Estonia’s prime minister tests positive for COVID-19
HELSINKI — Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas has tested positive for COVID-19 and says she will self-quarantine until she has recovered from the virus.
The 43-year-old Kallas, who became the Baltic nation’s first female head of government in January, said late Monday she was feeling well apart from a small fever and hasn’t developed any other symptoms.
“I am closely monitoring my health and staying at home until I recover,” Kallas said in a Facebook post, adding that she would continue performing prime minister’s duties from home including holding remote Cabinet and other meetings.
Estonia, a nation of 1.3 million people, has seen a substantially worsened Coronavirus situation in the past few weeks and the country’s health care system and hospitals are having increasing problems in accommodating COVID-19 patients with current resources.
Lawyer: Iran charges detained French tourist with spying
TEHRAN, Iran— Iran has charged a French tourist with spying and “spreading propaganda against the system,” his lawyer said Monday, the latest in a series of cases against foreigners at a time of heightened tensions between Iran and the West.
Benjamin Berier was arrested some 10 months ago after taking pictures in a desert area where photography is prohibited and asking questions on social media about Iran’s obligatory Islamic headscarf for women, said his lawyer Saeed Dehghan.
Dehghan told The Associated Press the charges came in a Sunday hearing in the justice department in the northeastern city of Mashahd. He said Berier was in good health.
Berier has become the latest Westerner held on widely criticized espionage charges. On Sunday, prominent British-Iranian dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe reappeared in a Tehran court to face similar accusations of spreading propaganda after completing a five-year prison sentence. She remains in limbo in Iran awaiting the verdict, unable to fly home to London.
Georgia Tech honors Fauci
ATLANTA — Dr. Anthony Fauci, the public face of the nation’s fight against COVID-19, has accepted an award that honors his courage in leading Americans through an exceptionally partisan pandemic.
Fauci, who appeared via video call, wore a Georgia Institute of Technology lapel pin during the Monday afternoon ceremony hosted by the university. He called the outbreak, which has raged for more than a year, the most polarizing public health crisis he’s yet endured.
“I have never in my decades-long experience seen the level of divisive that exists in the country today,” he said.
The leading infectious disease expert’s public disagreements with then-President Donald Trump as Fauci headed the White House virus task force sparked threats and vitriol. Still, he stuck to the science and told the truth even when inconvenient, making him the top choice for the award, said Georgia Tech President Ángel Cabrera.
“Thank you for a lifetime of social courage from which we have all benefited,” Cabrera added.
The Georgia Institute of Technology’s annual Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Social Courage, named for the former Atlanta mayor, recognizes those who stick to their morals despite risk to their personal and professional lives. The late civil rights icon and longtime Georgia Congressmen John Lewis is among the former recipients.
At the ceremony’s close, Fauci tipped his hat to his many collaborators across the country.
“I get a lot of the attention,” he said. “But there are thousands of us at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health and other organizations that are pulling the country out of this outbreak.”
"front" - Google News
March 16, 2021 at 06:00PM
https://ift.tt/3rWPjjI
Second front briefs, March 16, 2021 | Newsline | avpress.com - Antelope Valley Press
"front" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3aZh1mr
https://ift.tt/3b2xvu5
No comments:
Post a Comment