World News

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa will start vaccinating front-line health workers next week with a shot that is still in testing — an unorthodox strategy announced Wednesday after officials abandoned plans to use another vaccine that a small study suggests is only minimally effective against the variant dominant in the country.

PARIS (AP) — France’s government wants to set the age of sexual consent at 15 and make it easier to punish long-ago child sexual abuse, amid growing public pressure and a wave of online testimonies about rape and other sexual violence by parents and authority figures.

MADRID (AP) — The heir to the Spanish throne, 15-year-old Princess Leonor, is going to study in Wales, the Spanish royal household said Wednesday in an announcement that caused a commotion over the state broadcaster's reporting.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Student protesters hurled bottles, rocks, and gasoline bombs at police in central Athens Wednesday during nationwide demonstrations against an education bill that would allow police to patrol university campuses.

BRUSSELS (AP) — As the European Union surpassed 500,000 people lost to the virus, the EU Commission chief said Wednesday that the bloc's much-criticized vaccine rollout could be partly blamed on the EU being over-optimistic, over-confident and plainly “late."

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Palestinian poll workers fanned out across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, where they found voters eager to register ahead of elections that could serve as the first referendum on Hamas' rule since the militant group seized power more than a decade ago.

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — The Czech Republic’s prime minister visited Serbia on Wednesday to find out more about the Balkan nation's mass inoculation program with Chinese and Russian vaccines that have not yet been approved by the European Union's drug regulator.

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union lawmakers on Wednesday approved a 672.5 billion euro ($815 billion) recovery package of loans and grants to help member nations recover more quickly from the coronavirus pandemic, but countries will not receive the money for several months.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Mendy Moskowits, a member of the ultra-Orthodox Belz Hassidic sect in Jerusalem, doesn’t understand the uproar toward believers like him.

BRUSSELS (AP) — U.N. agencies are pressing the European Union to end the growing practices of denying migrants their right to apply for asylum, collectively expulsing them and using violence against people trying to enter the bloc without authorization.

PARIS (AP) — The world-famous medieval Bayeux Tapestry may be off-limits to visitors because of the coronavirus pandemic, but its keepers have put a digital version online so the public can enjoy its fabled cloth from the safety of home.

COLOGNE, Germany (AP) — Bars have been closed for more than three months, Carnival celebrations are canceled, and it's not clear when things will get better in Germany. That has left the boss of Brauerei Heller, an organic brewery in Cologne, thinking “from week to week” as she tries to chart a course out of the coronavirus pandemic.

TOKYO (AP) — Toyota reported a 50% jump in its October to December profit Wednesday, underlining a solid recovery at the Japanese automaker from the damage of the coronavirus pandemic.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Raucous dragon dance shows have been banned in Manila’s Chinatown due to the pandemic, casting aside a crowd-drawing Lunar New Year tradition many believe helps drive misfortunes away.