WHO insists AstraZeneca vaccine safe as jab faces new setbacks

A Royal Navy medic prepares syringes ahead of giving injections of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine in Bath, southwest England. (AFP)
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Updated 12 March 2021
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WHO insists AstraZeneca vaccine safe as jab faces new setbacks

  • “AstraZeneca is an excellent vaccine, as are the other vaccines that are being used,” WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said
  • UK-based AstraZeneca insisted its jab was safe, adding there is “no evidence” of higher blood clot risks from it

GENEVA: The World Health Organization said Friday there is no reason to stop using AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine after several countries suspended the rollout over blood clot fears while some nations begin warning of another virus wave.
The WHO, which said its vaccines advisory committee was examining the safety data coming in, stressed that no causal link has been established between the AstraZeneca vaccine and clotting.
“AstraZeneca is an excellent vaccine, as are the other vaccines that are being used,” WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris told reporters in Geneva.
“Yes, we should continue using the AstraZeneca vaccine,” she added, stressing that any concerns over safety must be investigated.
UK-based AstraZeneca insisted its jab was safe, adding there is “no evidence” of higher blood clot risks from it.
Despite hopes that vaccines will pave the way to a return to normality, hard-hit Italy announced tough new restrictions in much of the country, with Prime Minister Mario Draghi warning the country was facing “a new wave” of infections.
One year after it became the first European country to face a major outbreak, Italy is once again struggling with the rapid spread of Covid-19, this time fueled by new, more contagious variants.
Schools, restaurants, shops and museums were ordered Friday to close across most regions of Italy, including Rome and Milan from next week.
The Greek authorities on Friday spoke of a “serious epidemiological situation,” also warning of a third wave as infection numbers mount in Athens and other major towns.
Health experts there warned that restriction measures in place, including school closures in the major conurbations, would be extended once more.
And Disneyland Paris, Europe’s biggest tourist attraction, said Friday it will not be able to reopen as planned on April 2 because of the ongoing Covid-19 crisis with infections remaining stubbornly high in France.
The shadow cast over the AstraZeneca jab is adding to problems the European Union has had in distributing coronavirus vaccines.
Denmark, Norway and Iceland paused the use of the AstraZeneca jab as a precaution after isolated reports of recipients developing blood clots.
Italy and Austria have banned the use of shots from separate batches of AstraZeneca, and Thailand and Bulgaria said this week they would delay the rollout of the shot.
In Spain at least five regions said Friday they had suspended use of the AstraZeneca vaccines from the suspect batch banned by Austria as a precautionary measure.
But several other countries, including Australia, said they would continue their rollouts as they had found no reason to alter course. Canada also said there was no evidence the jab causes adverse reactions.
In a fresh hit, the EU’s drug regulator said severe allergies should be added to the possible side effects of the AstraZeneca vaccine after likely links were found to a number of cases in Britain.

Austria’s Chancellor Sebastian Kurz on Friday suggested that some European countries may have signed “secret contracts” with vaccine companies to receive more vaccines than they were entitled to based on EU rules.
EU members have agreed that vaccines should be distributed among countries based on population size, but Kurz said that after comparing the total procurement figures of member states, it became clear that “deliveries do not follow the per capita quota system.”
Despite the setbacks elsewhere, US President Joe Biden offered hope to his country, the worst-affected in the world.
The leader vowed a return to some kind of normality by July 4, marking the national holiday as his target for “independence” from the virus.
After a shaky start, the US has ramped up its vaccination program, following the advice of scientists who say jabs are the only way out of a pandemic that has killed 2.6 million people around the world.
There was also some encouraging news on the vaccine front as the WHO on Friday approved Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine, paving the way for an additional 500 million doses to enter the Covax global vaccine-sharing scheme.
“Every new, safe and effective tool against Covid-19 is another step closer to controlling the pandemic,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.
The news comes after the single-dose jab won approval from the European Union on Thursday.
It has also received the green light from regulators in the United States, Canada, South Africa and France — which on Friday topped 90,000 coronavirus fatalities since the start of the pandemic .
Meanwhile it was announced that India will manufacture at least one billion more Covid-19 vaccine doses by the end of next year in a joint initiative with the United States, Japan and Australia.
Following the nations’ first four-way summit, US President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said the so-called Quad had made a “massive joint commitment” to vaccines.
“The Quad committed to delivering up to one billion doses to ASEAN, the Indo-Pacific and beyond by the end of 2022,” Sullivan told reporters.
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University students lead a strike in Serbia as populist president plans a rally to counter protests

