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Only second to Russia, Iraq is among the top gas flaring countries in the entire world, the World Bank’s (WB) Gas flaring tracker report said. In the 2020 Gas flaring tracker report, the WB said that Iraq burns 70% of the total natural gas produced in the country, which was …

The US is in the midst of a drug overdose epidemic as a fresh report claimed that the number of people who died from an overdose in 2020 rose by almost 30% year-on-year to more than 93,000, and experts said that the isolation and mental health pressures caused by the …

The EU’s medicines regulator has given its backing for Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine to be administered to minors aged between 12 and 17, citing positive results in trials involving 3,732 participants. In a statement on Friday, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) gave its recommendation for the Spikevax Covid-19 shot to be …

Chile has registered the Russian Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine for use, Russia’s Direct Investment Fund said on Wednesday. Chile has become the 69th country to authorise the vaccine, according to the fund, which promotes it abroad. Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute and the RDIF have said that Sputnik V is 97.6% effective …

Olympic organisers on Friday thanked medical workers at a Tokyo 2020 opening ceremony overshadowed by the coronavirus, as athletes from across the world paraded into an almost empty stadium, for the first time their smiles hidden behind masks. Normally a star-studded display teeming with celebrities, the ceremony was shorn of …

A longer gap between doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine leads to higher overall antibody levels than a shorter gap, a British study found on Friday, but there is a sharp drop in antibody levels after the first dose. The study might help inform vaccination strategies against the Delta variant, which …

Algerian judoka Fethi Nourine has withdrawn from the 2020 Summer Olympics in the Japanese capital city of Tokyo after the draw set him on course for a possible showdown against an Israeli opponent. The 30-years-old athlete made the decision to pull out of the international multi-sport event on Thursday, a …

The French government’s top advisor on COVID-19 warned Friday that a new variant of the disease would “probably” emerge in the winter months this year. The country is currently battling an unprecedented spike in new cases caused by the more infectious Delta variant, which was first recorded in India. “We …

The World Heritage Committee was set to consider Friday whether to add the Great Barrier Reef to UNESCO’s list of endangered sites, after high-level lobbying from Australia to prevent the move. The United Nations cultural agency recommended in June that the reef’s World Heritage status be downgraded because of its …

Many popular websites fell offline on Thursday in a widespread global outage of service. Visitors attempting to reach some sites received DNS errors, meaning their requests could not reach the websites. Affected services included Airbnb, UPS, HSBC bank, British Airways and the PlayStation network used for online games. One popular …

Iraq is participating in the Tokyo Olympics, with the smallest delegation in the history of its participation in the Olympic Games. A statement from the Iraqi National Olympic Committee, received by Al-Ghadir, stated that “the head of the Iraqi National Olympic Committee, Raad Hammoudi, arrived in the Japanese capital, Tokyo, …

Angela Merkel and Vladimir Putin are “satisfied” with the near completion of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, the Kremlin has said after the two leaders spoke on the phone. The Chancellor discussed the project with the Russian President today, as the publication of a joint agreement between Germany and …

An 11-year-old boy from the Indian state of Haryana has died from a bird flu virus of the H5N1 strain, the first such fatality in the country, an official statement said on Wednesday. The boy succumbed to multi-organ dysfunction on July 12, at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) …

Saudi Arabia’s state oil company acknowledged that some of its data is being held for ransom online. Aramco said it likely came from a third-party contractor, denying there’s been any breach of its computer systems. The company confirmed to AP on Wednesday it “recently became aware of the indirect release …

Health authorities in Baghdad decided to convert a hospital specialized in neurological diseases to a COVID-19 isolation center, a document obtained by Alghadeer News revealed. According to an official document appended by the signature of the head of Baghdad/al-Rusafa Health Directorate, Dr. Muhammad Jihad Jawad, “Dr. Saad al-Witri Neuroscience Hospital” …

In response to the devastating impact of the coronavirus pandemic on developing countries, the World Bank Group (WBG) deployed more than $157 billion over the last 15 months, the Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported on Tuesday. From April 2020 to the end of June 2021 the WBG sent countries around …

The popular TikTok video-sharing app was blocked Wednesday in Pakistan for a fourth time because of “inappropriate content”, the country’s telecommunication regulator said. The Chinese-owned site has fought a series of legal battles with religious activists and authorities in the conservative Muslim nation and was shut down two days earlier …

Black and Hispanic Americans saw a more dramatic plunge, with life expectancy dropping by three years. Overall life expectancy in the United States fell by a year and a half in 2020, the largest one-year decline since World War II, health officials have said – but the decrease for Black …

Cape Town-based company Biovac expected to produce 100 million doses annually, destined for African Union countries, under the deal. Pfizer and BioNTech have said they struck a deal with South Africa-based company Biovac for the production of COVID-19 vaccines for the African Union (AU). In a statement published on Wednesday, …

The English city of Liverpool was removed from UNESCO’s list of world heritage sites on Wednesday because new buildings undermined the attractiveness of its Victorian docks, making it only the third site to be removed from the prestigious list. Liverpool was named a World Heritage Site by the United Nation’s …