Mob storms US Capitol as Trump accused of 'coup'

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- Donald Trump's supporters stormed a session of Congress held Wednesday to certify Joe Biden's election win, triggering unprecedented chaos and violence at the heart of American democracy and accusations the president was attempting a coup. Vowing not to be deterred, lawmakers resumed business after dark and voted down the first challenge to Biden's win, with several Trump loyalists reversing course in the wake of the violence that drew shock around the world. Egged on

Jan. 7, 2021

[Newsmaker] Pro-Trump mob storms US Capitol in bid to overturn election

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A violent mob loyal to President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol on Wednesday and forced lawmakers into hiding, in a stunning attempt to overturn America’s presidential election, undercut the nation’s democracy and keep Democrat Joe Biden from replacing Trump in the White House. The nation’s elected representatives scrambled to crouch under desks and don gas masks, while police futilely tried to barricade the building, one of the most jarring scenes

Jan. 7, 2021

EU agency approves Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine

The European Union's medicines agency gave the green light Wednesday to Moderna Inc.'s COVID-19 vaccine, a decision that gives the 27-nation bloc a second vaccine to use in the desperate battle to tame the virus rampaging across the continent. The approval recommendation by the European Medicines Agency's human medicines committee -- which must be rubber stamped by the EU's executive commission -- comes amid high rates of infections in many EU countries and strong criticism of the slow pace of

Jan. 6, 2021

Germany to require women on large firms' boards

German listed companies must include women on their executive boards as part of a landmark bill agreed by the country's coalition government Wednesday after voluntary efforts failed to close a gender gap. Listed companies with four executives or more must appoint at least one woman to their boards, according to a draft law to be voted on by parliament. The law sends "a very strong signal", Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht told reporters, urging corporations to "take advanta

Jan. 6, 2021

Why do the latest mass arrests in Hong Kong matter?

China has moved to crush Hong Kong's democracy movement in recent months but Wednesday's mass arrest of democracy figures for subversion under Beijing's new national security law was particularly momentous.  Here's why. What's so significant about this operation? The most eye-catching element is the scale of the crackdown and the variety of figures caught in the dragnet. Prior to Wednesday, around 30 people had been arrested under the new security law since its imposition in late June

Jan. 6, 2021

WikiLeaks founder Assange denied bail in UK

A British judge on Wednesday denied bail to WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange, who has been jailed in Britain since 2019 as he fights extradition to the United States. District Judge Vanessa Baraitser ordered Assange to remain in prison while the courts consider an appeal by US authorities against a decision not to extradite him. On Monday, the judge rejected an American request to send Assange to the US to face espionage charges over WikiLeaks' publication of secret military documents a deca

Jan. 6, 2021

Dutch begin COVID-19 vaccinations; last EU nation to do so

Nearly two weeks after most other European Union nations, the Netherlands on Wednesday began its COVID-19 vaccination program, with nursing home staff and front-line workers in hospitals first in line for the shot. Sanna Elkadiri, a nurse at a nursing home for people with dementia, was the first to receive a shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at a mass vaccination center in Veghel, 120 kilometers southeast of the capital, Amsterdam. “This is a very important moment for me as a person wh

Jan. 6, 2021

[Graphic News] Plane crash deaths rise in 2020 despite COVID pandemic

　The number of people killed in large commercial airplane crashes rose in 2020 to 299 worldwide, even as the number of crashes fell by more than 50 percent, a Dutch consulting firm said. 　Aviation consulting firm To70 said in 2020 there were 40 accidents involving large commercial passenger planes, five of which were fatal, resulting in 299 fatalities. In 2019 there were 86 accidents, eight of which were fatal, resulting in 287 fatalities. 　Large commercial airplanes had 0.27 fatal acciden

Jan. 6, 2021

Former head of China state asset firm sentenced to death

The former head of state-owned China Huarong Asset Management Co. Ltd. was sentenced to death Tuesday for bribe taking in one of the harshest punishments for economic crimes in recent years. Lai Xiaomin, 58, was also found guilty by the Second Intermediate People's Court of Tianjin of lesser charges including corruption and bigamy. Life sentences and suspended death sentences commuted to life after two years are frequently handed down in corruption cases, but death sentences without the chan

Jan. 5, 2021

Trump, on tape, presses Ga. official to 'find' him votes

President Donald Trump pressured Georgia's Republican secretary of state to "find" enough votes to overturn Joe Biden's win in the state's presidential election, repeatedly citing disproven claims of fraud and raising the prospect of a "criminal offense" if officials did not change the vote count, according to a recording of the conversation. The phone call with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Saturday was the latest step in an unprecedented effort by a sitting pre

Jan. 4, 2021

Hope fades in Norway landslide that left 7 dead; 3 missing

Norwegian officials insisted Monday that there was "still hope" in finding survivors in air pockets five days after a landslide killed at least seven people as it carried away homes in a village north of the capital. Three people are still missing. Police spokesman Roger Pettersen said search efforts in the landslide-hit village of Ask, 25 kilometers (16 miles) northeast of Oslo, are still considered "a rescue operation." But only bodies have been found in the last few days.

