Times Of Harvard

One person has been killed and four others are missing after an explosion rocked an industrial park housing several chemical companies in Germany’s western city of Leverkusen. Tuesday’s explosion at the waste management facility of the Chempark site, which houses chemical companies including Bayer and Lanxess, took place shortly before 10am local time (08:00 GMT) It sent a large black cloud into the air and sparked a fire, though the blaze was later extinguished. The city of Leverkusen said in a statement that the blast occurred in storage tanks for solvents. It said 16 people were injured, four of them seriously. “We are deeply concerned about this tragic accident and the death of our employee,” the head of Chempark, Lars Friedrich, said in a written statement. It took firefighters almost four hours to extinguish the fire that took hold after the blast. Germany’s Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance initially classified the incident as “an extreme threat” and ur...

Top infectious disease official Anthony Fauci indicated on Sunday that the most "vulnerable" individuals will be "among the first" to receive a third dose of the coronavirus vaccine. In an interview with US broadcaster CNN, Fauci said: "Those who are transplant patients, cancer chemotherapy, auto-immune diseases, that are on immunosuppressant regimens, those are the kind of individuals that if there's going to be a third booster, which might likely happen, would be among first." Citing recent studies that show there might be waning immunity in vaccinated people, Fauci said health officials are reviewing data to determine when boosters might be needed. "It's a dynamic situation. It's a work in progress, it evolves like in so many other areas of the pandemic," Fauci said. "You've got to look at the data." Infections are on the rise once again in the United States as the country hits a brick wall against those reluctant to ...

Thousands of Europeans took to the streets in France, Italy and Greece on Saturday to demonstrate against coronavirus restrictions and mandatory vaccination policies. In France, some 160,000 demonstrators expressed anger towards French President Emmanuel Macron and the government in Paris and other major cities. The protesters are incensed by a new bill requiring citizens to have a pass showing proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test result to enter restaurants and other public areas. The legislation was passed by the lower house of parliament on Friday, but is still being debated in the Senate. The French demonstrators shouted slogans such as "No to the pass of the shame," while other protesters carried placards calling Macron a "tyrant."  The protesters clashed with police in the French capital, with authorities deploying tear gas and water cannons on marchers. French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin condemned violence towards police and said nine people ha...

  A surge of coronavirus cases in several Middle Eastern countries could have dire consequences, aggravated by the spread of the Delta variant and low vaccine availability, the World Health Organisation said on Wednesday. After a decline in cases and deaths in the WHO's Eastern Mediterranean region for eight weeks, the agency said there had been significant increases in cases in Libya, Iran, Iraq and Tunisia, with sharp rises expected in Lebanon and Morocco. Next week countries across the region will mark the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday, which traditionally includes religious and social gatherings where infections could spread. "WHO is concerned that the current COVID-19 upsurge may continue to peak in the coming weeks, with catastrophic consequences," the agency's regional office said in a statement. A lack of adherence to public health and social measures and "increasing complacency by communities", as well as low vaccination rates and the spread of new var...

 Violence and looting has raged in South Africa for the sixth day running, stoking fears of food and fuel shortages as disruption to farming, manufacturing and oil refining began to bite amid the country’s worst unrest in decades. More than 70 people have died as grievances over the jailing of former President Jacob Zuma have widened into an outpouring of anger over the inequality that remains 27 years after the end of apartheid. Poverty has been exacerbated by severe social and economic restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19. More than 1,200 people have been arrested in the lawlessness that has raged in poor areas of two provinces, where a community radio station was ransacked and forced off the air on Tuesday and some COVID-19 vaccination centres were closed, disrupting urgently needed inoculations. Many of the deaths in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces occurred in chaotic stampedes as thousands of people stole food, electric appliances, liquor and clothing from ...

