A little girl has had the luckiest of escapes after plunging from a high-rise balcony in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Video showed the three-year-old hanging off the balcony, clinging on by just one hand.
She lets go and falls multiple stories.
However, amazingly, a delivery driver was waiting below to make a lifesaving catch.
He had spotted the girl's plight and managed to climb up onto a roof before she fell.
March 03, 2021
AP Morning Wire
Ted Anthony
Director of Digital Innovation
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The Rundown
BAGHDAD (AP) — At least 10 rockets targeted an Iraqi military base in western Iraq on Wednesday that hosts U.S.-led coalition troops, a coalition spokesman said. The rockets struck Ain……Read More
Texas on Tuesday became the biggest state to lift its mask rule, joining a rapidly growing movement by governors and other leaders across the U.S. to loosen COVID-19 restrictions despite …Read More
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said the U.S. expects to take delivery of enough coronavirus vaccine for all adults by the end of May — two months earlier than anticipated — and he …Read More
BERLIN (AP) — Slow off the blocks in the race to immunize its citizens against COVID-19, Germany faces an unfamiliar problem: a glut of vaccines and not enough arms to inject them into. L…Read More
HOLTVILLE, Calif. (AP) — Barely a mile from where an SUV packed with 25 people struck a tractor-trailer — killing 13 inside — a cemetery with unmarked bricks is a burial ground for migran…Read More
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OTHER TOP STORIES
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Authorities in Myanmar have charged Associated Press journalist Thein Zaw and five other members of the media with violating a public order law that c…Read More
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The post Associated Press World View: Attack on US Base, States Ease Restrictions, Vaccine Race, Deadly Immigrant Crash appeared first on The St Kitts Nevis Observer.
Scientists have unearthed fossils of what may be the oldest-known member of the dinosaur group known as titanosaurs that includes the largest land animals in Earth’s history.
Researchers said on Monday the fossils represent a dinosaur species named Ninjatitan zapatai that lived 140 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period. They identified Ninjatitan as a titanosaur, a group of long-necked plant-eating dinosaurs that walked on four pillar-like legs.
The dinosaur’s incomplete skeletal remains were discovered in Argentina’s Patagonian wilderness, south of the city of Neuquen. The researchers said Ninjatitan demonstrated that the titanosaurs as a group first appeared longer ago than previously known.
“It is the oldest record known, not only from Argentina but worldwide,” study lead author Pablo Gallina, a researcher at the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research of Argentina (CONICET), told Reuters.
“Titanosaurs are recorded on various sides of the world, but the oldest-known records were more modern than this find.”
At a length of about 65 feet (20 meters), Ninjatitan was a large dinosaur, but much smaller than later titanosaurs such as Argentinosaurus that reached a length of around 115 feet (35 meters). The researchers also said the presence of such an early titanosaur in Patagonia supports the idea that titanosaurs originated in the Southern Hemisphere.
The findings were published in the scientific journal Ameghiniana.
Titanosaurs are part of a larger dinosaur group called sauropods that includes others with similar body designs such as Brontosaurus and Diplodocus that lived in North America during the Jurassic Period, which preceded the Cretaceous Period.
A number of the titanosaurs that inhabited Patagonia achieved gigantic proportions such as Argentinosaurus, Patagotitan and Dreadnoughtus.
José Luis Carbadillo, another CONICET researcher, told a local university publication that the age of Ninjatitan’s remains could have led people to assume that the bones belonged to a dinosaur group that pre-dated titanosaurs.
“In Patagonia, titanosaurs are only known about from less than 120 million years ago,” he said.
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Amazon has quietly changed the design of its new app icon, replacing the blue ribbon on top that drew some unfavourable comparisons.
Users of the Amazon Shopping app will now see a brown box that resembles a parcel with a blue strip that looks like packaging tape above the company's signature arrow in the shape of a smile.
Amazon introduced the initial new icon in a handful of international markets in late January, but has now changed the design of the blue tape after some said it resembled a toothbrush-style moustache, similar to the one worn by Adolf Hitler.
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"I completely missed that amazon quietly tweaked its new icon to make it look… less like hitler," wrote Alex Hern, a technology editor for the Guardian, on Twitter.
The new icon, the first design change in more than five years, replaces the shopping cart and ditches the word "Amazon," but displays the company's smiling arrow logo more prominently. The blue tape looks like it's being torn off, as if opening the package.
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"We designed the new icon to spark anticipation, excitement, and joy when customers start their shopping journey on their phone, just as they do when they see our boxes on their door step," an Amazon spokesperson said. The app icon was tweaked based on user feedback.
Only iOS users in the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy and Netherlands saw the Hitler-esque logo over the past few weeks.
