U.S. reverses stance, backs giving poorer countries access to COVID vaccine patents The World Trade Organization chief called Wednesday for international agreement on how to ensure more equal access to Covid-19 vaccines, amid an ongoing standoff over a proposed patent waiver for the jabs. “The way the WTO handles this matter is critical,” Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala Read More…
Facebook Inc’s (FB.O) independent oversight board tweeted on Monday it would announce a decision May 5 on whether to uphold former U.S. President Donald Trump’s indefinite suspension from the social media platform and Instagram. Facebook blocked Trump’s access to his Facebook and Instagram accounts over concerns of further violent unrest following the Jan. 6 storming Read More…
The couple’s separation is likely to send shock waves through the worlds of philanthropy, public health and business. Bill and Melinda Gates, two of the richest people in the world, who reshaped philanthropy and public health with the fortune Mr. Gates made as a co-founder of Microsoft, said on Monday that they were divorcing. For Read More…
Women are at the receiving end of a shadow pandemic which is not COVID-19 A new report for the Council on Criminal Justice has found that, during lockdowns, domestic violence rose by an average of about 8%, both worldwide and in the United States. That’s based on data from those who were able to seek Read More…
Myanmar security forces opened fire on some of the biggest protests against military rule in days on Sunday killing seven people, media reported, three months after a coup plunged the country into crisis. The protests, after a spell of dwindling crowds and what appeared to be more restraint by the security forces, were coordinated with Read More…
Belgian authorities this week destroyed more than 22,000 guns collected by police, melting them down into some 60 tonnes of recycled steel. About half of the firearms were collected from across the country, principally handed in by owners, some of whom had inherited but not wanted to keep them, Carina van Cauter, the governor of Read More…
Pope Francis ruled on Friday that bishops and cardinals who work in the Vatican will be judged by the same lay tribunal that hears other criminal cases and no longer by an elite panel of prelates. Francis issued a decree abrogating a provision in the Vatican’s civil criminal code whereby bishops and cardinals were judged Read More…
In picture above: Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari speaks after security forces rescued schoolboys from kidnappers, in Katsina, Nigeria, December 18, 2020. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde/File Photo The United States should consider moving its military headquarters overseeing Africa to the continent, from Germany, to better tackle growing armed violence in the region, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said on Read More…
In picture above: Shruti Saha, who had been waiting since Tuesday night for her turn to get an oxygen cylinder refilled for her mother, reacts after she was informed about her mother’s death, outside a refilling workshop, in New Delhi, India, April 28, 2021. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi India’s toll from the coronavirus surged past 200,000 on Read More…
In picture above: A pharmacist fills syringes with the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. AFP/GETTY IMAGES The United States should resume Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccinations, an expert panel recommended to health authorities on Friday, after a pause prompted by blood clot concerns. Health authorities in the United States on April 14 proposed a halt Read More…