APRIL 7, 2021 @ 1700 GMT | Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits AstraZeneca facility in Macclesfield, England, on Tuesday April 6, 2021, to learn more about their dollars 500 million investment into the site. Johnson said Monday that Britain’s vaccination program is going well and infections are falling, confirming that many shops and businesses will be allowed to reopen next week. (Pool via AP)
ROME (AP) — A top official at the European Medicines Agency says there’s a causal link between AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine and rare blood clots, but that it’s unclear what the connection is and that the benefits of taking the shot still outweigh the risks of getting COVID-19.
Marco Cavaleri, head of health threats and vaccine strategy at the Amsterdam-based agency, told Rome’s Il Messaggero newspaper on Tuesday that the European Union’s medicines regulator is preparing to make a more definitive statement on the topic this week.
APRIL 6, 2021 @ 1245 GMT | A man paddles his kayak past the HMAS Arunta, an Anzac-class frigate of the Royal Australian Navy, in Sydney harbor, Australia, Tuesday, April 6, 2021. New Zealand announced the start date for a long-anticipated travel bubble between Australia and New Zealand that will allow people to travel between the two countries without going through quarantine, allowing families to reunite and giving a big boost to the struggling tourism industry will begin April 19. (AP Photo)
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand announced Tuesday it will open a long-anticipated travel bubble with Australia on April 19 now that both countries have been successful in stamping out the spread of the coronavirus.
The start of quarantine-free travel between the neighboring nations will come as a relief to families who have been separated by the pandemic as well as to struggling tourist operators.
APRIL 4, 2021 @ 1800 GMT | Archbishop Stephan Burger speaks to the faithful during the Pontifical Mass for Easter Sunday in Freiburg Cathedral in Freiburg, Germany, Sunday, April 4, 2021. (AP Photo)
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Christianity’s most joyous feast day was celebrated worldwide with the faithful spaced apart in pews and singing choruses of “Hallelujah” through face coverings on a second Easter Sunday marked by pandemic precautions.
From vast Roman Catholic cathedrals to Protestant churches, worshippers followed regulations on the coronavirus. In some European countries, citizens lined up on Easter for their turn to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.
APRIL 3, 2021 @ 1800 GMT | FILE — In this Saturday, Jan. 15, 2011 file photo, a part of Arak heavy water nuclear facilities is seen, near the central city of Arak, 150 miles (250 kilometers) southwest of the capital Tehran, Iran. In a statement after a virtual meeting on Friday, April 2, 2021, the chair of a group of high-level officials from the European Union, China, France, Germany, Russia, Britain and Iran said the participants “emphasized their commitment to preserve the JCPOA and discussed modalities to ensure the return to its full and effective implementation.” (AP File Photo)
WASHINGTON, United States (AP) — The United States and Iran said Friday they will begin indirect negotiations with intermediaries next week to try to get both countries back into compliance with an accord limiting Iran’s nuclear program, nearly three years after President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the deal.
APRIL 2, 2021 @ 1700 GMT | FILE – In this Wednesday, March 10, 2021 file photo, a mobile phone user turns on the Twitter application on his smartphone in Moscow, Russia. A court in Moscow on Friday April 2, 2021, fined Twitter for not taking down calls encouraging minors to take part in unauthorized rallies, the latest in a series of moves against the social media giant that has been used to amplify dissent in Russia. (AP File Photo)
MOSCOW, Russia (AP) — A court in Moscow on Friday fined Twitter for not taking down calls encouraging minors to take part in unauthorized rallies, the latest in a series of moves against the social media giant that has been used to amplify dissent in Russia.
The court found Twitter guilty on three counts of violating regulations on restricting unlawful content, ordering the company to pay three fines adding up to 8.9 million rubles (about $117,000).