Updated 24 January 2025
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University students lead a strike in Serbia as populist president plans a rally to counter protests

  • Daily traffic blockades took place on Friday in various cities and towns in the Balkan nation
  • “Let’s take freedom in our hands,” students told the citizens in their strike call

BELGRADE: A student-led strike closed down numerous businesses and drew tens of thousands into the streets throughout Serbia on Friday as populist President Aleksandar Vucic planned a big rally to counter persistent anti-government protests that have challenged his tight grip on power.
Daily traffic blockades took place on Friday in various cities and towns in the Balkan nation, held to commemorate the victims of a deadly canopy collapse which killed 15 people in November. Huge crowds later flooded the streets for noisy protest marches through the capital Belgrade and elsewhere in the country.
“Let’s take freedom in our hands,” students told the citizens in their strike call.
Many in Serbia believe the huge concrete canopy at a train station in the northern city of Novi Sad fell down because of sloppy reconstruction work that resulted from corruption.
Weeks-long protests demanding accountability over the crash have been the biggest since Vucic came to power more than a decade ago. He has faced accusations of curbing democratic freedoms despite formally seeking European Union membership for Serbia.
It was not immediately possible to determine how many people and companies joined the students’ call for a one-day general strike on Friday. They included restaurants, bars, theaters, bakeries, various shops and bookstores.
Vucic will gather his supporters in the central town of Jagodina later on Friday. He has announced plans to form a nationwide political movement in the style of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin that would help ensure the dominance of his right-wing Serbian Progressive Party.
The president and his mainstream media have accused the students of working under orders from foreign intelligence services to overthrow the authorities while pro-government thugs have repeatedly attacked protesting citizens.
No incidents were reported during the 15-minute traffic blockades on Friday that started at 11.52, the exact time of the canopy collapse in Novi Sad.
During a blockade last week in Belgrade, a car rammed into protesting students, seriously injuring a young woman.
Serbian universities have been blockaded for two months, along with many schools. A lawyers’ association also has gone on strike but it remained unclear how many people stayed away from work in the state-run institutions on Friday.
As well as Belgrade and Novi Sad, protest marches were also held Friday in the southern city of Nis and smaller cities, and even in Jagodina ahead of Vucic’s arrival.
“Things can’t stay the same anymore,” actor Goran Susljik told N1 regional television. “Students have offered us a possibility for a change.”
Serbia’s prosecutors have filed charges against 13 people for the canopy collapse, including a government minister and several state officials. But the former construction minister Goran Vesic has been released from detention, fueling doubts over the probe’s independence.
The main railway station in Novi Sad was renovated twice in recent years as part of a wider infrastructure deal with Chinese state companies.


Ukraine to evacuate more children from frontline villages

Updated 24 January 2025
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Ukraine to evacuate more children from frontline villages

  • “I have decided to start a mandatory evacuation of families with children” from around two dozen frontline villages and settlements, Donetsk region governor Vadym Filashkin said
  • Around 110 children lived in the area affected

