International

• Sunday, February 28th 2021 - 11:13 UTC

  Prince William and Catherine urge those eligible to get vaccinated

  

  Prince William has warned that anti-vaccination messages are rife on social media and urged those eligible to get jabs, following a similar appeal by his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II.

• Sunday, February 28th 2021 - 10:15 UTC

  Pope Francis expects to die in Rome, “I will not return to Argentina”

  

  Pope Francis expects to die in Rome, still the Catholic pontiff, without returning to spend his final days in his native Argentina, according to a new book titled The Health Of Popes.

• Sunday, February 28th 2021 - 10:11 UTC

  Caged cattle in a rogue vessel stranded in the Mediterranean will be sacrificed

  

  Some 864 head of cattle aboard the ship “Karim Allah” are to be sacrificed, Spanish authorities confirmed on Saturday, following days of controversy over the animals' health.

• Saturday, February 27th 2021 - 18:21 UTC

  Uruguay starts vaccination campaign on Monday counting 600 deaths due to Covid-19

  

  Without a great media hype, the first 192,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines from the Chinese laboratory Sinovac arrived in Montevideo in the early hours of Friday morning. However, a police operation was deployed throughout the day to begin distributing the vaccines, which will begin to be administered on Monday, March 1, to a small group of essential workers in different parts of the capital and the interior of the country.

• Friday, February 26th 2021 - 21:27 UTC

  Drones in New Zealand to protect endangered dolphins

  

  The New Zealand's government is supporting a new project using drone technology to understand and protect the endangered Māui dolphins in the country. Maui dolphins live in a small stretch of ocean off the west coast of New Zealand's North Island and current estimates suggest that only 63 dolphins older than one year remain, raising concerns that they may soon become extinct.

• Friday, February 26th 2021 - 21:27 UTC

  Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine can be stored at -20 degrees pharmaceutical freezers

  

  Frozen vials of Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine may be stored at temperatures commonly found in pharmaceutical freezers for a period of up to two weeks, the US Food and Drug Administration said on Thursday. The move loosens a previous requirement that the vaccine should be stored at ultra-low temperatures, between -80 to -60 deg C.

• Friday, February 26th 2021 - 21:27 UTC

  Beijing naval expansion has driven 2020 world military expenditure to a record

  

  Global military spending, driven in part by Chinese naval expansion, reached record levels in 2020 despite the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and ensuing economic contraction, a British think-tank said on Thursday.

• Friday, February 26th 2021 - 21:20 UTC

  Spectacular pictures from Mars sent by NASA's Perseverance rover

  

  The US space agency NASA has released a spectacular panoramic view of the landing site of the Perseverance rover on Mars. The panorama shows the rim of the Jezero Crater where the rover touched down last week and the cliff face of an ancient river delta in the distance.

• Friday, February 26th 2021 - 13:54 UTC

  IMF admits discussions with Argentina continue but no meeting planned for May

  

  IMF has no date yet set for its next visit to Argentina to discuss replacement to a failed 2018 program, a spokesman for the Fund advanced on Thursday. The parties could next meet in Washington soon, as Argentine Economy Minister Martin Guzman will visit the U.S. capital next month, according to Buenos Aires sources.

• Friday, February 26th 2021 - 13:19 UTC

  Brazil purchases 20 million doses of India's Bharat Biotech vaccine

  

  Brazil's health ministry on Thursday signed a deal with India's Bharat Biotech to purchase 20 million doses of Covaxin, a Covid 19 vaccine. The news came a day before Brazil marks one year since the first case of Covid-19 was confirmed in the country after a Sao Paulo businessman returning from a trip to Italy tested positive.