image captionIsrael has given priority to the over-60s in its vaccination campaign
Israel has given vaccinations against coronavirus to more than one million people, the highest rate in the world, as global immunisation efforts step up.
The comparative figures on vaccination are put together by Our World in Data, which is a collaboration between Oxford and a UK-based educational charity.
They measure the number of people who have received a first dose of the coronavirus vaccine. Most of the vaccines approved for use so far rely on two doses, given more than a week apart.
The US fell far short of its target of vaccinating 20 million people by the end of 2020, with just 2.78 million having received a jab by 30 December.
Meanwhile, India is staging drills of its vaccine roll-out, ahead of an expected approval by the national regulator next week
An illegal warehouse rave that began on New Year’s Eve in France in defiance of coronavirus precautions has been shut down by police after arrests and clashes.
Some of the 2,500 ravers in Lieuron near Rennes in Brittany had planned to party until Tuesday.
Police issued fines to revellers found leaving and the organisers were being identified as the party ended.
A number of party-goers were from the UK and Spain, police said.
Attendees clashed with police, setting fire to a car and throwing objects at officers attempting to shut the event down. At least three officers were injured.
image captionPolice broke up the three-day party that defied a nationwide curfew
Police trying to stop the event faced “fierce hostility from many partygoers”, a statement from local authorities said.
But at 05:30 local time on Saturday the ravers began to accept the party was over and started to leave the two disused warehouse hangars, the local prefecture said.
image captionSome revellers said they were hoping to stay until Tuesday
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said on Twitter that trucks, sound equipment and generators were seized at the scene and an investigation has been opened.
More than 1,200 fines were issued for non-compliance with the curfew, not wearing a mask and attending an illegal gathering, Mr Darmanin said.
The sudden deaths of two leading members of the Zazzau Emirate has gotten the attention of President Buhari – The presidency disclosed that Buhari is unhappy over the tragedy , Buhari has sent a condolence message to the Kaduna people over the occurrence.
President Muhammadu Buhari has described the deaths of two leading members of the Zazzau Emirate in Kaduna state as a double tragedy. The president in a message on Friday, January 1, said the death of the Iyan Zazzau, Alhaji Bashir Aminu and Talban Zazzau, Abubakar Pate came to him as a shock.The Guardian reported.
President Buhari said the recent deaths of the Zazzau Emirate is sad. According to a statement issued by a presidential aide, Garba Shehu, Buhari expressed sadness over the tragedy and condoled the families of the departed prices. He said: ”The death of such two prominent figures in Zazzau Emirate comes to me as a rude shock not long after the death of former Emir Shehu Idris.
President Buhari
Atiku hits Buhari again, says president’s ‘lazy leadership’ brought woes to Nigerians .“I wish to extend my deepest and heartfelt sympathies to the families of the two leaders, the Zazzau Emirate Council, the government and people of Kaduna State.”
The presidency stated that a ministerial-level delegation has been dispatched to visit the palace on behalf of Buhari. Meanwhile, President Buhari has promised to reorganise Nigeria’s security architecture in 2021. The president made the promise in his 2021 new year message to Nigerians on Friday, January 1.
The president, however, noted that his government needs to be more proactive and preemptive in ensuring that such incidents do not become a norm. In another news, the president’s New Year day national broadcast is not sitting well with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The opposition party, in its reaction to the president’s speech, released a statement titled: Buhari’s New Year Address, Empty, Directionless The PDP accused the Nigerian leader of presenting a speech that was “a script full of lame excuses and empty promises that addressed nothing.
The U.S. Congress has voted to override President Donald Trump’s veto of a $740.5 billion defense policy bill. The Republican-led Senate voted 81 to 13 in a rare New Year’s Day session on Friday to join the House, controlled by Democrats, in overriding Trump’s veto.
This made the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2021 a law. It is the first time one of Trump’s vetoes has been surmounted.
A body has been found shortly after rescuers and dog handlers began a risky ground search for 10 people missing in a hillside collapse in Norway.
Initially it was thought too dangerous to send rescuers on to the site, after flowing mud sent homes toppling into a giant chasm in the village of Ask.
Helicopters and drones spent two days searching the scene.
But on Friday police commander Roy Alkvist said one or two houses appeared safe to enter.
Rescuers, who included a Swedish specialist team, began moving into the danger zone on Styrofoam boards. The bright orange boards were laid down on the mud in a domino-effect as rescuers tried to reach one of the wrecked homes, which are 25km (15 miles) north-east of the capital Oslo.