 Illinois GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger lamented the planned withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and hinted that they may have to return to the conflict area. "It is a crushing defeat, and I'm really sad about it honestly," Kinzinger said during his appearance on NBC News' Meet the Press Sunday. "The Taliban always had a saying: 'America has the watches but we have the time,'" said the congressman. "I'm proud of the American people for sticking by this mission for 20 years, we actually needed to do it longer." "The Taliban have outlasted the will of the United States...and we may have to go back now," he added. Kinzinger's description of the situation agreed with an article published by The Economist on Saturday, whose headline called the war in Afghanistan a "crushing defeat," as the Taliban has continued to make a comeback in the country without U.S. troop intervention. President Joe Biden announced plans to w...

More than 3.44 billion doses of coronavirus vaccines have been administered worldwide, according to figures Monday on Our World in Data, a tracking website affiliated with Oxford University. China leads the global count with over 1.38 billion jabs, followed by India with 377.35 million. The list continued with mostly Western countries, with the US having administered 334.15 million shots, Brazil 114.46 million, Germany 81.94 million, the UK 80.65 million, Japan 60.26 million, and France 59.12 million. Turkey ranked ninth on the list with over 58.3 million doses, followed by Italy, Indonesia and Mexico. The country with the most doses administered by population is the United Arab Emirates, with 161.11 doses per 100 people. Following the UAE are the island nations of Malta with 159.86 doses per 100 people and Seychelles with 141.98, Iceland 132.44, San Marino 131.59, Bahrain 128.89, Israel 126.2, Chile 125.83, Uruguay 123.04, Mongolia 118.96, the UK 118.8, Qatar 117.91, Faeroe Islands 11...

A Jordanian court has sentenced a former royal aide and a minor royal to 15 years in jail on charges of attempting to destabilise the monarchy. Bassem Awadallah, who has United States citizenship and once served as a top aide to King Abdullah II, and Sharif Hassan bin Zaid, a member of the royal family, were found guilty of sedition and incitement charges on Monday. The court said it had confirmed evidence backing the charges against the pair and that they had been determined to harm the monarchy by pushing former heir to the throne Prince Hamzah as an alternative to the king. Bin Zaid was sentenced to another year in prison and 1,000 dinars ($1,400) for drug abuse, Petra news agency reported. The charges have exposed rifts within the ruling Hashemite family that has been a beacon of stability in a volatile region in recent years. Awadallah, a former finance minister who was a driving force behind Jordan’s liberal economic reforms, was charged with agitating to undermine the political ...

The United Nations Security Council is set to discuss a bitter regional dispute over a massive dam built by Ethiopia on the main tributary of the Nile River. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is the source of an almost decade-long diplomatic standoff between Ethiopia and downstream nations Egypt and Sudan. Ethiopia says the project is essential to its development, but the governments in Cairo and Khartoum fear it could restrict their citizens’ water access. Thursday’s open session comes after Egypt and Sudan turned to the 15-member body as Ethiopia began this week the second stage of filling GERD. The government in Addis Ababa insists the African Union (AU) should resume handling the talks. On Tuesday, the UN called on the three countries to recommit to talks on the project’s operation and urged them to avoid any unilateral action. “Solutions to this need to be guided by example … by solutions that have been found for others who share waterways, who share rivers, and that is b...

  A series of attacks between US forces in Iraq and independent Iraqi militias has resulted in death of a number of high-ranking US and Israeli military officials. Last week, the Iraq's People's Mobilization Forces (PMF) launched a series of attacks against US bases in Iraq. In June 27 attack, three missiles hit the US headquarters at the US base in Erbil injuring f our people, including two high-ranking military personnel, according to senior US military official James Hurdel. The injured officials included  Lt. Col. James C. Willis of the U.S. Army and Colonel Sharon Asman of the Israeli Defence Force The injured were immediately taken to Al Udeid Air Base Hospital in Qatar. Next day, only one person survived and three other officials lost their lives. According to the reports, the bodies of the victims were then reportedly sent to the capitals of their home countries. The funeral of Lt. Col. James C. Willis was held on July 1 in his hometown Albuquerque, New Mexico. Acco...