EXPLAINER: Why Nigeria’s schools are abduction targets
LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Gunmen have attacked another school in northern Nigeria, this time grabbing children as young as 3 before abandoning the youngest ones in the forest when they could not keep up with the group on foot.
Manitoba to keep schools closed, spending up to $1M to encourage COVID vaccinations
WINNIPEG — The Manitoba government is keeping many schools closed and boosting promotions of COVID-19 vaccines while it continues to battle a third-wave pandemic surge. Schools in Winnipeg, Brandon and some other hard-hit areas moved to remote learning...
US envoy announces new Syria aid, seeks delivery access
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations announced on Thursday nearly $240 million in humanitarian funding to support the people of Syria, Syrian refugees and countries hosting them, and called for access through international cr...
Biden’s AI czar focuses on societal risks, preventing harm
Computer scientist Lynne Parker made breakthroughs in getting robots to work together so they could perform difficult missions, like cleaning up after a nuclear disaster, waxing floors or pulling barnacles off a ship.
FDA warns doctors to stop using heart pump tied to deaths
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. health regulators warned surgeons Thursday to stop implanting a heart pump made by Medtronic due to power failures recently tied to cases of stroke and more than a dozen deaths.
Holiday chaos as UK removes Portugal from travel green list
LONDON (AP) — Britain said Thursday that it is removing Portugal from its list of COVID-safe travel destinations, meaning thousands of U.K. residents currently on vacation there face the prospect of 10 days' quarantine on return.
COVID-19 vaccine: Quebec halves interval between first and second doses to 8 weeks
MONTREAL — Medical experts praised the Quebec government's decision on Thursday to shorten the interval between doses of COVID-19 vaccines to eight weeks from 16. "I think it's very good news," said Dr. André Veillette, director of the molecular oncolo...
Provinces consider COVID-19 vaccine incentives to reach people not getting shots
Some leaders are mulling incentives to get COVID-19 vaccine into the arms of hard-to-reach populations as infection rates slowly decline in most of the country as more people are inoculated. "We all want to get back to some sense of normal,
U.S. shares vaccines, including with Canada, as Ottawa pushed to give doses to COVAX
OTTAWA — The United States unveiled details of its first global donations of COVID-19 vaccines Thursday, with plans to ship 19 million doses through the COVAX vaccine-sharing alliance and another six million doses directly to neighbours, including Cana...
Lebanon reverses bank decision that caused depositors panic
BEIRUT (AP) — After public outrage and protests, Lebanon’s Central Bank governor said Thursday that depositors can go back to withdrawing money from their dollar deposits in the local currency at a rate two and half times better than the