A missing Dalmatian dog was rescued on Thursday and police believe there is still a chance survivors could be found.
However, on Friday afternoon an air ambulance helicopter landed near the site and police said a body had been found at 14:30 (13:30GMT) without giving further details.
image captionRescuers are using orange Styrofoam boards to move around the landslide area
Prime Minister Erna Solberg said her thoughts went out to the victim’s family, and to those waiting for news of the other nine people who were missing
image captionBoth the UAE and Bahrain have already granted emergency use of the Sinopharm vaccine for key workers
Chinese authorities have given conditional approval for general public use of a coronavirus vaccine developed by state-owned drugmaker Sinopharm.
The move came a day after the firm said interim data showed its leading vaccine had a 79% efficacy rate in phase three trials, without providing more details.
Several Chinese-made vaccines at a late trial stage are already in use in China after being granted emergency licences.
The pandemic emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019.
It has since spread around the world, but China has managed to bring infection rates down to very low levels through strict anti-virus measures.
Thursday’s announcement concerning the vaccine made by the China National Pharmaceutical Group, or Sinopharm, is China’s first general approval of a homemade jab – and it is being seen as potentially a major step towards inoculating the world’s largest population.
Italy has condemned Egypt’s decision to rule out charging five state security officers over the torture and murder of an Italian student near Cairo.
Earlier this year Italian prosecutors named four suspects believed to be behind the death of Giulio Regeni.
But this week Egypt’s public prosecutors said there was insufficient evidence against the group.
Egyptian authorities have previously denied that any of their officials were involved in Regeni’s kidnap and murder.
They have suggested other explanations – including that he was the victim of a robbery by a criminal gang, or a gay crime of passion. Italian officials have dismissed these theories.
Mr Regeni, a Cambridge University student, had been researching independent trade unions, a sensitive issue in Egypt.
His murder has caused a diplomatic row, with Italian prosecutors accusing Egyptian officials of trying to mislead the investigation.
Earlier this year, Egypt’s public prosecutor said it was “temporarily closing” its investigation, with Mr Regeni’s killer “still unknown”.
On 1 December, Italian prosecutors formally accused four suspects over Mr Regeni’s death – Gen Tareq Sabir, Col Ather Kamal, Maj Magdi Sharif and Col Hisham Helmy.
But on Wednesday Egyptian public prosecutor Hamada al-Sawy said he had “ruled out” out charging the group, along with a fifth officer.
Mr al-Sawy also said there was no intention of pursuing a criminal case “because the perpetrator is unknown.”
In a statement, Italy’s foreign ministry called the decision “unacceptable,” and said it would “continue to act in all forums, including the European Union, so that the truth about the barbaric murder of Giulio Regeni can finally emerge.”
The PhD student disappeared on a research trip on 25 January 2016 – the fifth anniversary of the start of the uprising against former President Hosni Mubarak, meaning there was a heavy police presence in Cairo.
image captionGiulio Regeni’s parents, Claudio and Paola, have campaigned for justice for their son
His body was discovered on 3 February in a ditch by the side of a road. His mother told the Italian parliament in 2018 that her son’s body was so disfigured that she was only able to identify him by the tip of his nose.
An Italian post-mortem examination found that Regeni had been tortured “in stages” between 25 January and the day of his death
About 900 migrants from South Asia and other regions are struggling in bitter cold temperatures at a burned-out camp in Bosnia-Herzegovina after being denied proper shelter.
They remain at Lipa, a camp gutted by fire last week in the country’s north-west, amid a dispute over moving them to a military barracks.
They had been hoping to reach Croatia.
A migrant from Pakistan called Zahur told Reuters TV they had spent “36 hours [in the] bus, waiting… Does Bosnia government [have] no solution?”
image captionMigrants spent a night on buses waiting to be transferred but eventually returned to the destroyed camp
The EU and aid agencies have warned of a humanitarian crisis as the migrants lack basic necessities, amid arguments between Bosnia’s central and local authorities.
A joint statement from the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM), Save the Children and other aid groups said “the buses never left the site, following a deadlock in decision-making processes at different levels of authorities, and local population protests”.
The Lipa emergency camp, near the town of Bihac, “lacked the most basic conditions for hosting people in winter”, the statement said.
After its closure last week “hundreds of people spent the following week in the open at the Lipa location, in freezing temperatures, without access to basic facilities”.
image captionThe fire destroyed nearly all of the temporary camp’s infrastructure
Residents forced to leave Lipa, which was set up to provide temporary shelter during the Covid-19 pandemic, looted equipment and set fire to tents, police said last week.
