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World News in Brief: March 26

 
World News in Brief: March 26

After producing vaccines and treatments for acute COVID-19 in record time, researchers and drugmakers are turning to finding a cure for long COVID, a more elusive target marked by hundreds of different symptoms afflicting millions of people.   

The 9th World Water Forum concluded in Dakar (Senegal) on Friday with a "Blue Deal" declaration that called for ensuring access to water and sanitation for all.


* China on Friday called for restraint on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue after the test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile was conducted by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) the previous day.

* President Vladimir Putin on Friday accused the West of trying to cancel Russia's rich musical and literary culture, including composers Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Sergei Rachmaninov, in the same way he said it had cancelled "Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling.

* Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday he had spoken to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan about the results of a NATO summit a day earlier and the threat of a food supply crisis after the Russian launched a “special military operation” in Ukraine.

* Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Friday peace negotiations with Russia were difficult, and denied reports that progress had been made in resolving four out of six key issues.

* As the crisis in Ukraine drags on, so does the need for negotiations, Project Syndicate has said in a report.

* US President Joe Biden will welcome Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore to the White House on Tuesday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement.

* The European Commission will have a mandate to make common energy purchases in order to allow the European Union to get a better grip on its energy supplies and on tackling energy prices, said French President Emmanuel Macron.

* EU leaders have given Spain and Portugal a special permission to manage their own electricity prices, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday.

* The Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) said on Friday that the country's manufacturing output rose 17.6 percent year-on-year in February 2022, compared to a revised 2.4-percent increase in January.

* Yemen's Houthis said they launched attacks on Saudi energy facilities on Friday and the Saudi-led coalition said oil giant Aramco's petroleum products distribution station in Jeddah was hit, causing a fire in two storage tanks but no casualties.

* European Union (EU) leaders agreed to purchase natural gas jointly to be able to secure cheaper prices and cushion the steep increases in the energy sector, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday.

* The European Union (EU) coordinator for the Iran nuclear talks Enrique Mora said Friday that he will travel to Tehran on Saturday to close the gaps on reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

* The United States abruptly cancelled meetings with the Taliban in Doha that were set to address key economic issues, officials said on Friday, after Afghanistan's Islamist rulers reversed a decision to allow all girls to return to high school classes.

* The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Friday approved a USD44-billion loan for Argentina to help the South American country tackle high inflation, ease the debt burden and promote economic growth.

* No components of either common inorganic or organic explosives were present at the crash site of a China Eastern Airlines passenger plane, an official told a press briefing Saturday.

* The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology raised the alert level for Taal volcano, near Manila, on Saturday due to "increasing unrest."

* A year after infection with the coronavirus, when antibodies in the blood are barely detectable, the immune system continues to "remember" the virus and should respond to some extent upon re-encountering it, a study from China suggests.

* The US health regulator said on Friday the current authorised dose of GlaxoSmithKline and Vir Biotechnology's antibody-based COVID-19 treatment is unlikely to be effective against the Omicron BA.2 variant.

* China reported 1,335 confirmed coronavirus cases for March 25, the country's national health authority said on Saturday, compared with 1,366 a day earlier.

* Malaysia reported 21,839 new COVID-19 infections as of midnight Friday, bringing the national total to 4,101,081, according to the health ministry.

* French health authorities said the number of patients hospitalised for COVID-19 were down by 38 over 24 hours, at 20,616, but on a week-on-week basis, that figure was up for the second day running, after declining by that measure since early February.

* Germany's actual daily COVID-19 infections were likely to be twice as high as the number of officially reported cases, Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach said on Friday.

* Italy reported 75,616 COVID-19 related cases on Friday, against 81,811 the day before, the health ministry said, while the number of deaths fell to 146 from 182.

* The Irish Department of Health on Friday reported an additional 9,324 PCR-confirmed cases of COVID-19, the highest figure since the country scrapped the mask mandate at the end of February.


Xinhua/Reuters/VNA

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