World

Bird flu is raging, adding to the risks for food inflation

The world's poultry farmers are battling another grim spell of bird-flu cases, risking higher chicken prices and fewer free-range eggs.More than 40 countries across Europe, Asia and Africa have seen outbreaks since May, according to World Organisation for Animal Health data. It is threatening to...

World

Omicron threat may be countered with extra dose of vaccine

The earliest studies on the Omicron variant are in and the glimpse they are providing is cautiously optimistic: While vaccines like the one made by Pfizer and BioNTech may be less powerful against the new variant, protection can be fortified with boosters.Studies from South Africa and Sweden are sho...

World

Toddlers make up 10% of C-19 hospital cases in Omicron epicentre

Children under the age of two account for about 10 per cent of total hospital admissions in the omicron epicentre Tshwane in South Africa, according to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases.More children are being admitted than during the early stages of the country entering the current f...

World

Moderna’s concerns about Omicron outlook spark market slump

Moderna's top executives reiterated that the Omicron variant's many mutations suggest new vaccines will be needed, triggering a drop in financial markets."The number of mutations on this virus are surprising," co-founder Noubar Afeyan said in a Bloomberg Television interview. "...

World

Germany’s C-19 spike ‘worse than anything we’ve seen’: Merkel

Chancellor Angela Merkel said the latest surge in Covid-19 infections is worse than anything Germany has experienced so far and called for tighter restrictions to help check the spread.Merkel told officials from her Christian Democratic party on Monday that the situation is "highly dramatic&quo...

Opinion

Nuclear fusion is close enough to start dreaming

The nuclear fusion startup Helion, which announced recently that it has raised $500 million, says it has developed new technologies that may make nuclear fusion viable — practically, economically and environmentally.It is too early to tell if its claims will pan out, but there have been so man...

World

Germany’s east-west C-19 vaccine divide spurs incidence rate record

Germany is being battered by fourth Covid-19 waves; with low vaccination rates in its eastern states a big reason the virus has regained a foothold.The four regions registering the lowest vaccination rates – Saxony, Thuringia, Brandenburg, and Saxony-Anhalt – are all in the formerly comm...

World

Japan dissolves Parliament as Kishida faces Oct 31 election

Japan’s powerful Lower House of Parliament was dissolved Thursday (Oct 14) in a formal step for an Oct 31 general election that could determine how long Prime Minister Fumio Kishida remains in office. The election comes a little more than three weeks after Mr Kishida took office as p...

World

UK fuel stations seen taking weeks to return to normal

British motorists will have to wait weeks for fuel supply to return to normal, prolonging a shortage that has caused chaos across the country.More than a quarter of the nation's service stations have no fuel, and another 20 per cent have only one grade in stock, according to the UK Petrol Retail...

World

Biden's lustre dims as stumbles, Congress' sniping take toll

The weekly trip to the grocery store keeps getting more expensive. Petrol prices are rising and winter heating bills look ominous. Supply chain problems loom over the holidays. Covid-19 rages on.Forests are burning in the west and people are drowning in basement apartments in the east.How is Washing...

World

Chinese envoy invokes Lincoln in declaring China a democracy

A top Chinese diplomat claimed that China is a democracy, arguing its political system exemplifies the ideals of former United States president Abraham Lincoln and the ancient Greeks who invented a representative form of government.Mr Qin Gang, China's ambassador to the US, on Wednesday (Sept 22...

World

Devastating wildfires led to record-high emissions this summer

Blazes in the Mediterranean basin, North America and Siberia resulted in the highest level of carbon emissions from wildfires ever recorded during summer in the Northern Hemisphere.The fires released a record 1.3 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in July and 1.4 billion tons ...

World

Boris has chance to build on submarine coup with Biden talks

]British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will land in the US this week on his first trip outside of Europe since the start of the pandemic, with his most critical relationship - that with President Joe Biden - at a delicate juncture.A three-way deal to supply nuclear submarines to Australia announced t...

World

Biden to convene virtual summit to jump-start climate ambitions

United States President Joe Biden will host a virtual discussion of climate change with world leaders on Friday as he tries to accelerate efforts to slash greenhouse gases amid concerns that commitments are lagging before a pivotal United Nations summit.The leader-level summit is expected to be a so...

World

‘Italy will make Covid-19 vaccinations compulsory’

Italy will eventually make vaccination compulsory, Prime Minister Mario Draghi said at a press conference in Rome on Thursday.Italy will also start administering a third vaccine shot from later this month, Health Minister Roberto Speranza said, adding that the campaign will start from those with a w...