The IOM said the blaze started minutes after the camp’s closure and almost 3,000 migrants were now in dire need of humanitarian aid near Bosnia’s border with EU member Croatia.
In recent years thousands of people, including refugees from the conflicts in Afghanistan and Syria, have entered Bosnia hoping to get asylum in the EU by crossing into Croatia. However, many have been forced to remain in Bosnia.
The EU has given the Bosnian authorities €60m (£54m; $74m) to manage the crisis and pledged €25m more, but bureaucratic hurdles remain, Reuters reports.
(CNN)Beyoncé will offer $5,000 grants to help people facing foreclosures or evictions due to the housing crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
People can apply for the grants beginning January 7, 2021, the singer announced on her website Tuesday. Grants will be sent out to the 100 people selected in late January.
“Beyoncé is continuing her heart of support and helping where needed most. Phase Two of the BeyGOOD Impact Fund will now help those impacted by the housing crisis,” according to a news release. “The housing moratorium is set to end on December 26th, resulting in mortgage foreclosures and rental evictions. Many families are impacted, due to the pandemic that resulted in job loss, sickness and overall economy downturn,” the release said.
Beyonce
‘I have $4 to my name.’ An extended eviction ban isn’t enough for some struggling renters.An estimated 9.2 million renters who have lost income during the pandemic are behind on rent, according to an analysis of Census data by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Once the moratoriums are lifted, many of these renters will be expected to pay their entire back rent or come up with some sort of payment plan with their landlord — or they could face losing their homes.
Those who apply for the grants must submit the necessary documentation to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) by the deadline.
This is not Beyoncé’s first effort to help communities hurt by the pandemic. BeyGOOD has teamed up with the NAACP to support Black-owned small businesses impacted by the pandemic, so far providing 250 businesses with $10,000 grants.
In May, she set up mobile Covid-19 testing sites with her mother, Tina Knowles-Lawson, in their hometown of Houston, Texas. She also donated, in partnership with Jack Dorsey’s Start Small fund, $6 million to coronavirus relief in April.
Yemen’s internationally recognised government said Iran-backed Houthi rebels fired four ballistic missiles at the airport. No one on the government plane was hurt.
A large explosion rocked the airport in the southern Yemeni city of Aden on Wednesday, shortly after a plane carrying the newly formed cabinet landed there, killing at least 25 people, AFP reports.
Yemen’s internationally recognised government said Iran-backed Houthi rebels fired four ballistic missiles at the airport. No one on the government plane was hurt.
Officials later reported another explosion close to a palace in the city where the cabinet members were transferred following the airport attack. The Saudi-led coalition later shot down a bomb-laden drone that attempted to target the palace.
Photo credit : pbs.org
The cabinet reshuffle was seen as a major step toward closing a dangerous rift between the government of embattled Yemeni President, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, and southern separatists backed by the United Arab Emirates. Hadi’s government and the separatists are nominal allies in Yemen’s years-long civil war that pits the Saudi-led, US-backed military coalition against the Houthis, who control most of northern Yemen as well as the country’s capital, Sanaa.
A footage from the scene at the airport showed members of the government delegation disembarking as the blast shook the grounds. Many ministers rushed back inside the plane or ran down the stairs, seeking shelter.
Thick smoke rose into the air from near the terminal building. Officials at the scene said they saw bodies lying on the tarmac and elsewhere at the airport.
Yemeni Communication Minister, Naguib al-Awg, who was on the plane, said he heard two explosions, suggesting they were drone attacks. Prime Minister, Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed, and the others were quickly whisked away from the airport to the Mashiq Palace.
Military and security forces sealed off the area around the palace.
“It would have been a disaster if the plane was bombed,” al-Awg said, insisting the plane was the target of the attack as it was supposed to land earlier.
Prime Minister Saeed tweeted that he and his cabinet were safe and unhurt. He called the explosions a “cowardly terrorist act” that was part of the war on “the Yemeni state and our great people.”
Foreign Minister, Ahmed Awad Bin Mubarak, blamed the Houthis for the attacks. His ministry said in a statement later that the rebels fired four ballistic missiles at the airport, and launched drone attacks at the palace, the cabinet’s headquarters. They did not provide evidence.
Health Minister, Qasem Buhaibuh, said in a tweet the attacks at the airport killed at least 25 people and wounded 110 others, suggesting the death toll could increase further because some of the wounds were serious.
