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By Julie Steenhuysen (Reuters) – Arrival of the highly-mutated Omicron variant is a wake-up call to develop vaccines less susceptible to the rapid changes of the coronavirus, leading virologists and immunologists told Reuters. Most first-generation COVID-19 vaccines target the spike protein on the outer surface of the SARS-CoV-2 virus used to infect human cells. Omicron …

Analysis: Omicron is a wake-up call for COVID-19 vaccine developers Read More »

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (Reuters) -Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa set out to became the first space tourist in more than a decade to travel to the International Space Station (ISS) when he blasted off on Wednesday, a voyage he sees as a dry run for his planned trip around the moon with Elon Musk’s SpaceX in 2023. …

Japanese billionaire Maezawa blasts off into space Read More »

By Devjyot Ghoshal and Sanjeev Miglani NEW DELHI (Reuters) -The head of India’s armed forces, General Bipin Rawat, was among 13 people killed on Wednesday when the military helicopter they were travelling in crashed, the air force said. They were en route from an air force base to a hillside military college in the southern …

India armed forces head among 13 dead in helicopter crash Read More »

By Matthias Williams KYIV (Reuters) – Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told Reuters on Wednesday that talks between U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin had enabled “deterrence and de-escalation”. In the first reaction by a senior Ukrainian official about Tuesday’s video call between Biden and Putin, Kuleba welcomed U.S. efforts to bring …

Exclusive: Ukraine welcomes Biden-Putin call as path to deterrence and de-escalation Read More »

By Maytaal Angel, Gustavo Palencia and Sofia Menchu EL LAUREL, Honduras/LA LAGUNETA, Guatemala (Reuters) – The four sons of María Bonilla and Esteban Funes all embarked on the treacherous journey north, one of them aged 10, preferring the life of an unauthorized migrant in America to a coffee farmer in Central America. “If I didn’t …

Coffee crisis in Central America fuels record exodus north Read More »

By Pascal Rossignol LOON-PLAGE, France (Reuters) – Afghan refugee Abdul Saboor began photographing the lives of migrants as he made his own arduous journey to Western Europe, determined to portray the hardship of being uprooted and cast into the unknown. Saboor, 29, said he was hounded out of Afghanistan by Taliban insurgents in 2015 and …

In France, Afghan refugee photographs journeys of fellow migrants Read More »

By Brendan Pierson (Reuters) – As Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyers cross-examine her accusers, they face the difficult task of casting doubt on their credibility without seeming too aggressive toward women who say they were abused, legal experts say. Prosecutors have accused the British socialite of recruiting young girls to be sexually abused by financier Jeffrey Epstein, …

Maxwell’s defense seeks difficult balance in attacking accusers Read More »

By Elaine Lies TOKYO (Reuters) -Japanese LGBTQ rights activists on Wednesday hailed Tokyo’s move to introduce a same-sex partnership system as a huge step in their fight for equality in the only G7 country that does not fully recognise same-sex marriage. Under plans announced by Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike on Tuesday, partnerships would be allowed …

LGBTQ groups cheer Tokyo’s same-sex partnership move as big step forward Read More »

(Raises paragraphs on global alarms) By Michael Erman and Ludwig Burger (Reuters) – The Omicron variant can partially evade protection from two doses of Pfizer and partner BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine, the research head of a laboratory at the Africa Health Research Institute in South Africa said on Tuesday. But the study showed that blood from …

Studies suggest Pfizer shot may protect only partially against Omicron Read More »