APRIL 2, 2021 @ 1800 GMT | In this photo released by the Executive Yuan, rescue workers gather near one end of the train involved in a derailment near the Taroko Gorge area in Hualien, Taiwan on Friday, April 2, 2021. The train partially derailed in eastern Taiwan on Friday after colliding with an unmanned vehicle that had rolled down a hill, killing dozens. With the train still partly in a tunnel, survivors climbed out of windows and walked along the train’s roof to reach safety after the country’s deadliest railway disaster. (Executive Yuan via AP)
HUALIEN COUNTY, Taiwan (AP) — A train barreled into an unmanned truck that had rolled onto the track Friday in Taiwan, leaving at least 51 people dead and dozens injured in the island’s deadliest rail disaster. Many passengers were crushed, while some survivors were forced to climb out of windows and walk along the train’s roof to safety.
The truck’s emergency brake was not properly engaged, according to the government’s disaster relief center, and the vehicle slid about 20 meters (65 feet) down a hillside. Minutes later, the train’s lead car crashed into it, according to Railways Administration official Weng Hui-ping, just before the train entered a tunnel.
APRIL 1, 2021 @ 1600 GMT | A health worker administers the COVISHIELD vaccine for COVID-19 at a Government Fever Hospital in Hyderabad, India, Thursday, April 1, 2021. India is accelerating its vaccination drive by opening it up for everyone above 45 years just as cases spike sharply after several months. (AP Photo)
NEW DELHI, India (AP) — There isn’t any room at Sion Hospital in India’s megacity, Mumbai – approximately all 500 beds reserved for COVID-19 patients are occupied. And with new patients coming in daily, a doctor said the hospital is being forced to add beds every second day.
Waiting lists in some hospitals in the city are so unreasonable that “numbers can’t define the burden on hospitals,” said Dr. Om Shrivastava, an infectious diseases expert.
APRIL 1, 2021 @ 1500 GMT | Rita Scanlon, 92, eats lunch delivered to her by Meals on Wheels of Rhode Island as she listens to Gov. Gina Raimondo’s press conference urging residents to stay home for Thanksgiving amidst an increase in COVID hospitalizations, Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2020, in Central Falls, R.I. As more at-risk seniors find themselves unable to leave their homes during the pandemic, Meals on Wheels of Rhode Island has been delivering on average 4,000 meals per day up from their pre-pandemic average of 1,200. (AP Photo)
PHOENIX, United States (AP) — America is starting to claw its way out of the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, but food insecurity persists, especially for children and older adults.
Food banks around the U.S. continue giving away far more canned, packaged and fresh provisions than they did before the virus outbreak tossed millions of people out of work, forcing many to seek something to eat for the first time. For those who are now back at work, many are still struggling, paying back rent or trying to rebuild savings.
MAR 31, 2021 @ 1400 GMT | FILE – In this file photo dated Monday, March 22, 2021, medical staff prepares a syringe from a vial of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine during preparations at the vaccine center in Ebersberg near Munich, Germany. Berlin’s top health official said Tuesday March 30, 2021, that the German state of Berlin is again suspending the use of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine for people under 60 as a precaution, due to reports of blood clots. (AP File Photo)
BERLIN, Germany (AP) — German health officials agreed Tuesday to restrict the use of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine in people under 60, amid fresh concern over unusual blood clots reported in a tiny number of those who received the shots.
Health Minister Jens Spahn and state officials agreed unanimously to only give the vaccine to people aged 60 or older, unless they belong to a high-risk category for serious illness from COVID-19 and have agreed to take the vaccine despite the small risk of a serious side-effect. The same option will be available to anyone who gets the shot at their GP, which will start to become possible later this month.
MAR 28, 2021 @ 1800 GMT | Anti-coup protesters take positions behind their makeshift barricade in a protest in Yangon, Myanmar, Sunday, March 28, 2021. Protesters in Myanmar returned to the streets Sunday to press their demands for a return to democracy, just a day after security forces killed more than 100 people in the bloodiest day since last month’s military coup. (AP Photo)
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Mourners flocked to the funerals of those killed in the deadliest day of a crackdown on protests of last month’s coup in Myanmar, as demonstrators, uncowed by the violence, returned to the streets Sunday to press their demands for a return to democracy.