Images shared on social media from the scene showed rubble and broken glass strewn about near the airport building and at least two lifeless bodies, one of them charred, lying on the ground. In another image, a man tries to help another man whose clothes were torn to get up from the ground.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said three of its workers were killed in the airport blast.
Samuel Little, a man described by the FBI as the most prolific serial killer in US history, has died aged 80.
Little died in a California hospital on Wednesday, the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said.
He was serving a life sentence for the murder of three women. But by the time of his death, he had confessed to killing 93 women between 1970 and 2005.
Little targeted vulnerable individuals, many of whom were sex workers or drug users, officials say.
A former competitive boxer, Little would knock his victims out with punches before strangling them – meaning that there were not always obvious signs, like stab or bullet wounds, the person had been murdered.
Instead many deaths were incorrectly determined to be overdoses or accidental and were never investigated. Some bodies have never been found, the agency said.
Last year, the FBI said its analysts believed all of his confessions were “credible”.
They also released images of the victims he drew while in prison in an attempt to trace those he killed.
image captionThe FBI released Samuel Little’s drawings in the hope that the victims could be identified.
Little was arrested in 2012 on a drugs charge in Kentucky and extradited to California, where officers carried out DNA testing on him.
He already had an extensive criminal record, with offences from armed robbery to rape across the US.
The DNA results linked him to three unsolved murders from 1987 and 1989 in Los Angeles County. He pleaded not guilty at trial, but was eventually convicted and sentenced to three consecutive life sentences, with no chance of parole.
France is to mobilise 100,000 police and gendarmes on New Year’s Eve to break up parties and enforce a curfew imposed to combat coronavirus.
The extra security also aims at halting the torching of cars that often takes place on the final night of the year.
France has confirmed 2.6m Covid-19 cases, the fifth highest total in the world, and more than 64,000 deaths.
Like other European countries, France will see muted celebrations for New Year’s Eve amid the pandemic.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin has ordered a visible security presence in city centres and flashpoint suburbs from 20:00, when the curfew begins.
In Paris half of the metro lines will be closed in the evening, while Mr Darmanin also asked for a wider public transport shutdown across the country to be considered.
Despite rising cases, and concerns over a new more contagious strain of the disease, a government spokesman said there was no need for local lockdowns for now. France has had two national lockdowns and bars, restaurants and cultural attractions will remain closed into January.
Oyo State The Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, has approved the suspension of the 12am to 4am curfew earlier imposed on states by the Federal Government to curb the spread of COVID-19.
The suspension is to enable churches hold the traditional crossover service to usher in the New Year.
This was announced in a statement on Wednesday by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr Taiwo Adisa.
The statement indicated that the governor gave the directives in a brief endorsed by the chairman of the Technical Team of the COVID-19 Task Force, Prof. Temitope Alonge.
The statement added that other advisories, including the directive of 50 per cent occupancy for worship and event centres, ban of street carnivals and others, remained in effect. The statement reads partly, “Following a review of the pronouncement of the technical team of the Task Force on COVID-19 in Oyo State on December 29, 2020, the Governor, Seyi Makinde, FNSE, has magnanimously directed that the 12 midnight to 4am curfew be lifted.
Governor Seyi Makinde
“The governor has also warned citizens and residents of Oyo State to ensure strict compliance with the guidelines, protocols and advisories as laid down by the OYO State COVID-19 task force aimed at limiting the transmission of the disease in our communities.”
kogi State. Churches in Kogi State have been told that they can observe the crossover services without any hindrance if they wish.
The state chairman of Christian Association of Nigeria, Bishop John Ibenu, stated this in Lokoja on Wednesday.
He said, “I have spoken with government officials, we shall observe our crossover service in our various churches on December 31 to January 1. “Let us keep the nation and Kogi State in prayers and have the trust that no plague will come near our state.
Governor Yahaya Bello.
Recall that the Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, had consistently maintained that the COVID-19, even though it exists, had been exaggerated for political and economic purpose.
Observe COVID-19 protocols – FCTA
Also, the Federal Capital Territory Administration has admonished churches in the nation’s capital to comply strictly with the COVID-19 protocols during the crossover service holding on Thursday to usher in the New Year.
It said errant worshippers would be sanctioned and churches found violating the guidelines would be shut.
The Head, Media and Public Enlightenment of FCT COVID-19 Task Force, Ikaro Attah, said worshippers and churches must support government decision to promote progress and development of the FCT. He said, “We had discussions with religious leaders on the need to obey the COVID-19 protocols, so all those who will be attending the crossover service must adhere strictly to the guidelines. They should put on their face masks, wash hands, as well as keep physical distancing.”
