporting.

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CONAKRY (Reuters) -- Guinea started an Ebola vaccination campaign on Tuesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) said, as authorities race to contain the first resurgence of the virus there since the world’s worst outbreak in 2013-2016. The vaccination was launched in Gouecke, a rural community in N’Zerekore prefecture, where the first cases were detected on Feb. 14, the WHO said, adding that the launch started with vaccination of health workers. "The vaccination uses the ‘ring strategy’ where all people who have come into contact with a confirmed Ebola patient are given the vaccine, as well as frontline and health workers,” the WHO said in a statement. The resurgence of the virus, which causes severe bleeding and organ failure and is spread through contact with body fluids, has alarmed governments in the region and international health organizations, concerned that a major outbreak could overwhelm health infrastructures already battling a pandemic.

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KATHMANDU (Reuters) -- Nepal’s top court on Tuesday ordered the reinstatement of parliament, dealing a blow to Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli two months after he dissolved the house and called for an early election amid squabbling within the ruling Communist party. The ruling means Oli, who was elected in 2018 following his party’s landslide win in an election in 2017, faces a no-confidence vote once parliament re-sits. The Himalayan nation has been in political turmoil since December when Oli, who turned 69 on Tuesday, made a sudden decision to call elections 18 months ahead of schedule amid the coronavirus pandemic that has hit the tourism-dependent economy hard.  Judges heard more than a dozen petitions challenging Oli’s move as unconstitutional and seeking the reinstatement of the house, which still had two years to run when it was dissolved.