The updated logo rolled out worldwide for iOS users last week. Android users will see the new logo beginning this week.
Police in Queensland's Lockyer region have made a sick girl's dreams come true by recruiting her as their youngest officer.
As Savannah Burns celebrated her birthday on Wednesday, officers in Gatton brought the excited young girl along for an adventure-filled day of policing.
The seven-year-old hit the streets with her fellow officers, saying hello to locals, sounding the lights and sirens in an official police car, conducting an RBT and even sitting in the cockpit of the police helicopter, Polair.
"It's an absolute miracle to see her so happy," Savannah's mum, Johanne, told 9News.
Savannah has terminal cancer but the Queensland Police Service and Make-A-Wish Australia teamed up to take her mind off her illness.
She also rode with the police service's mounted unit and met firefighters and ambulance officers.
Make-a-Wish has been trying to make Savannah's dream of becoming a police officer come true for more than a year but the plans have been on hold due to COVID-19.
The organisation still has another 800 on its list of children to delight.
"Seeing her smile is just absolutely wonderful but it is a very bittersweet day," police officer Kimberly Allen said.
"I'm glad we could make her wish come true."
President Biden said that the United States will have enough vaccine supply to vaccinate all American adults for the coronavirus by the end of May, crediting a “stepped-up process” under his administration.
Biden made the announcement while outlining a partnership between Merck and Johnson & Johnson to produce the latter’s single-dose coronavirus vaccine.
“We’re now on track to have enough vaccine supply for every adult in America by the end of May,” Biden said in remarks Tuesday afternoon at the White House. “When we came into office, the prior administration had contracted for not nearly enough vaccine to cover adults in America. We rectified that.”
The new timeline is more condensed than Biden’s previous prediction that the U.S. would have enough vaccines for all American adults — 600 million doses — by the end of July.
Biden stressed that Tuesday’s developments marked a significant milestone in the fight against the virus, but he cautioned that more work needs to be done in order to distribute the vaccine and inoculate much of the U.S. population.
He highlighted his administration’s efforts to boost the number of vaccinators and locations where Americans can receive doses.
“That is progress, important progress,” Biden said. “But it’s not enough to have the vaccine supply.”
It could take much longer for the country to vaccinate the adult population, given the logistical hurdles of distributing and administering vaccines. Americans in states and cities, including Washington, D.C., have encountered challenges in signing up for appointments online. The Biden administration is also trying to address vaccine hesitancy by communicating that the vaccines are safe and effective in order to ensure that as much of the population as possible gets vaccinated.
He also reiterated calls for Congress to swiftly pass his $1.9 trillion relief proposal.
To increase the number of vaccinations in circulation, Biden detailed Merck’s collaboration to expand production of the Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine approved by the Food and Drug Administration over the weekend. Biden said he has invoked the Defense Production Act to equip Merck facilities to safely manufacture the vaccine, and Johnson & Johnson plans to operate its facilities 24 hours a day, seven days a week in order to increase supply.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is the third to be authorized for emergency use in the U.S.; vaccines produced by Pfizer and BioNTech and by Moderna were approved during the Trump administration. Biden and other officials have repeatedly accused the Trump administration of not having a sufficient plan for distributing vaccines across the country.
The announcement Tuesday of the new timeline is a bright spot in the country’s yearlong fight against the virus. While cases and deaths remain high, they have come down from their peaks following the 2020 holiday season.
Last week, Biden marked the milestone of the 50 millionth dose of coronavirus vaccine being administered. The White House said earlier Tuesday that the weekly supply of doses to states would increase to 18 million this week.
Still, new variants of the coronavirus remain a cause for concern, and more than 500,000 people in the U.S. have died from the virus.
Biden urged Americans to remain vigilant by continuing to wash their hands, keep their distance from others and wear masks. His remarks came as governors in Texas and Mississippi lifted mask mandates and other restrictions, allowing businesses to fully reopen. Biden did not mention those states on Tuesday but emphasized his call for Americans to wear masks for the first 100 days of his presidency.
“Things may get worse again as new variants spread and as we face setbacks like recent winter storms in the Midwest and South. But our administration will never take this public health threat lightly,” Biden said. “Now is not the time to let our guard down. People’s lives are at stake.”
Asked at the conclusion of the event when the U.S. would get back to normal, Biden told reporters he had been cautioned not to give an answer due to uncertainty but said he hoped it would be within a year.
“My hope is by this time next year we are going to be back to normal or before that,” Biden said.
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President Biden said he is calling on all states to prioritize teachers for COVID-19 vaccinations so that all teachers and school staff will have received at least one dose by the end of March.
“My challenge to all states, territories, and the District of Columbia is this: We want every educator, school staff member, child care worker to receive at least one shot by the end of the month of March,” Biden said.