“Those that failed to comply will be brought before the court for prosecution. Again, the centre where the protocol is flouted will be shut.”
Lagos State.
The Lagos State Government on Wednesday advised residents to comply with COVID-19 protocols, saying the cases were rising. The government in a statement by the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Gbenga Omotoso, also commended religious organisations for the roles in fighting the pandemic.
“The Christian Association of Nigeria has issued a statement on how Churches should conduct their watchnight services.
“The Sanwo-Olu administration has maintained a harmonious relationship with religious organisations and has confidence in the ability of its leaders to ensure compliance with COVID-19 protocols amid the clamour for crossover services,” the statement reads partly.
Enugu bans night service.
The Enugu State Government banned the crossover service. A public service announcement the state released on Wednesday, through the Office of the Chief Secretary to the Governor, said the ban became necessary following the second wave of the coronavirus disease.
Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi.
It reads partly, “Due to the second wave of COVID-19, the conventional crossover activities on December 31, will not hold this year.”
Ban on crossover service not anti-Christian – Ondo
In a related development, the Ondo State Inter-ministerial Committee on COVID-19 said the decision of the government to ban crossover service is not targeted at Christianity.
The Chairman of the committee, Prof. Adesegun Fatusi, stated this during an interactive meeting with religious leaders and stakeholders in Akure on Wednesday.
Fatusi said there was the need for every stakeholder to key into the fight against COVID-19.“We are talking about a matter of life and death. People have talked about maintaining protocols in the markets and other places, but focus on churches and mosques is because by their designs they spread COVID-19 more than open places.
“It is an enclosed place and people are more active there. The likelihood of higher infection is very prominent. The decision to cancel crossover vigil is not about churches, you will recalled that the government cancelled Muslims gathering too; it is about subsisting order for prevention of outbreak of infection and reducing further spread of COVID-19”.
Governor Rotimi Akeredolu
The Ondo State Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria Rev. Ayo Oladapo called on the government to permit churches to celebrate the crossover service, stressing that churches had been educating the people on preventive measures against the pandemic.
Chinese regulators have approved a coronavirus vaccine developed by state-owned pharmaceutical giant Sinopharm, officials announced Thursday.
Sinopharm said yesterday its coronavirus vaccine is 79.34% effective, citing interim analysis of Phase 3 clinical trials.
Though few details were provided, the company said the vaccine met the standards of the World Health Organization and China’s own regulator, the National Medical Products Administration.
Those of us who cannot part with anything are being treated without respect as if we are slaves. But those who paid are treated like kings and queens.
Workers handling the registration of national identity numbers in Delta State have resorted to extorting prospective registrants as they charged between N3,000 and N5,000 for the enrolment form which is supposed to be free.
Hundreds of applicants who besieged the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) office at Effurun in Uvwie Local Government Area of Delta State were asked to pay to get the forms which are being hoarded by the commission’s staff.
At Effurun, a person who monitored the exercise on Wednesday at the council secretariat observed that the forms were available as expected because the staff hoarded the enrolment forms to sell to desperate applicants.
A registrant said that the extortion was being coordinated by the manager of the NIMC in the area, adding that those who could not afford N3,000 or N5,000 were treated with disdain.
“Officials of the National Identity Management Commission are making a hell of money from this illegal sale of the forms to applicants,” the source said. “Those of us who cannot part with anything are being treated without respect as if we are slaves. But those who paid are treated like kings and queens.
“Do you know that here we are, we saw an officer of the commission receiving N40, 000 from a lady and she was handed a bunch of the enrolment forms. We noticed that the lady came with her entire family members who were tired of waiting on the queue to collect the form. We also saw that the commission’s officials are working hand in hand with some of the illicit business council officials.
“In some cases, some officials of the Uvwie council in connivance with the commission’s officials collect between N9,000 and N10,000 from desperate applicants who are not ready to wait for the enrolment of applicants. In Nigeria, nothing goes for nothing, and it isn’t good. You will be surprised that at the end of the day monies are remitted to some top-ranking officials of the commission,” the applicant said.
NIMC staff at the local government declined to comment on the sharp practices.
President Donald Trump speaks with reporters after participating in a video teleconference call with members of the military on Thanksgiving, Thursday, Nov. 26, 2020, at the White House in Washington.
The US Senate’s Republican leader has rejected calls from an unlikely alliance of President Donald Trump, congressional Democrats and some Republicans to boost coronavirus aid.
