KAKAMMPI News

Marius Zaharia and Renju Jose, Reuters HONG KONG/SYDNEY—Hong Kong expanded a ban on entry for non-residents from several countries as global health authorities raced to curb a potential outbreak of the Omicron virus, while Australia's cabinet will review on Tuesday containment steps after 5 tested positive. Singapore's health ministry said 2 travelers from Johannesburg who tested positive for the variant in Sydney had transited through its Changi airport. Omicron - first reported in southern Africa and which the World Health Organization said carries a "very high" risk of infection surges - has triggered global alarm, with border closures casting a shadow over a nascent economic recovery from a 2-year pandemic. [LINK: https://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/11/29/21/who-initial-info-suggests-increased-reinfection-risk-due-to-omicron] Hong Kong is among the latest to expand travel curbs. In a late Monday statement, city authorities said non-residents from Angola, Ethiop...

Laura Zhou, South China Morning Post Posted at Nov 24 2021 10:58 PM Defense chiefs agree to expand cooperation through strategic exercises and joint patrols in the Asia-Pacific, says Russian ministry China and Russia are edging closer to a de facto military alliance to counter growing pressure from the United States, with the Russian defence chief telling his Chinese counterpart that US aircraft activity near the country’s borders had increased. In a video call on Tuesday, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chinese Defence Minister General Wei Fenghe agreed to expand cooperation through strategic exercises and joint patrols in the Asia-Pacific, including the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea, according to Russia’s defence ministry. Shoigu said there had been a “significant intensification” in activities by US strategic bombers near Russia’s borders. “Over the past month, about 30 sorties have been made to the borders of the Russian Federation, which is 2.5 times more tha...

Polina Nikolskaya and Anton Zverev, Reuters Posted at Nov 24 2021 11:07 PM MOSCOW - Russia announced progress in its Sputnik suite of COVID-19 vaccines on Wednesday, with a new version aimed at children and a nasal spray that President Vladimir Putin said he had taken as a booster. Putin said in televised comments that he had been re-inoculated six months after his initial dose of the Sputnik V vaccine because his antibody levels had dropped. He said the booster took the form of an injection, followed the next day by a powder sprayed into both nostrils. "That was all - I didn't feel anything. Nothing. Today, after these two procedures, I already did some sport in the morning," he said. Kirill Dmitriev, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which invested in Russia's flagship vaccine and markets it overseas, said Russia would sell the nasal form to other countries next year. Research has been going on in countries around the world to develop nas...

Francesco Guarascio and Jason Hovet, Reuters Posted at Nov 25 2021 04:05 AM BRUSSELS/PRAGUE—Coronavirus infections broke records in parts of Europe on Wednesday, with the continent once again the epicentre of a pandemic that has prompted new curbs on movement and seen health experts push to widen the use of booster vaccination shots. Slovakia, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Hungary all reported new highs in daily infections as winter grips Europe and people gather indoors in the run-up to Christmas, providing a perfect breeding ground for COVID-19. New cases have jumped 23% in the Americas in the last week, mostly in North America, in a sign that region might also face a resurgence of infections. The disease has swept the world in the two years since it was first identified in central China, infecting more than 258 million people and killing 5.4 million. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), the EU public health agency, recommended vaccine booster...

Agence France-Presse MONTREAL—Canada began immunizing children aged 5-11 against COVID-19 Wednesday, joining a handful of nations including Israel and the United States in offering shots to this age group. At Montreal's convention center, a few dozen youngsters were among the first to receive the Pfizer doses authorized since last Friday for this age group. To help ease their fears of needles, additional measures have been taken such posting stickers of unicorns or hockey players on partitions between nursing stations, longer appointments than for adults, and a dog to pet. "I was not really scared, but I was stressed," Victor, 10, told AFP, gripping a coloring page with the words "bravo, you received your vaccine" in his hands. At his side, his mother Mathilde explains that he felt "excluded" from his family, being the only one who had not yet been vaccinated against COVID-19. For her, having her son vaccinated made sense, if only to "be to...

Bernard Barron with Sylvie Maligorne and Stuart Williams in Paris, Agence France-Presse Posted at Nov 25 2021 08:43 AM CALAIS, France—At least 27 migrants trying to reach England from France died on Wednesday when their boat sank off the northern French coast, the deadliest disaster since the Channel became a hub for clandestine crossings. President Emmanuel Macron vowed France would not allow the Channel to become a "cemetery" and also spoke to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to agree on stepping up efforts to thwart the traffickers blamed for the surge in crossings. "It is Europe's deepest values -- humanism, respect for the dignity of each person -- that are in mourning," Macron said. The disaster caused the highest death toll since at least 2018 when migrants began using boats en masse to cross the Channel. It comes as tensions grow between London and Paris over the record numbers of people crossing. Prosecutors opened a manslaughter probe after t...

WAUKESHA, Wisconsin - The man accused of driving his vehicle into a traditional Christmas parade near Milwaukee made his first court appearance on Tuesday since the weekend rampage and was charged with homicide, as the death toll rose to six. The death toll was raised after prosecutors said an 8-year-old boy had died, marking the first death of a child in the incident. Darrell Brooks, 39, appeared in Waukesha County Circuit Court and the court commissioner set bail at $5 million. Authorities said Brooks deliberately drove an SUV through police barricades on Sunday and the annual parade in the city of Waukesha, about 20 miles (32 km) west of Milwaukee. The high bail comes after Brooks was released from custody in another case after posting $1,000 cash bond on Nov. 11, an amount that the Milwaukee County district attorney's office now says was "inappropriately low in light of the nature of the recent charges" against him. Brooks on Tuesday was charged with five counts ...