Dracula’s castle proves an ideal setting for COVID-19 jabs

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MAY 10, 2021 @ 1600 GMT | FILE – In this Saturday, Oct. 8, 2011 file picture, the Gothic Bran Castle, better known as Dracula Castle, is seen on a rainy day in Bran, in Romania’s central Transylvania region. Romanian authorities have set up a COVID-19 vaccination center in a medieval building in Bran, not far from the castle, as a means to encourage people to vaccinate and also to boost tourism which has decreased in the area as a result of the pandemic. (AP File Photo)

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — At Dracula’s castle in picturesque Transylvania, Romanian doctors are offering a jab in the arm rather than a stake through the heart.

A COVID-19 vaccination center has been set up on the periphery of Romania’s Bran Castle, which is purported to be the inspiration behind Dracula’s home in Bram Stoker’s 19th-century gothic novel “Dracula.”

Every weekend through May “vaccination marathons” will be held just outside the storied 14th-century hilltop castle, where no appointment is needed, in an attempt to encourage people to protect themselves against COVID-19.

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Putin tells Red Square parade that Nazi ideas persist

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MAY 9, 2021 @ 1800 GMT | Red Square, Moscow | Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers his speech during the Victory Day military parade in Moscow, Russia, Sunday, May 9, 2021, marking the 76th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. (Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

MOSCOW, Russia (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin marked the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe with a speech warning that Nazi beliefs remain strong.

Speaking to the annual military parade on Moscow’s Red Square, Putin on Sunday decried “attempts to rewrite history, to justify traitors and criminals, on whose hands lies the blood of hundreds of thousands of peaceful people.”

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After lull, cases spread in Vietnam’s cities, provinces

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MAY 8, 2021 @ 1700 GMT | FILE – In this July 29, 2020, file photo, a health worker disinfects arriving Vietnamese COVID-19 patients at the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases in Hanoi, Vietnam. After over a month with no local infections, Vietnam has recorded 176 confirmed coronavirus cases from several outbreaks that have spread to 19 provinces during the past 10 days, the Health Ministry said Friday, May 7, 2021. (VNA via AP, File)

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — After over a month with no local infections, Vietnam has recorded 176 confirmed coronavirus cases from several outbreaks that have spread to 19 provinces during the past 10 days, the Health Ministry said.

The National Hospital of Tropical Diseases in Hanoi, which has been at the front line treating COVID-19 patients, has been sealed off after a doctor, two nurses and more than 20 patients tested positive earlier the week.

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Top US, China and Russia diplomats urge global cooperation

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MAY 7, 2021 @ 1800 GMT | Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov gestures while speaking to journalists during a joint news conference with Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki following their talks in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, May 5, 2021. (AP Photo Via Pool)

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The top diplomats from the United States, China and Russia urged strengthened global cooperation on Friday, recognizing the need to tackle growing global challenges and an unprecedented pandemic but sparring over their different worldviews and who’s to blame for threats to multilateralism.

The high-level U.N. Security Council meeting marked the first joint appearance, albeit virtually, by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his rival counterparts, Foreign Ministers Sergey Lavrov of Russia and Wang Yi, of China who chaired the session as this month’s council president.

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Russia approves single-dose version of Sputnik V vaccine

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MAY 6, 2021 @ 1100 GMT | Vials of the Sputnik V vaccine seen on the table prior to the visit of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade, Serbia, Thursday, April 15, 2021. Serbia has announced it will begin packing and later producing Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, which would make it the first European state outside Russia and Belarus to begin manufacturing the jab. (AP Photo)

MOSCOW, Russia (AP) — Russian authorities gave regulatory approval Thursday to a single-dose version of the country’s Sputnik V vaccine, arguing that the move could accelerate the process of achieving herd immunity against the coronavirus.

Named Sputnik Light, the new version is identical to the first dose of the two-dose Sputnik V. The regulatory approval will allow it to be marketed and administered as a separate COVID-19 vaccine.