Mitch McConnell said hiking aid cheques from $600 (£440) to $2,000 would be “another fire hose of borrowed money”.
The Democratic-controlled US House of Representatives had voted to increase the payments to Americans.
Donald Trump
The outgoing president’s intervention has divided his fellow Republicans.
Congress agreed the smaller $600 payments in a Covid relief and government funding bill that Mr Trump sent back to Capitol Hill before Christmas, with the president seeking higher stimulus payments.
On Monday, congressional Democrats – usually sworn political foes of Mr Trump – passed the measure for $2,000 cheques that he requested.
Dozens of House Republicans, reluctant to defy Trump, sided with Democrats to approve the package. Trump begrudgingly signed the original bill with the lower payments into law on Sunday, but has continued to demand more money.
“Unless Republicans have a death wish, and it is also the right thing to do, they must approve the $2,000 payments ASAP,” he tweeted on Tuesday.
But McConnel rejected Senate Democrats’ calls for the upper chamber to vote on the $2,000 cheques package passed by their counterparts in the House.
“The Senate is not going to be bullied into rushing out more borrowed money into the hands of Democrats’ rich friends who don’t need the help,” he said on the chamber floor.
Instead he offered to roll the proposal for $2,000 cheques into another bill to include other measures that have been requested by Trump but raised objections from Democratic leaders.
One would end legal protection for tech companies, known as Section 230. The other would set up a bipartisan commission to investigate Mr Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of systemic electoral fraud.
Democrats said McConnell’s proposal was merely a legislative poison pill designed to kill higher stimulus payments.
Liberal Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent who votes with Democrats, said on the Senate floor: “All we are asking for is a vote. What is the problem?
“If you want to vote against $2,000 checks for your state, vote against it.”
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said: “What we’re seeing right now is leader McConnell trying to kill the cheques – the $2,000 cheques desperately needed by so many American families.”
And House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said: “These Republicans in the Senate seem to have an endless tolerance for other people’s sadness.”
The Republican party usually professes an opposition to government spending as an article of faith, but some of its top conservative senators have rallied behind Trump’s call for $2,000 cheques.
They include Marco Rubio of Florida and Josh Hawley of Missouri, both considered possible presidential contenders in 2024.
So have Georgia’s Republican senators, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, who are fighting for their political lives in a 5 January election against two Democratic challengers. The vote will decide which party controls the Senate next year.
But other Republicans have argued the relief bill already provides a wider safety net once its jobless benefits, rental assistance and loans to small businesses to keep workers on their payroll are taken into account.
Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania said he opposed “blindly borrowing” billions of dollars to send cheques to “millions of people who haven’t lost any income”.
Fou Ts’ong, the first Chinese pianist to win global acclaim and success, has died aged 86 after contracting Covid-19.
Fou died on Monday in London, where he had been living since the 1950s.
His death was confirmed by Jianing Kong, a professor at the Royal College of Music and student of Fou’s.
Responding to the news on Tuesday, the renowned Chinese pianist Lang Lang described Fou as “a truly great pianist, and our spiritual beacon”.
Fou was born in China in 1934 to a family of China’s intellectual elite. He first heard western classical music at a young age when his father, the renowned translator Fu Lei, returned to China after several years living in France.
As a budding pianist, he studied with the founder and head of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Italian conductor Mario Paci, who had been crucial in bringing western classical music to China.
Aged 19, Fou left China to continue his musical education in Europe, moving to then-Communist Poland to study in Warsaw. Two years later, he won awards and international recognition at the prestigious Chopin competition in the city.
image captionFou Ts’ong during a recording session in 1964
In 1959, Fou moved to London and grew into an internationally acclaimed soloist, playing both in Europe and the United States, and performing in 1967 at the BBC’s First Night of the Proms.
In 1960 he had married Zamira Menuhin, the daughter of the renowned violinist Yehudi Menuhin. The couple had a son and divorced in 1969. Fou later married the Chinese pianist Patsy Toh and had another son.
While he was living in London, Fou’s parents were persecuted in Maoist China during the anti-intellectual Cultural Revolution. They took their own lives in 1966.
A landslide in a Norwegian village has buried homes under dark mud, injuring 10 people – one seriously – and leaving 11 missing.
Rescue workers are continuing to search for those missing, who include children, in the village of Gjerdrum, 25km (15 miles) north-east of the capital, Oslo.
About 900 people have so far been evacuated from the village.
