Covid-19: Paris Airshow cancelled in blow to aerospace recovery

PARIS, Dec 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The Paris Airshow has been cancelled for the first time since World War Two, raising questions about the speed of the aerospace industry’s recovery from the COVID-19 crisis. Organisers said Europe’s largest industrial showcase, which attracts more than 300,000 people every other June in alternation…

IOC bans Belarus president Lukashenko from Games

BERLIN, Dec 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko is banned from attending the Olympic Games as head of his country’s National Olympic Committee (NOC), as part of provisional sanctions imposed by the International Olympic Committee on Monday. The IOC banned two other officials from the NOC, including Lukashenko’s son,…

House votes to open US doors to Hong Kong residents

If the US Senate approves, Hong Kong would be the only wealthy place to enjoy Temporary Protected Status WASHINGTON, Dec 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The US House of Representatives voted to welcome Hong Kong residents to live temporarily in the United States, vowing to be a beacon for rights as China clamps…

UK, EU leaders to meet face-to-face to try to seal Brexit trade deal

BRUSSELS/LONDON, Dec 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — British and EU leaders will meet face-to-face to try to seal a post-Brexit trade deal after failing again to narrow their differences on Monday, increasing the chance of a disorderly parting of ways at the end of the month. With just over three weeks before…

Covid-19: WHO against mandatory vaccines

GENEVA, Dec 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The World Health Organization said that persuading people on the merits of a COVID-19 vaccine would be far more effective than trying to make the jabs mandatory. The WHO said it would be down to individual countries as to how they want to conduct their…

UN urges Russia to end ‘temporary occupation’ of Crimea

Russian President Vladimir Putin during a ceremony to launch a traffic of the Tavrida federal highway, in Crimea UNITED NATIONS, Dec 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution urging Russia to end its “temporary occupation” of Crimea, which Moscow took over in 2014, “without delay”. The resolution…

Ghanaians vote to elect president, parliamentarians

ACCRA, Dec 7 (NNN-ALLAFRICA) — Over 17 million Ghanaians will go to the polls on Monday to elect their president and 275 members of parliament. There are 12 presidential candidates and 914 parliamentary hopefuls on the ballot and voting will be done in 38,622 polling stations across the 16 regions.…

DR Congo: At least 8 killed in Goma violence

GOMA (DR Congo), Dec 7 (NNN-AFRICANEWS) — Eight people were killed by unidentified gunmen in a shootout in a working-class neighbourhood of Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the governor of North Kivu said. “Two individuals arrived on a motorbike at a barber shop and killed two people, firing…

Global COVID-19 cases top 67 mln: Johns Hopkins University

NEW YORK, Dec 7 (NNN-XINHUA) — Global COVID-19 cases surpassed 67 million on Sunday, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University. As of 10:45 p.m. Sunday (0345 GMT Monday), the global case count reached 67,027,780, with a total of 1,535,492 deaths worldwide, the…

Europe battles surge in COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes

MADRID, Dec 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — As the two mortuary workers pushed a stretcher with a bagged corpse out of the room, the elderly man in the adjacent bed briefly awakened from his dementia. “Is he dead?” he muttered, extending his arm, trying to touch his roommate for the last time.…