Jan. 4, 2021

Iran acknowledges it seized South Korean-flagged oil tanker

Iranian state television has acknowledged that Tehran seized a South Korean-flagged oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz. The report on Monday alleged that the MT Hankuk Chemi had been stopped by Iranian authorities over alleged "oil pollution" in the Persian Gulf and the strait. The semiofficial Fars news agency said Iran's Revolutionary Guard's naval forces seized the ship. Satellite data from MarineTraffic.com showed the MT Hankuk Chemi off the port of Bandar Abbas on Monday aftern

Jan. 4, 2021

Greece names first openly gay minister

The center-right government in Greece named the country's first openly gay minister in a cabinet reshuffle Monday. Nicholas Yatromanolakis, 44, was named as the new deputy minister of culture after being promoted from the position of general secretary at the ministry. The government retained its ministers of health and finance and most other key positions in the reshuffle. Greece is reeling from the impact of the pandemic that caused a spike in deaths in the fall and is expected to have ca

Jan. 4, 2021

UK judge refuses extradition of WikiLeaks founder Assange

A British judge on Monday rejected the United States' request to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to face espionage charges, saying he was likely to kill himself if held under harsh US prison conditions. District Judge Vanessa Baraitser ruled that extradition would be "oppressive" because of Assange's mental health. She said Assange was "a depressed and sometimes despairing man" who had the "intellect and determination" to circumvent any suicide preventi

Jan. 4, 2021

Trump extends visa ban, health coverage policy advances

  President Donald Trump on Thursday extended pandemic-related bans on green cards and work visas to large groups of applicants through March 31, while a federal appeals court sided with him on a rule that requires new immigrants to have their own health insurance. The twin developments on the final day of 2020 encapsulated how Trump has made US immigration policy more restrictive without support from Congress. President-elect Joe Biden has promised to undo many of Trump's actions but it

Jan. 1, 2021

Wuhan virus cases may be 10 times higher than reported: China health study

BEIJING -- The number of coronavirus cases in the Chinese city where the pathogen was first detected may have been 10 times higher than official figures suggest, according to a study by health authorities in Wuhan. About 4.4 percent of the city's 11 million residents had developed antibodies against the virus causing Covid-19 by April, the report by the Chinese Centre for Disease Control said. That correlates to around 480,000 infections in Wuhan by April, nearly 10 times the official tally to

Dec. 30, 2020

Masked and muted Olympics will still dominate crowded 2021 in sports

PARIS (AFP) -- The rescheduled Tokyo Olympics will be the centrepiece of a crammed sporting year in 2021 as sports administrators who had their calendars wiped away by the coronavirus pandemic try to fill the gaps even as a second wave hits. While the Games will still be called the 2020 Olympics, they have been changed by Covid-19. Tokyo organisers and the Japanese government are struggling with increased costs and, despite the growing possibility of vaccination, whether to allow foreign visi

Dec. 28, 2020

'Believe in science:' EU kicks off COVID-19 vaccine campaign

Doctors, nurses and the elderly rolled up their sleeves across the European Union to receive the first doses of the coronavirus vaccine Sunday in a symbolic show of unity and moment of hope for a continent confronting its worst health care crisis in a century. Even though a few countries started giving doses a day early, the coordinated rollout for a bloc of 27 nations and nearly 450 million people aimed at projecting a unified message that the vaccine was safe and was Europe's best chance to

Dec. 27, 2020

Downtown Nashville explosion knocks communications offline

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- A recreational vehicle parked in the deserted streets of downtown Nashville exploded early Christmas morning, causing widespread communications outages that took down police emergency systems and grounded holiday travel at the city's airport. Police were responding to a report of shots fired Friday when they encountered the RV blaring a recorded warning that a bomb would detonate in 15 minutes, Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake said. Police evacuated nearby buil

Dec. 26, 2020

[Graphic News] Record number of journalists imprisoned in 2020

　A record number of journalists were imprisoned worldwide during 2020, as governments cracked down on coverage of the coronavirus pandemic or tried to suppress reporting of civil unrest, the Committee to Protect Journalists said. 　At least 274 journalists were in jail as of Dec. 1, the most since the New York-based group began collecting data in the early 1990s, the report said, up from at least 250 last year. 　Protests and political tensions were the cause of many arrests, with the most m

Dec. 23, 2020