Police said some people were feared to be trapped in mud and debris.
“We are quite certain that there are people in the affected area, but we don’t know if all 11 are there or if the number is smaller,” police spokesman Roger Pettersen told reporters.
The landslide began during the early hours of Wednesday, with residents calling emergency services and telling them that their houses were moving, police said.
On Wednesday afternoon two more houses collapsed into the crater formed by the landslide, while others remained perched precariously on its lip.
Prime Minister Erna Solberg said the situation was still so unstable that only rescues by helicopter could be carried out.
“There could be people trapped… but at the same time we can’t be sure because it is the New Year’s holiday, which means people could be elsewhere,” she told reporters.
image captionRescue efforts were being carried out by helicopter
Residents have been speaking to Norwegian media about what happened.
“There were two massive tremors that lasted for a long while and I assumed it was snow being cleared or something like that,” Oeystein Gjerdrum, 68, told broadcaster NRK.
“Then the power suddenly went out, and a neighbour came to the door and said we needed to evacuate, so I woke up my three grandchildren and told them to get dressed quickly.”
Large quantities of earth were continuing to move, Toril Hofshagen, the regional head of the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE), told reporters.
The local municipality warned that up to 1,500 people could need to leave the region because of concerns about the condition of the ground.
An NVE spokeswoman told AFP that the landslide was a so-called “quick clay slide” measuring about 300m by 700m (985ft by 2,300ft).
“This is the largest landslide in recent times in Norway, considering the number of houses involved and the number of evacuees,” Laila Hoivik said.
Quick clay is a kind of clay found in Norway and Sweden that can collapse and become fluid when it comes under stress.
However Ms Hoivik said further slides were unlikely.
Broadcaster NRK said heavy rainfall may have made the soil unstable.
Norway’s King Harald, 83, said that the incident had “made a deep impression on me and my family”.
“My thoughts are with everyone affected, the injured, those who lost their homes and are now living in fear and uncertainty of the full extent of the disaster,” he said in a statement released by the royal palace
The Oyo State Government has admonished the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Oyo State chapter to adhere strictly to the 12:00 AM to 4:00 AM curfew imposed by the federal government and conduct its cross-over services earlier, rather than the traditional midnight services on every 31st of December.
The technical team of the Oyo state Covid-19 task force gave the admonition on Tuesday while addressing newsmen on the outcome of a meeting held among the members of the Covid-19 task force at the state’s Emergency Operation Center, ‘Yemetu Ibadan.
While reading the communique of the state’s Covid-19 task force to the newsmen, the coordinator, Oyo State Isolation Centers, Professor Temitope Alonge, said the state government has banned street Carnivals in all the nooks and crannies of the state with immediate effect.
He added that the existing Nationwide curfew from 12 midnight to 4:00 AM will be reinforced, and advised worship centers, night-clubs, bars, and lounges to adhere strictly to the restriction, while event centers are reminded of the existing advisory on the recommend occupancy for events not exceeding 50% of capacity.
Also speaking, the state commissioner for health, Dr. Bashir Bello, and the clinical epidemiologist working with the state’s emergency operation center, Dr. Akindele Adebiyi, explained that Oyo state has recorded 90 cases within two weeks and cautioned residents of the state not to exploit the benevolence of government as younger ones have started to lose their lives as a result of complications from the dreaded virus.
The duo who noted that Orelope and Ibadan North local government areas have been identified as Covid hot spot maintained that necessary machinery has been put in motion to ensure that Covid-19 test results are released within 72 hours, while treatment of infected persons is guaranteed.
In his remarks, Professor of virology, David Olaleye, who confirmed the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, called on the Oyo state citizens to go for the Covid-19 test at 30 collection sites located in the state in a bid contain and curb the spread of the virus as the country battles the second wave of the pandemic.
Argentina’s Senateapproved a bill to legalize abortion Wednesday in an historic vote seen as a major victory for abortion rights advocates in the Catholic-majority country.
The Senate voted 38-29 to give millions of women access to legal terminations under a new law supported by President Alberto Fernández. The margin was expected to be much smaller.
Massive crowds of abortion rights activists and anti-abortion campaigners gathered outside the Palace of the Argentine National Congress to await the results, which came in the early hours of the morning after an overnight debate. Supporters of the bill greeted the news with loud cheers — and, in some cases, tears of joy. Gabriela Giacomelli, whose two sisters aborted illegally, called the scene “very emotional.”
“We have been fighting for years,” Giacomelli said. “I see young people now, though I hope they never have to abort, but if they do now they can do it safely.”
