World

Ebola death toll hits 4 in DR Congo as people ‘resist’ measures

Ebola death toll hits 4 in DR Congo as people ‘resist’ measures

(FILES) Medical workers disinfect the coffin of a deceased unconfirmed Ebola patient inside an Ebola Treatment Centre . (Photo by John WESSELS / AFP)Four people have died from the hemorrhagic Ebola virus during a new outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, officials said Sunday, warning that people are resisting measures to contain the highly contagious disease. Since the epidemic’s resurgence this month, “we have already registered six Ebola cases. We have lost four infected people,” Eugene Syalita, the provincial health minister in North Kivu province in the DRC’s east, told AFP. Syalita said one person died Friday and another…
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Mine blast kills 7 Niger election officials

Mine blast kills 7 Niger election officials

Election workers arrive with ballot boxes at the polling station during Niger’s presidential election run off, in Niamey on February 21, 2021. (Photo by Issouf SANOGO / AFP)Seven election workers were killed early Sunday in Niger’s troubled western Tillaberi region when their vehicle hit a mine, the area’s governor told AFP. The blast also injured three of the workers, who included the heads of polling stations, Tidjani Ibrahim Katiella told AFP. The accident came as Niger holds a presidential election runoff between frontrunner Mohamed Bazoum, loyal to outgoing president Mahamadou Issoufou, and former president Mahamane Ousmane. The team had been…
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Libya’s interior minister escapes assassination attempt

Libya’s interior minister escapes assassination attempt

The powerful interior minister of Libya’s unity government survived an assassination attempt Sunday on a highway near the capital Tripoli, an official from his inner circle told AFP.Gunmen opened fire on the motorcade of Libyan Interior Minister Fathi Bashagha in the capital Tripoli on Sunday but he escaped unharmed. (File/Reuters)Fathi Bashagha’s convoy “was fired on from an armoured car while he was on the highway. His police escort returned fire. Two of the assailants were arrested and a third is in hospital,” the source said, adding that “the minister is fine”. Bashagha, a heavyweight in Libyan politics, was returning from…
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Turkey probes pro-Kurdish MP over ‘Iraq visit’

Turkey probes pro-Kurdish MP over ‘Iraq visit’

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan Photograph:( Reuters )Turkish prosecutors on Sunday launched a probe into a pro-Kurdish MP suspected of having travelled to a Kurdish-controlled region of Iraq where 13 Turkish hostages were killed in a failed rescue. Lawmaker Dirayet Dilan Tasdemir “is under investigation for belonging to a terrorist organisation,” Ankara prosecutors said, hours after the interior minister accused her in a TV interview. Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said that Tasdemir, who belongs to the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), had been in Gara in northern Iraq, where Turkish troops launched the rescue operation against the PKK group designated as…
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Trump to give first post-White House speech at conservative summit

Trump to give first post-White House speech at conservative summit

(Photo by JIM WATSON / AFP) Former US President Donald Trump will give a speech later this month to a gathering of political conservatives in Orlando, Florida, a source familiar with the plans said Saturday, his first extended public address since leaving the White House on January 20. The appearance is scheduled for Sunday, February 28 at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), one of the country’s largest annual gatherings of political conservatives. Trump will be “talking about the future of the Republican Party and the conservative movement,” the source told AFP. He is also expected to challenge the “disastrous…
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Five killed in multiple Kabul morning bomb attacks

Five killed in multiple Kabul morning bomb attacks

(Photo by STR / AFP) Three explosions rocked Kabul Saturday morning, killing at least five people and injuring two others, authorities said, the latest in a series of similar recent attacks in the Afghan capital. Police spokesman Ferdaws Faramarz said that three “sticky bomb” explosions had taken place in different locations between 08:00 and 10:00 am local time. Targeted killings with remotely detonated bombs attached to vehicles have long been a favoured tactic of militants in Afghanistan, especially during the morning commute in cities, where civilians pay a disproportionate price for the violence. No group has claimed responsibility for Saturday’s…
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Two people dead in Myanmar anti-coup protest shooting

Two people dead in Myanmar anti-coup protest shooting

Protesters wearing costumes take part in a protest during a demonstration against the military coup in Yangon on February 20, 2021. (Photo by YE AUNG THU / AFP)Myanmar’s security forces fired live rounds and rubber bullets at protesters in the country’s second-largest city on Saturday, leaving at least two dead and about 30 injured. Much of the country has been in uproar since the military deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a coup on February 1, with hundreds of thousands of demonstrators taking to the streets to protest against the junta. On Saturday, hundreds of police and soldiers…
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Over 200 million vaccine doses administered globally

Over 200 million vaccine doses administered globally

Doctor Kate Martin (L) prepares dosed of the AstraZeneca/Oxford Covid-19 vaccine at the vaccination centre set up at St Columba’s church in Sheffield, northern England, on February 20, 2021. (Photo by Oli SCARFF / AFP)More than 200 million coronavirus vaccine doses have been administered in at least 107 countries and territories, according to an AFP count based on official sources Saturday. In total 201,042,149 doses had been given worldwide by 1000 GMT — a figure that does not include the latest data from China and Russia, who have stopped making their progress public in recent days. Some 45 percent of…
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Bolsonaro appoints army reserve general to head Petrobras

Bolsonaro appoints army reserve general to head Petrobras

Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, appointed an army reserve general to lead state-owned energy giant Petrobras, after criticizing several successive increases in the price of fuel. “The government decided to appoint Joaquim Silva e Luna to fulfill a new mission, as… president of Petrobras, after closing the cycle, exceeding two years, of the current president Roberto Castello Branco,” said a brief note from the Ministry of Mines and Energy, published by the president on his Facebook account. Silva e Luna, formerly the defense minister under president Michel Temer, had been serving as general director of the Itaipu Binacional dam. His…
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Fact check US articles of the week

Fact check US articles of the week

AFP's fact-check service debunks misinformation spread online. Here are some of our recent articles on inaccurate claims in the United States: 1. Misleading posts target Covid-19 vaccine and pregnancy Social media posts warn of miscarriages following Covid-19 shots, citing data from a US government reporting system. But a causal link between the two has not been established: the reports are not proof that a vaccine caused a problem, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there is no evidence of an increase in miscarriages after Covid-19 immunization. 2. Unemployment for Black Americans not at all-time low A…
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