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The Latest: Sri Lanka receives 1st batch of Sputnik V shots

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MAY 4, 2021 @ 1700 GMT | A Sri Lankan couple receive the vaccine for COVID-19 at a municipal health centre in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Friday, April 30, 2021. For many weeks, the number of daily COVID-19 infections in the island nation of Sri Lanka stood below 200. But last week, the figure suddenly surged and reached 1,466 on Thursday, the highest ever in a single day since the start of the pandemic. (AP Photo)

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka has received its first batch of the Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine.

The 15,000 doses were flown in early hours of Tuesday to the Indian ocean island nation which is struggling to obtain COVID-19 vaccines because of the delay in getting them from the neighboring India.

Sri Lanka has ordered 13 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine from the Russia’s Gamaleya Institute.

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‘Horrible’ weeks ahead as India’s virus catastrophe worsens

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MAY 4, 2021 @ 1800 GMT | FILE – In this May 1, 2021, file photo, relatives carry the body of a person who died of COVID-19 as multiple pyres of other COVID-19 victims burn at a crematorium in New Delhi, India. COVID-19 infections and deaths are mounting with alarming speed in India with no end in sight to the crisis. People are dying because of shortages of bottled oxygen and hospital beds or because they couldn’t get a COVID-19 test. (AP File Photo)

NEW DELHI, India (AP) — COVID-19 infections and deaths are mounting with alarming speed in India with no end in sight to the crisis and a top expert warning that the coming weeks in the country of nearly 1.4 billion people will be “horrible.”

India’s official count of coronavirus cases surpassed 20 million Tuesday, nearly doubling in the past three months, while deaths officially have passed 220,000. Staggering as those numbers are, the true figures are believed to be far higher, the undercount an apparent reflection of the troubles in the health care system.

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NKorea warns US of ‘very grave situation’ over Biden speech

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MAY 2, 2021 @ 1400 GMT | In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un delivers a closing speech at the Sixth Conference of Cell Secretaries of the Workers’ Party of Korea in Pyongyang, North Korea, Thursday, April 8, 2021. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea on Sunday warned the United States will face “a very grave situation” because President Joe Biden “made a big blunder” in his recent speech by calling the North a security threat and revealing his intent to maintain a hostile policy against it.

Last week, Biden, in his first address to Congress, called North Korea and Iran’s nuclear programs “serious threats” to American and world security and said he’ll work with allies to address those problems through diplomacy and stern deterrence.

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Formal start of final phase of Afghan pullout by US, NATO

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MAY 1, 2021 @ 1900 GMT | FILE – In this Sept. 11, 2011 file photo, a U.S. Army soldier walks past an American Flag hanging in preparation for a ceremony commemorating the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, at Forward Operating Base Bostick in Kunar province, Afghanistan. The final phase of ending America’s “forever war” in Afghanistan after 20 years formally began Saturday, May 1, 2021, with the withdrawal of the last U.S. and NATO troops by the end of summer.(AP File Photo)

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The final phase of ending America’s “forever war” in Afghanistan after 20 years formally began Saturday, with the withdrawal of the last U.S. and NATO troops by the end of summer.

President Joe Biden had set May 1 as the official start of the withdrawal of the remaining forces — about 2,500-3,500 U.S. troops and about 7,000 NATO soldiers.

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Pentagon preparing for Taliban attacks during US withdrawal

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APRIL 30, 2021 @ 1800 GMT | Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley arrives to the chamber ahead of President Joe Biden speaking to a joint session of Congress, Wednesday, April 28, 2021, in the House Chamber at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. (Pool Via AP)

WASHINGTON, United States (AP) — The Pentagon is preparing for possible Taliban attacks on U.S. and coalition forces as they withdraw from Afghanistan, a prospect that complicates the outlook for winding down America’s longest war.

May 1 was the date all U.S. and other foreign forces were to have departed Afghanistan under a February 2020 deal between the Taliban and the Trump administration. As part of that agreement, the Taliban halted attacks on U.S. troops, and none has been killed since then. But the Taliban said it will consider the United States to be in violation of the agreement for missing the deadline for full withdrawal. Their representatives have been vague about whether they intend to attack starting May 1.

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