Another abortion rights activist, Sofia Gonzalez, said she believed Wednesday was a “historic moment” in Argentina’s history. “Starting today, I believe everything changes,” she added. The proposed law will legalize abortion in all cases up to 14 weeks of pregnancy. Abortion in Argentina, South America’s third-most populous country, is currently only permitted when a pregnancy results from rape or endangers the life or health of the woman.
In all other circumstances, abortion is illegal and punishable by up to 15 years in jail.
Abortion advocates hope Argentina’s decision will spur similar movements in Latin America’s other Catholic-majority states.
Tamara Taraciuk Broner, the acting deputy director of Human Rights Watch (HRW) Americas Division, said before the vote that if the law passed, it would “send a very strong message to the region that it is possible to move forward with legalization of abortion — even in a Catholic country like Argentina.”
Across Latin America and the Caribbean region, only Cuba, Uruguay, French Guiana and Guyana allow for elective abortions, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights. In Mexico City and the Mexican state of Oaxaca, abortions are also available on request, but are severely restricted throughout the rest of Mexico.
By contrast, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua and Suriname ban abortions in nearly all circumstances. Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Panama allow for abortion only if it’s to preserve the woman’s health or help save her life.
Abortion has long been a divisive issue in Argentina, and the vote galvanized activists on both sides of the debate.
Abortion rights advocates wore green handkerchiefs in a movement that became known as the green wave. Anti-abortion activists dressed in blue — the color of the “save both lives” movement, and that of the national flag.
This isn’t the first time the issue has gone to the Senate. In 2018, during the conservative administration of former President Mauricio Macri, an attempt to legalize abortion in Argentina passed the lower house, but was narrowly defeated in the Senate.
In recent months, the abortion rights movement received a huge boost from the support of President Fernández, who came to power last December.
In a recorded address shortly before his inauguration, Fernández pledged to “put an end to the criminalization of abortion.”
Wearing a green tie — a symbol of the abortion rights movement — Fernández said criminalizing the procedure unfairly punishes “vulnerable and poor women,” adding they were the “the greatest victims” of Argentina’s legal system.
“The criminalization of abortion has been of no use,” he said, noting that it “has only allowed abortions to occur clandestinely in troubling numbers.”
Fernández said more than 3,000 people had died from illegal abortions since 1983. No official figures are available for how many illegal abortions take place in Argentina, but the National Health Ministry estimates that between 371,965 and 522,000 procedures are performed annually.
According to a report from HRW, nearly 40,000 women and children in Argentina were hospitalized in 2016 as a result of unsafe, clandestine abortions or miscarriages.
Citing National Health Ministry data, the HRW report found that 39,025 women and girls were admitted to public hospitals for health issues arising from abortions or miscarriages, and more than 6,000 were aged between 10 and 19.
Experts say the new law will allow 13- to 16-year-olds with normal pregnancies to access abortion services without a guardian. Doctors will have the option to “conscientiously object” to performing abortions, although the law states they will have to find another doctor to do so.
The bill also uses inclusive language acknowledging that not all people who become pregnant identify as women.
Camila Fernandez, a self-identifying transgender woman, who was instrumental in the push for the bill’s language that reads “people with ability to be pregnant,” told CNN that youth and the LGBTQ community were instrumental in challenging an “adult centrist and patriarchal power that has perpetuated privileges and injustices.”
‘Troubling numbers’
The abortion debate has created tension in a country with deep Catholic ties.
Argentina, the birthplace of Pope Francis, has seen a gradual rise in agnosticism in recent years, although 92% of Argentinians still identify as Roman Catholic, according to the CIA.
Argentina’s constitution cements government support for the Catholic Church and recognizes Roman Catholicism as the official religion. However, a 1994 amendment removed the requirement that the president must be Catholic.
In November, Francis weighed into the debate, encouraging the anti-abortion group Mujeres de las Villas to “move forward” with their work.
In a handwritten letter addressed to congresswoman and group intermediary Victoria Morales Gorleri, Francis said “the problem of abortion is not primarily a question of religion, but of human ethics, first and foremost of any religious denomination.”
“Is it fair to eliminate a human life to solve a problem? Is it fair to hire a hit man to solve a problem?” he wrote.
On Saturday, the Church of Argentina called on the Senate to vote against the bill, with Bishop Oscar Ojea, president of the local bishops’ conference and an outspoken opponent of abortion, saying opposition was supported by “medical science and law,” Reuters reported.
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