Hong Kong suspends flights from 8 countries, including US
Hong Kong announced a series of strict pandemic control measures Wednesday, including suspending flights from the United States and seven other countries, as it scrambled to contain an incipient coronavirus outbreak. The new measures will mark a return to the tough restrictions the city imposed in the early days of the pandemic. Hong Kong has largely brought the coronavirus under control, but the arrival of the omicron variant threatens to fuel a new wave of cases. Under the new rules, no flights will be allowed from Australia, Britain, Canada, France, India, Pakistan, the Philippines or the United States for two weeks, starting Saturday.
Philadelphia house fire leaves 12 dead, including 8 kids
Neighbors, awakened by screams, looked out their windows at the cold dark morning. Flames were pouring out of the second-story windows of a row house on 23rd Street as people on the block watched in horror. Firefighters arrived just before sunrise and fought the blaze for nearly an hour. They discovered what neighbors had feared: There had been people inside, a lot of them. Twelve were killed in the fire, including eight children. Craig Murphy, the deputy fire commissioner, said that two others who were hurt were taken to hospitals. “This is, without a doubt, one of the most tragic days in our city’s history,” Mayor Jim Kenney said.
US urges COVID boosters starting at age 12 to fight omicron
The U.S. is urging that everyone 12 and older get a COVID-19 booster as soon as they’re eligible, to help fight back the hugely contagious omicron mutant that’s ripping through the country. Boosters already were encouraged for all Americans 16 and older, but Wednesday the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention endorsed an extra Pfizer shot for younger teens — those 12 to 15 — and strengthened its recommendation that 16- and 17-year-olds get it, too.
Russia-allied forces to intervene as unrest sweeps Kazakhstan
A Russian-led military alliance said Wednesday that it would send peacekeeping forces to Kazakhstan at the invitation of the country’s president to help put down a growing protest movement there. The chair of the alliance, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, said that the troops would be stationed there “for a limited time period,” until order could be restored. The revolt began Sunday in western Kazakhstan as a protest against a surge in fuel prices. Four days later, the uprising has expanded into a full-throated attack on an entrenched Kazakh elite widely reviled as autocratic and corrupt.
Variant found in France not a concern, WHO Says
The World Health Organization says that it is monitoring a coronavirus variant detected in a small number of patients in France, but that, for now, there is little reason to worry about its spread. The B.1.640.2 variant was first identified in October and uploaded to GISAID, a database for disease variants, on Nov. 4. Abdi Mahmud, a COVID-19 incident manager with the WHO, told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday that the variant had been on the agency’s radar since November, but added that it did not appear to have spread widely over the past two months.
By wire sources