KYIV: Ukraine on Friday announced the mandatory evacuation of dozens of families with children from frontline villages in the eastern Donetsk region.
Russia’s troops have been grinding across the region in recent months, capturing a string of settlements, most of them completely destroyed in the fighting since Russia invaded in February 2022.
“I have decided to start a mandatory evacuation of families with children” from around two dozen frontline villages and settlements, Donetsk region governor Vadym Filashkin said on Telegram.
Around 110 children lived in the area affected, he added.
“Children should live in peace and tranquility, not hide from shelling,” he said, urging parents to heed the order to leave.
The area is in the west of the Donetsk region, close to the internal border with Ukraine’s Dnipropretovsk region.
Russia in 2022 claimed to have annexed the Donetsk region, but has not asserted a formal claim to Dnipropretovsk.
The order to leave comes a day after officials in the northeastern Kharkiv region announced the evacuation of 267 children from several settlements there under threat of Russian attack.


Trump to visit disaster zones in North Carolina, California on first trip of second term

Updated 24 January 2025
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Trump to visit disaster zones in North Carolina, California on first trip of second term

  • The president is also heading to hurricane-battered western North Carolina

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump is heading into the fifth day of his second term in office, striving to remake the traditional boundaries of Washington by asserting unprecedented executive power.
The president is also heading to hurricane-battered western North Carolina and wildfire-ravaged Los Angeles, using the first trip of his second administration to tour areas where politics has clouded the response to deadly disasters.


Kyiv says received bodies of 757 killed Ukrainian troops

Updated 24 January 2025
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Kyiv says received bodies of 757 killed Ukrainian troops

  • The exchange of prisoners and return of their remains is one of the few areas of cooperation between Moscow and Kyiv

KYIV: Kyiv said Friday it had received the bodies of hundreds of Ukrainian troops killed in battle with Russian forces, in one of the largest repatriations since Russia invaded.
The exchange of prisoners and return of their remains is one of the few areas of cooperation between Moscow and Kyiv since the Kremlin mobilized its army in Ukraine in February 2022.
The repatriation announced by the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, a Ukrainian state agency, is the largest in months and underscores the high cost and intensity of fighting ahead of the war’s three-year anniversary.
“The bodies of 757 fallen defenders were returned to Ukraine,” the Coordination Headquarters said in a post on social media.
It specified that 451 of the bodies were returned from the “Donetsk direction,” probably a reference to the battle for the mining and transport hub of Pokrovsk.
The city that once had around 60,000 residents has been devastated by months of Russian bombardments and is the Kremlin’s top military priority at the moment.
The statement also said 34 dead were returned from morgues inside Russia, where Kyiv last August mounted a shock offensive into Russia’s western Kursk region.
Friday’s repatriation is at least the fifth involving 500 or more Ukrainian bodies since October.
Military death tolls are state secrets both in Russia and Ukraine but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed last December that 43,000 Ukrainian troops had been killed and 370,000 had been wounded since 2022.
The total number is likely to be significantly higher.
Russia does not announce the return of its bodies or give up-to-date information on the numbers of its troops killed fighting in Ukraine.


EU says it is ready to ease sanctions on Syria

Updated 24 January 2025
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EU says it is ready to ease sanctions on Syria

  • The top EU diplomat said the EU would start by easing sanctions that are necessary to rebuild the country

ANKARA: The European Union’s foreign policy chief said the 27-member bloc is ready to ease sanctions on Syria, but added the move would be a gradual one contingent on the transitional Syrian government’s actions.
Speaking during a joint news conference in Ankara with Turkiye’s foreign minister on Friday, Kaja Kallas also said the EU was considering introducing a “fallback mechanism” that would allow it to reimpose sanctions if the situation in Syria worsens.
“If we see the steps of the Syrian leadership going to the right direction, then we are also willing to ease next level of sanctions,” she said. “We also want to have a fallback mechanism. If we see that the developments are going to the wrong direction, we are also putting the sanctions back.”
The top EU diplomat said the EU would start by easing sanctions that are necessary to rebuild the country that has been battered by more than a decade of civil war.
The plan to ease sanctions on Syria would be discussed at a EU foreign ministers meeting on Monday, Kallas said.