International

• Wednesday, December 30th 2020 - 08:10 UTC

  Boris Johnson considering tougher measures extending tier 4 restrictions

  

  British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has approved placing more parts of the country into tier 4 restrictions, as the country battles a new variant of Covid-19 which scientists say can spread more rapidly, The Times reported.

• Wednesday, December 30th 2020 - 08:00 UTC

  Greenest and craziest 180,00 tons cruise vessel Mardi Gras offers a roller coaster and brewery for craft beers

  

  In cold, dark Finland, in the middle of the pandemic, shipyard workers at Meyer Turku were hard at work setting a roller coaster on top of a cruise ship - a world first. Others were installing a brewery that could produce craft beers with filtered seawater, intended for a staggering on-board audience of up to 6,500 passengers.

• Wednesday, December 30th 2020 - 08:00 UTC

  Ireland's most liberal Catholic prelate, Archbishop of Dublin, retires

  

  Ireland's most liberal Roman Catholic prelate, the Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin, is to step aside having reached the normal retirement age for bishops of 75, the Vatican said on Tuesday.

• Wednesday, December 30th 2020 - 07:59 UTC

  AstraZeneca vaccine not ready for EMA's approval during January

  

  The European Medicines Authority (EMA) will most likely not be able to approve the COVID-19 vaccine developed by drug maker AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford in January, the watchdog’s Deputy Executive Director Noel Wathion said.

• Wednesday, December 30th 2020 - 07:58 UTC

  Controversial couturier and merchandising king Pierre Cardin dies aged 98

  

  French couturier Pierre Cardin, who made his name by selling designer clothes to the masses, and his fortune by being the first to exploit that name as a brand for selling everything from cars to perfume, died on Tuesday, aged 98.

• Tuesday, December 29th 2020 - 09:38 UTC

  Collapse of tourism industry because of Covid-19, has caused US$ 2 trillion loss to the global GDP

  

  International arrivals fell by 72% over the first ten months of 2020, with restrictions on travel, low consumer confidence and a global struggle to contain the COVID-19 virus, all contributing to the worst year on record in the history of tourism.

• Tuesday, December 29th 2020 - 09:35 UTC

  Oxford/Astra Zeneca will apply for full approval of its vaccine from Brazil's regulator on 15 January

  

  Brazil's Fiocruz biomedical institute will seek approval for the Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine against COVID-19 with federal health regulator Anvisa on Jan. 15, one of the center's senior officials said on Monday.

• Tuesday, December 29th 2020 - 09:20 UTC

  Spain trying to prevent a hard border with Gibraltar; commuters will have a special document

  

  Cross-border workers who commute between Gibraltar and Spain will be exempt from border controls after Brexit even if no agreement on free movement is reached with Britain, Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya said on Monday.

• Tuesday, December 29th 2020 - 09:20 UTC

  Spain creates registry of people refusing to be vaccinated against Covid-19

  

  Spain will set up a registry of people who refuse to be vaccinated against the new coronavirus and share it with other European Union member states, although it will not be made public, Health Minister Salvador Illa said on Monday.

• Tuesday, December 29th 2020 - 09:08 UTC

  Pfizer delay in shipments affects eight European countries

  

  Pfizer has postponed the delivery of new batches of its coronavirus vaccine to eight European nations including Spain, the Spanish health ministry said on Monday, a day after the European Union began its immunization campaign.