International news with relevance to Thai and regional readers
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s third wave of the coronavirus could be the worst so far and 100,000 new daily infections is not out of the question, the head of the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases(RKI) said on Friday. The number of new confirmed infections in Germany has jumped in recent weeks, driven by a
The Kremlin rejected Friday that Russia and China were using their vaccines as tools to win geopolitical clout, after accusations the two countries were using their jabs to gain influence abroad. Earlier Friday French President Emmanuel Macron claimed that his country was facing a “new kind of world war,” pointing to the two powers using
North Korea has tested a new “tactical guided projectile” with a solid-fuel engine, state media said Friday after the nuclear-armed country carried out its first substantive provocation since US President Joe Biden’s inauguration. Pyongyang has a long history of using weapons tests to ramp up tensions, in a carefully calibrated process to try to forward its objectives.
Britain and the United States on Thursday announced sanctions against military-owned conglomerate Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd (MEHL) as part of “further measures” targeting the regime after a coup. “Today’s sanctions target the military’s financial interests to help drain the sources of finance for their campaigns of repression against civilians,” British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said in
The European Commission will tighten its export guidelines on Wednesday to prevent what it sees as an unfair one-way flow of vaccines, according to a draft seen by AFP. Brussels has been infuriated that Britain has laid claim to vaccines produced at a plant in the Netherlands by AstraZeneca, while the UK-based firm falls short
Denmark, which has been under a partial lockdown for the last three months, says it will reopen most of society once everyone over 50 years old are vaccinated. In an announcement late Monday, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen unveiled the plan for a return to normal which will see schools and universities, shops, restaurants and bars,
Swiss pharma giant Roche announced Tuesday promising results from clinical trials of an anti-Covid cocktail developed with US biotech firm Regeneron. The results of the Phase 3 trial showed that the combination of the antibodies casirivimab and imdevimab “reduced hospitalisation or death by 70 percent in non-hospitalised patients with COVID-19,” it said in a statement.
DHAKA (Reuters) – A huge fire swept through a Rohingya refugee camp in southern Bangladesh on Monday, destroying thousands of homes and killing several people, officials and witnesses said, in the worst blaze to hit the settlement in recent years. Video and photographs showed a blaze ripping through the Balukhali camp in Cox’s Bazar. Black
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union and the United States imposed sanctions Monday on a number of Myanmar officials accused of involvement in the country’s military coup and the ensuing crackdown on protesters. The EU announced penalties on 11 officials, including 10 top military officers. Most had already been sanctioned by the U.S. The Biden
Thailand has been ranked 48th in the World Happiness Report 2021, the same as last year. Finland remains in top position, followed by Iceland and Denmark. Of the 95 countries and territories surveyed, Tanzania, Jordan and Zimbabwe received the lowest rankings respectively. The report calculates the rankings based on several factors, including gross domestic product
AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine provided strong protection against sickness and eliminated hospitalizations and deaths from the disease across all age groups in a late-stage study in the United States, the company announced Monday. AstraZeneca said its experts did not identify any safety concerns related to the vaccine, including finding no increased risk of rare blood clots
WELLINGTON (Reuters) – New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will announce within two weeks a date for quarantine-free travel with Australia, she said on Monday, despite mounting pressure from business to open borders with neighbouring countries. The government hopes to announce a start date on April 6, Ardern told a news conference, adding that while