He noted that more than 30 states have already prioritized teachers for vaccinations, but said he is using the “full authority of the federal government” in “directing every state to do the same.”
The politics: Biden has been under intense criticism from Republicans for not doing enough to urge schools to reopen, given evidence that they can do so safely with precautions like mask-wearing and distancing.
In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in guidance last month that teacher vaccinations “should not be considered a condition” for reopening schools.
Biden acknowledged this, but pointed to “anxieties” among teachers and parents.
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The health ministry said 1,641 people had died with Covid in the previous 24 hours.
The record was reached as scientists said that a new variant first found in Brazil appears more contagious.
Brazil, where more than a quarter of a million people have died with Covid, has the second highest coronavirus death toll after the United States.
Across the country, there have been more than 10.5 million confirmed cases of coronavirus. Only the US and India have registered more.
The pandemic spread quickly after first arriving in Brazil and reached a first peak at the end of July, when daily new cases were above 70,000 and daily deaths above 1,500.
Cases and deaths across Brazil fell until early November before a second wave saw cases rise again, a rise which appears to have further accelerated since January.
Researchers from the University of São Paulo working with their colleagues at Imperial College London and Oxford University think that the second wave may be linked to the emergence of a new variant of coronavirus which has been traced to the city of Manaus.
Manaus, in the Amazon region, was one of the hardest hit cities in the first wave of the pandemic.
It was expected that the people infected in the first wave would have acquired some degree of protection or immunity. And yet, the city has seen a second wave of infections.
The researchers think this may be because a new variant has emerged which may be evading immunity provided by past infections.
The new variant, named P.1, was first detected in people who had travelled from Manaus to Japan in January.
The researchers studying it think it first emerged in Manaus in early November and has been spreading there quickly since.
They say that that genomic sequencing found that this second wave in Manaus “was associated with the emergence and rapid spread” of the P.1 variant.
Their data – which is still preliminary – suggests that the P.1 variant could be up to twice as transmittable as the original version of the virus.
It also suggests that the new variant could evade immunity built up by having had the original version of Covid.
They put the chance of reinfection at between 25% and 60%.
Brazil, the worst-affected country by Covid in Latin America, has lagged behind in its roll-out of Covid vaccines.
A nurse in São Paulo became the first person to be vaccinated on 17 January, three weeks after Chile, Mexico and Costa Rica had already started their vaccination campaigns.
Vaccinating its population of 211 million living across a huge territory was always going to be a challenge, but delays in the delivery of the vaccine and the lack of a co-ordinated nationwide approach produced further slowdowns.
image copyrightReutersFrustrated state governors announced on Tuesday that they would join forces to buy vaccines directly from manufacturers rather than wait for the federal government to deliver them.
They have criticised President Jair Bolsonaro, who has belittled the risks posed by the virus from the start of the pandemic, for not securing adequate vaccine supplies.
The governor of São Paulo state, João Doria, has been particularly scathing of President Bolsonaro’s handling of the pandemic.
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Updates
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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The Caribbean is hunting for visitors and vaccines to jump-start the stalled economy in one of the world’s most tourism-dependent regions.
Clear waters and warm sand attracted a record 31.5 million tourists to the Caribbean in 2019, but visits plummeted by an estimated 60% to 80% as the pandemic hit last year. That’s devastating for a region whose countries depend heavily on visitors for income.
“Many countries prefer hurricanes compared to what has happened with the pandemic,” said Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace, a former Bahamian tourism minister who also led the Caribbean Tourism Organization.
Tens of thousands of tourism-related jobs were lost, including those held by Nadia Kidd and her mother in Jamaica. Kidd, 31, was a waitress at a resort and her mother worked at a guest house. Kidd, like many other workers, has yet to receive her severance pay and now runs a tiny grocery store out of her home to support her mother and daughter.
“Everything is all on me,” said Kidd, who worked at the Meliá Braco Village resort in Trelawny. “I have loans to pay, light bill and internet (that I) have to pay because my daughter has to go to school online.”
Desperate to create safe conditions for tourism, the Caribbean is turning to India and China for vaccines at a time when global supplies are strained and richer nations are ahead of them in line for shots from other sources. A few have been fortunate to get quick shipments, while others could wait weeks, if not months.
The Caribbean saw COVID-19 levels rising in November, along with variants feared to be more contagious. More than 522,000 cases and more than 7,500 deaths have been reported in 35 of the region’s countries and territories.
“The rate of increase has been alarming,” said Dr. Joy St. John, executive director of the Trinidad-based Caribbean Public Health Agency.
The small nations adopted a variety of anti-virus measures, nearly all requiring visitors at a minimum to show recent negative tests upon arrival.
