AFP
13876 articles published since 08 Mar 2022
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World's largest bacteria discovered in Guadeloupe
You can see it with the naked eye and pick it up with a pair of tweezers -- not bad for a single bacteria. Techniques including electronic microscopy revealed it was a bacterial organism, but there was no guarantee it was a single cell.
In Ukraine, war raises spectre of devastating Stalin-era famine
For Maria Goncharova, a 93-year-old survivor of the devastating famine that hit Ukraine in the 1930s, Russia's invasion has awoken fears that the nightmare of starvation could happen again.
Afghan quake survivors without food and shelter as floods hamper relief effort
Many survivors of Afghanistan's deadliest earthquake in more than two decades were on Friday without food, shelter and water as they waited in devastated villages for relief workers to reach them, with rain compounding their misery. Afghanistan's deadliest recent earthquake killed 5,000 in 1998 in the northeastern provinces of Takhar and Badakhshan. bur-fox/mtp
Thailand relaxes mask rule to bolster pandemic-hit tourism
Thailand has dropped rules requiring people to wear masks from Friday, the government says, as Covid-19 cases fall and the tourism-dependent kingdom seeks to lure back foreign visitors. The kingdom has endured a precipitous drop in tourism, welcoming 1.6 million foreign tourists during the first six months of 2022, according to government data.
Singapore eases movement curbs for migrant workers
Migrant workers in Singapore no longer need special permission to leave their dormitories from Friday, after two years of coronavirus curbs, but campaigners criticised the decision to maintain some "discriminatory" restrictions. From Friday, the workers -- employed in industries including construction and maintenance -- will no longer need passes to leave their dorms.
Mystery deepens over fate of Hong Kong's Jumbo Floating Restaurant
Mystery over the fate of Hong Kong's Jumbo Floating Restaurant deepened Friday after its owner stirred confusion over whether the financially struggling tourist attraction had actually sunk while being towed away from the city last week. - Financial woes - The tourist attraction closed in March 2020, citing the Covid-19 pandemic as the final straw after almost a decade of financial woes.
Johnson's Tories crushed in twin UK parliamentary by-elections
Beleaguered British Prime Minister Boris Johnson suffered two crushing parliamentary by-election defeats on Friday, including in a southwest English seat previously held by his ruling Conservatives for over a century.
US Senate advances breakthrough bill on gun safety
US senators advanced a bipartisan bill late Thursday addressing the epidemic of gun violence convulsing the country, approving a narrow package of new firearms restrictions and billions of dollars in mental health and school security funding.
Asian markets rise as recession talk tempers rate hike expectations
Stocks rose in Asia on Friday following another rally on Wall Street as investors try to process central bank moves to fight soaring inflation with the growing possibility that those measures will induce a recession. In early Asia trade investors took their cue from Wall Street, where all three main indexes closed with healthy gains, including a more than one percent advance on the Nasdaq.
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