Cuba — the largest Caribbean nation and the only one working on its own vaccines — choked off arrivals after seeing infections surge. It requires visitors to stay in designated hotels and to take new tests upon landing.
International travelers to St. Kitts and Nevis must stay at certain hotels, and St. Eustatius requires visitors to register their reason for traveling before giving approval.
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KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — Bunny Wailer, a reggae luminary who was the last surviving founding member of the legendary group The Wailers, died on Tuesday in his native Jamaica. He was 73.
Wailer, a baritone singer whose birth name is Neville Livingston, formed The Wailers in 1963 with late superstars Bob Marley and Peter Tosh when they lived in a slum in the capital of Kingston. They catapulted to international fame with the album, “Catch a Fire” and also helped popularize Rastafarian culture among better-off Jamaicans starting in the 1970s.
“Jah-B was a vanguard, always pushing the boundaries of expression, whether in song, in style or in spoken word,” said Brian Paul Welsh, a local reggae musician known as Blvk H3ro. “There was and can only ever be one Neville Livingston.”
Wailer died at Andrews Memorial Hospital in the Jamaican parish of St. Andrew of complications from a stroke in July, manager Maxine Stowe told The Associated Press.
His death was mourned worldwide as people shared music, memories and pictures of the renowned artist.
“The passing of Bunny Wailer, the last of the original Wailers, brings to a close the most vibrant period of Jamaica’s musical experience,” wrote Jamaica politician Peter Phillips in a Facebook post. “Bunny was a good, conscious Jamaican brethren.”
Jamaica’s Prime Minister, Andrew Holness, also paid tribute to Wailer, calling him “a respected elder statesman of the Jamaican music scene,” in a series of tweets.
“This is a great loss for Jamaica and for Reggae, undoubtedly Bunny Wailer will always be remembered for his sterling contribution to the music industry and Jamaica’s culture,” he wrote.
While Wailer toured the world, he was more at home in Jamaica’s mountains and he enjoyed farming while writing and recording songs on his label, Solomonic.
″I think I love the country actually a little bit more than the city,″ Wailer told The Associated Press in 1989. ″It has more to do with life, health and strength. The city takes that away sometimes. The country is good for meditation. It has fresh food and fresh atmosphere – that keeps you going.″
A year before, in 1988, he had chartered a jet and flew to Jamaica with food to help those affected by Hurricane Gilbert.
″Sometimes people pay less attention to those things (food), but they turn out to be the most important things. I am a farmer,″ he told the AP.
He was the third and last original Wailer. Marley died in 1981 of a brain tumor at 36 years old and Tosh was fatally shot in Jamaica in 1987 at 42 years old.
AP writer Dánica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico contributed.
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MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) — Nicaraguan authorities said Tuesday the bodies of six people, apparently migrants, have been found in a small boat drifting off the Caribbean coast.
The Interior Ministry said a Republic of Guinea passport belonging to a 31-year-old man was found on one of the bodies. The passport had no Nicaraguan entry stamp in it.
The boat was found drifting about a mile (1 1/2 kilometers) out to sea Monday near Cayo Las Palomas.
The corpses were all too badly decomposed for immediate identification. The ministry said an initial examination indicates all those aboard apparently died of dehydration or heatstroke, and that they probably died about a month ago.
Migrants seeking to reach the United States have been trapped at Nicaragua’s southern border with Costa Rica, because the Nicaraguan government won’t allow them to cross Nicaragua. That led some to choose more dangerous water routes.
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FBI Director Christopher Wray said Tuesday that officials have classified the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by former President Trump‘s supporters as domestic terrorism.
“That attack, that siege, was criminal behavior, plain and simple, and it’s behavior that we, the FBI, view as domestic terrorism,” Wray told lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Wray said the FBI has received more than 270,000 tips from Americans that have helped the bureau identify the numerous people who allegedly participated in the attack.
“Citizens from around the country have sent us more than 270,000 digital media tips. Some have even taken the painful step of turning in their friends or their family members,” he said.
But under questioning from lawmakers, Wray resisted pinning the Capitol breach on a single extremist ideology, saying the group of attackers “included a variety of backgrounds.”
“The attackers on Jan. 6 included a number — and the number keeps growing as we build out our investigations — of what we would call militia violent extremism. And we have had some already arrested who we would put in the category of racially motivated violent extremism, white as well. Those would be the categories so far that we’re seeing as far as Jan. 6.”
The FBI has arrested at least 280 people allegedly involved in the Capitol attack and have charged more than 300.
Wray also said the number of domestic terrorism cases investigated by the FBI has doubled during his tenure as FBI director, from about 1,000 cases in 2017 to 2,000 by the end of 2020.
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